The Prospero software program: An alternative tool for the study of social representations

This article is in keeping with a reflection on the language and the numerous computer tools available for its analysis in social psychology. The article stresses the necessity to avoid the trap that consists in blindly using the results of computer textual analyses. The researcher should actually wonder about the epistemological presuppositions of the software programs he uses and must check if those programs do fit with his own theoretical frame. Thus, for the study of social representations, software programs based on the standard method of content analysis are presented as the most relevant. Results from empirical research studies, carried out with a software of this kind (Prospero), provide illustrations on the possibility and the benefits of creating dynamic and flexible networks of categorizations under three different qualitative forms: Synonymy, analogy and taxonomy. In accordance with the theory, these categorizations allow to grasp the processes of objectification and anchorage, which are constituent of social representations, within their context of linguistic communication.