Some aspects of the interaction between semiological factors and eco-technical factors in determining the behavior

Abstract

The traditional opposition between those who believe that semiological
factors are the principal determinants of behavior and those who attribute this characteristic to ecotechnical factors, is examined from the point of view of a deeper conflict between "idealis" and "realist" orientations.
The accent is placed on the necessity of a semiological account of behavior and of a sociopsychological theory which would be at the same time a theory of significance. Simultaneowly, the author points to the impossibility of neglecting material structures when constructing explicatory models of behavior. A tentative interpretation of the spiral between semiotic and material elements is proposed in terms of Foucault's theoretical construct called "disciplinary dispositive".
After analyszitg the effects of "eidetical representations" on the results reached by sociopsychological research, the author concludes by suggesting a research design aimed at contrasting the hypothesis that a variation in the material relation which links subjects to a similar situation will produce different "readings" of this situation, even if the "reading system is the same for all subjects.