**1. Introduction**

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Humans has constantly changed the environment, requiring the design and the development of new technologies and these, in turn, eventually modify the man, his attitudes and society as a whole. This demand for innovations may be the result of well-intentioned ideas for a better life, or they may appear at the intention of ostentation of fetishes or even to perpetuate conditions of inequalities and hegemonic power [1-3]. Thus, different forms of relationship between society and technology are set out in pursuit of progress. A growing concern to integrate science and technology (S&T) for the welfare of society gets increasingly more space, especially since last century, when we felt a strong mixture of hope and fear on seeing the concretization of man's dream to conquer space at the same time in which the world feared for its end due to major advances in nuclear weapons [4-6].

In an attempt to discuss the results of progress, much has been said about the formation of citizens conscious and able to take decisions involving the welfare of the community, at the same time they get prepared to live in a technological and dynamic society [7-13].

To better understand the scene briefly discussed here, this work propose the creation and analysis of indicators of how society can influence people in their relationships with technology, reflecting their conceptions or their attitudes towards the technological development. The understanding of these relationships can generate foundations for many discussions, especially for the support of future questions of how public policies for science, technology and education will allow a more effective and active participation by the citizens in decisions involving technological aspects.

© 2012 Veraszto et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2012 Veraszto et al., licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Thus, considering that the man, inserted in a society, conceives creates or enhances technologies, in this paper we will present hypotheses, futilely transformed in models that these social interactions also influence the conception that the individual has about the technology and these require different attitudes facing the technological development in the quest for sustainability.

Technology and Society Public Perception: A Structural Equation

Modeling Study of the Brazilian Undergraduate Students' Opinions and Attitudes from Sao Paulo State 41

discussion of political and social implications of the production and application of scientific and technological knowledge was required, both in the social sphere as in the classroom [15, 16]. And so, as a way to consciously challenge the overblown advances that the world saw emerge, raised in some parts of the world in the mid-1970s, a movement that tried and still tries to establish a tripod: Science, Technology and Society (STS), searching for a stronger integration and a more critical training of future professionals, as well as seeking to obtain new theories about the implications and relations of science and technology in society [17].

Two traditions have been recognized within the scope of CTS: the North American, which emphasizes more the social consequences and prioritizes a greater emphasis on technology, marked by strong ethical and educational issues, and the European, which has the unmistakable mark to focus their investigations on issues which discuss more the science through anthropological, sociological and psychological referrals [18]. The power of the CTS movement took place through several curricular innovations around the world, either as a discipline, or even as changes in the way of inserting some topics in already existing and structured courses. Contents or the integral transformation of the curriculum, with the main objective to provide students a formation able to assist in the most different decision-making processes that occur in everyday life, having as reference the values considered as ethical

The diversity of ways in which technology was and is developed and studied over the years that man inhabits and modifies the world makes us realize that it is structured in its own field of knowledge, involving other aspects such as the culture of the society where it has been developed and its organization. In [19] it is shown that technology requires from their agents a deep knowledge of how and why your goals are achieved also are requiring a reformulation of structures and goals of the society where it is installed. Thus, technology can be seen as a set of human activities associated to an intricate system of symbols, machinery and instruments, always aiming the construction of works and artifacts, according methods and processes from modern science. Through the bibliographical survey presented, it is possible to see the diversity of opinions and studies that exist to try to better

**TECHNOLOGY WAY OF UNDERSTANDING REFERENCES** 

Understands the technology as a practical knowledge derived directly from the development of scientific knowledge through progressive and cumulative processes.

Considers technology as being a synonym of technique. That is, the process involved in its development has not relationship with technology, just its purpose and use.

Faces technology as Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with the same logic and same patterns of production and [20-26]

[7, 14, 24, 25]

[16, 27-34]

and moral by society.

**CONCEPTION OF** 

**intellectualist** 

**UTILITARIAN** 

**TECHNOLOGY AS A SYNONYM OF SCIENCE** 

design.

**5. The facets of technology: Myths and realities** 

understand technology. Table 1 shows a summary of these conceptions.
