Maurizio Norcia

Position: Researcher (fixed term)

Short profile:

I am a Social Psychologist and I hold a 2nd level master in Research Methodology. My main research interest is about studying the influence of social or natural environment on the way people perceive and behave in regard to relevant phenomena. In the last period, I have been studying how people experience natural disasters, from psychological and sociological points of view: how does risk perception influence behaviour? Does experience of an earthquake shape people’s risk attitude? Do geologists or a Civil Defence volunteers have different social representations of risk?

Again, can we look at poor people without considering all their social surrounding? Is “poor” an absolute adjective or does it make sense comparing people within a group? Also in this case, the relationship between people and their environment turns out to be significant. Another topic I have been studying for five years is building a multidimensional model of poverty as a global loss of wellbeing, considering not only traditional aspects - as low income - but trying to study other fundamental aspects like aims, valued functionings and capabilities (from the Senian point of view), social capital and determinants.

I am the scientific coordinator of a national research project on subjective psychosocial well-being of adolescents.

I have published papers on international journals and presented contributions at international conferences in the fields of Social Psychology and Social Policies-Development. I am reviewer of the Journal of Social Sciences (Science Publication), Journal of Social and Political Psychology (PsychOpen), Journal of Scientific Research and Reports (Science Domain International) and International Journal of Social Science Research (MacroThink Institute).