Civil Depth Perception: An Experiment in Competence Development.

This article focuses on the perception of the surface and deep dimensions of a society and its relation to competence. Participants were 117 students from various educational programs in a Swedish gymnasium who were exposed to videotaped projections of model societies on 2 occasions. They responded to 15 statements marking the degree of certainty with which they perceived quality of life in these societies. The instrument measured life quality (LQ) in a society by two factors, Eigenvalue (F1) and Visibility of Social Texture (F2). The model societies were based on three modes of modeling man interacting with his society, specifically on the concepts of: (1) behaviorism; (2) structuralism; and (3) process. The function of these concepts had been made to specify an actual society, namely Sweden. It was assumed that Sweden was familiar to the participants, but conceptually unknown. Between the two video occasions students were given a 9-week course in modern ideas and concepts, especially those from 20th century novels that connect to the three models. The certainty with which the students perceived the Eigenvalue and its conservation in Social Texture in the four societies differed significantly from the first to the second occasion. The first time, the only society that meets the requirements is the society based on behavior modification, while the other three seem unspecified to all the students. The second time there is a dramatic change in that Sweden now was assessed with the highest certainty, and secondly that is was conceptualized mainly by the behaviorist model. The study shows that the students have augmented their conceptual understanding of the dimensionality of a society and have come to "know" the society in which they live. (Contains 1 table, 4 figures, and 25 references.) (SLD)