The study aimed to show the relevance of two types of sense-making processes (i.e. cognitive and affective) in culture-based interventions. A hierarchical model based on a psychodynamic theoretical framework was tested. According to this model, a generalized affective meaning connoting the whole field of participants’ experience would have a regulative, downward, and causal influence on the specific meanings related to the issues addressed by the intervention. Secondary analyses—namely PLS Path Modeling with higher order constructs—were performed on a dataset resulting from a survey involving three hundred and ninety freshmen enrolled in a psychology course at the University of Salento, Italy. These analyses were aimed at detecting the anticipatory images of the University. Our findings provide evidence supporting the theoretical model proposed. Implications for culture-based interventions are discussed.
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