Topics In Political Psychology

Module Code: POU44050

Module Name: Topics In Political Psychology 2024-25

ECTS Weighting: 10
Semester/Term Taught: Full year
Contact Hours: Two one-hour seminars per week
Module Personnel: Lecturer - Dr Gizem Arikan
Office Hours: 14.00-16.00 on Tuesdays

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Describe the historical development of the field of political psychology.
Compare and criticise the major approaches in the study of attitude formation and organization.
Explain and interpret the major information processing models.
Explain the psychological correlates of group dynamics including obedience, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and prejudice.
Construct arguments concerning current political debates about citizen preferences in modern democracies.

Module Learning Aims

The module aims to introduce students to the fundamental concepts and prominent approaches in political psychology. Students will gain a thorough understanding of the major theoretical and empirical debates in the discipline, and be able to discuss and evaluate the role of psychological factors that underlie political attitudes and behaviour.

Module Content

The module explores the psychological processes underlying citizen preferences in modern political systems by examining some of the fundamental debates and theoretical approaches in political psychology. After a brief survey of the history, major themes, and methods of the discipline, we will move on to discuss how citizens form and organize their attitudes. Topics covered will include elite-based vs bottom-up approaches to ideology, personality and values, cognitive and symbolic approaches, genetic and biological perspectives. We will then discuss information processing and focus on the role of affect and emotions in decision-making, motivated reasoning, media effects, and political networks.

The last part of the module examines group-based approaches to cooperation and conflict in societies. Conformity, obedience, authoritarianism, realistic conflict and social identity theories, social dominance orientation, system justification theory, ethnocentrism and nationalism, prejudice, immigration and multiculturalism will be among the topics that we will study.