Political PsychologyPOLT 4300/PSYC 4150 01
Professor: Dr. Linda M. WoolfOffice Hours:
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Catalog Description
Surveys many of the important topics from the field of political psychology. Political psychology is focused mainly on the intersection between psychology -- particularly personality and social psychology -- and political behavior. The field of political psychology has been strongly influenced by political and psychological theories as well as important political events and social issues. The course examines many of the important theories that have relevance to political behavior and provides the opportunity to apply these theories to important events and issues.
Expanded Course Description:
Political behavior permeates our relationships, the academy, the workplace, our communities, and our culture. Human beings are not only social beings, we are-for better or worse-also political beings. Political psychology represents the intersection of the fields of political science and psychology. It is interdisciplinary and includes cognitive, affective, group, and socio-cultural aspects of political behavior. As a discipline, political psychology encompasses such disparate topics as voting behavior, competition, propaganda, globalization, media priming, social identity, political attitudes, racism, terrorism, war, and the personality of political leaders. The following questions all address political psychology topics:- Why would someone knowingly join a hate group such as the KKK?
- What role does personality play in leadership?
- Could the war in Iraq have been avoided?
- Why did Hutus begin feverishly murdering their Tutsi neighbors in Rwanda?
- What possessed a scandal-ridden President to make the choice to have an illicit affair knowing full well that he was living under constant press scrutiny?
- What is the impact of prejudice on people's lives and do we all harbor a measure of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.?
- Why did the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 happen?
- Why are movements such as "Black Lives Matter,” “#Me Too,” or the efforts for marriage equality important?
- Why war?
Political psychology focuses on the intersection between psychology, such as personality, organizational, and social psychology, and political behavior to address such questions. The field of political psychology has been strongly influenced by political and psychological theories as well as important political events and social issues. We will discuss many of the important theories that have relevance to political behavior and will apply these theories to important events and issues such as the current elections, war, genocide, and terrorism.
Course Objectives:
- Objective: To become more knowledgeable about the field of political psychology - its definition, its various domains of study, and its methodologies.
- Objective: To examine the impact of personality on political behavior.
- Objective: To become familiar with the role of social cognition, social influences, and social relations factors in political behavior.
- Objective: To examine the myriad of factors involved in the political psychology of groups.
- Objective: To become familiar with the various psychological and political impacting voting behavior.
- Objective: To explore the political psychology of race and ethnicity.
- Objective: To examine the impact of political psychology as it related to broader international concerns such as nationalism, political extremism, and war.
Course Learning Outcomes:
Students should be able to:
- Outcome: Describe core concepts and research methods related to political psychology.
- Outcome: Discuss the impact of personality, the media, term limits, social class, political presentation, political efficacy, and leadership styles on the behavior of political leaders.
- Outcome: Analyze the impact of the media on political behavior, including framing, priming, persuasion, propaganda, political intolerance, and effective campaigns.
- Outcome: Assess the role of cognition and emotion in political behavior, including political socialization, information processing and voting behavior, motivated reasoning, terror management, image making, and ideologies.
- Outcome: Examine the issues related to the political psychology of diversity, including stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, social inequality, ethnopolitical conflict, and the path to prejudice reduction.
- Outcome: Discuss the core issues related to forms of direct violence including violence between intimates and violence within and between groups (e.g., genocide, war).
- Outcome: Assess the role of structural violence in societies, its impact on groups such as women, children, minorities, and its relation to such topics as globalism and human rights.
- Outcome: Discuss the impact of political psychology as it related to broader international concerns such as nationalism, militarism, political extremism, and terrorism
- Outcome: Compare and contrast the psychological aspects of peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding.
Incoming Competencies/Prerequisites:
Advanced student standinging. All students should be capable of integrating and evaluating information, critical thinking, and writing at the upper college level.
Class Meetings:
The class will meet on Tuesdays from 5:50 - 9:30. Classroom attendance as expected and class discussion will greatly enhance your understanding of the material presented in this class. Also, material will be presented that is not in any of the readings.
Course Requirements:
Two exams, book review, class presentation, and six Canvas discussion questions.
Percent of Grade:
Examinations: The two exams are designed to test for basic understanding of core concepts and ideas. They will cover material presented in class, readings, and discussion. Exams will be worth 60% final grade. Class Presentation: Each student will be assigned a particular chapter from which to base their presentation. You can select to present on anything within that chapter. In other words, you are not presenting on the entire chapter but rather just a topic (of your choice) from within that chapter. You are to present the topic, add additional information based on the research literature, provide a short handout for the class, and present to the class (PowerPoint is preferable). Your presentation will be worth 10% of your final grade. Book Review: The purpose of the written book review is to provide you the opportunity to read and review an contemporary book related to political psychology. All books must be approved by the professor via email prior to reading and reviewing any book. Sample book reviews are available on Canvas. H-Net Humanities provides a good reference guide to writing book reviews at http://www.h-net.org/reviews/guidelines.php Note that a book review is more extensive than a book report. A book “report” often is just a synopsis of a book. A book review involves critical evaluation of the book. Note that there is very little synopsis of the book in a book review. The book review will be worth 10% of your final grade.
Examinations 60% Presentation 10% Book review 10% Online discussions 20%
Note that the Book Review is due Saturday of Week Seven by 11:59 p.m.
Online Discussions!: here will be six weekly discussion questions throughout the term. You are required to actively participate in these online discussions. Your participation will be graded on both the quantity and quality of your postings. Although there is no specific day/time at which you must log in, it is strongly recommend that you log in several times per week to participate. Note that there are deadlines for first and second responses. As an absolute minimum, you should not only post your response to the discussion questions but also respond at minimum once to provide feedback to your fellow classmates. Remember that “at minimum” translates into a C grade. The discussions are comparable to in-class group discussions.
The first post is a substantial comment on the discussion topic, preferably a few paragraphs with references, and must be completed before Wednesday at midnight. The second post is a substantial comment to a peer post and must be made between Thursday (12:01am) and Saturday night (11:59pm). Note that you may want to draft your comments in a Word document and then cut/paste into Canvas.
When participating in the discussion forum, consider the following:
Remember that you feedback to your classmates is designed to help you learn the information, learn how to communicate your ideas effectively, and for students to learn from each other.
- Do not worry about saying something "wrong" as I will be participating and will jump in gently if the conversation goes off track.
- "I agree," "Ditto," "You're so right." etc. are not considered sufficient comments. Additionally, simply reframing what someone else wrote or cutting/pasting from your textbook does not count as a contribution.
- Personal attacks, derision, mockery, etc. will result in significant academic penalty on the person posting and will not be tolerated under any circumstance.
- All posts will be viewable by all members of the class.
- Correctness of spelling, grammar, and punctuation is expected. You are not texting your best friend. Limit the use of LOL, OMG, etc.
- Multiple poor quality postings are not the equivalent of a single well thought through post.
- All students should feel free to direct questions concerning postings to the instructor before actually making the post.
- Procrastinating till the end of the week to make your posts is not a good idea. Canvas records the times of your posting.
Make sure you post substantive comments in both your initial post and your comment on a post from your peers. Reference course content and spend time reflecting on what you have learned thus far. Feel free to draw on material that you have learned in other courses.
Discussion Caveat! Although it is tempting to talk about oneself or digress from the question into a political rant, try to stay focused and avoid anecdotal evidence. Remember that comments go to everyone in the class as well as anyone else at the university who wants to review the Canvas pages for evaluation purposes (e.g., Departmental chairperson, Academic Dean). Canvas is not a confidential web space. As always, use care in regards to what you put on any webpage, particularly any media with a social function. Say it, forget it; write it, regret it.
Formatting: All papers/discussions must be in APA or Chicago style format.
Policy Statements:
Use of Electronic Devices in the Classroom: Please respect others in the class by turning off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room. Text messaging during class is not acceptable. Laptops may be used in class but are only to be utilized for class related activities (e.g., taking notes). If it becomes apparent you are using the computer for non-class activities (e.g., checking your email, playing games) then you may be asked to turn off your computer and refrain from bringing it into class in the future. Laptop use is restricted to the back or sides of the classroom so that other students are not distracted during lecture.
Plagiarism (attempting to pass off the work of another as one's own) is not acceptable. Plagiarism includes copying all or part of another's writings (even a single sentence), inappropriate paraphrasing, using another student's paper as your own, submitting a paper for more than one class. All papers will be submitted to the university's plagiarism database for review. Plagiarism, either intentional or unintentional, will result in a grade of 0 for that assignment but also may be turned over to the appropriate university source for disciplinary action and a grade of F for the course. In addition, cheating on exams will also result in the same fate..
Here are some Web sites that will help you avoid the problem of plagiarism particularly plagiarism resulting from paraphrasing too closely to the original source. -
- Establishing Authorship by Paul C. Smith, Alverno College
- How to Avoid Plagiarism Tutorial
- The University of Indiana's Online Plagiarism Tutorial - You can print out a certificate of completion!
Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact me or the Director of the Academic Resource Center, as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations can be implemented in a timely fashion.
Late withdraws from this class will not be approved by the instructor except in cases of emergency discussed with the instructor. No late withdraws will be approved on the basis of poor class performance.
This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor's discretion. All changes concerning course requirements will be provided in writing. Changes concerning exam dates may be made at the instructor's discretion and communicated verbally to the class.
It is understood that remaining in this course (not dropping or withdrawing from this course) constitutes an agreement to abide by the terms outlined in this syllabus and an acceptance of the requirements outlined in this document. No grade of Incomplete will be issued for this course.
Course Outline
The schedule below provides a general guideline to the semester and is flexible based on any need for additional discussion of a particular topic.
Week | Topic | Reading | |
| October | 30 | Introduction to Political Psychology The Political Psychology of Mass Politics: How Do People Decide for Whom to Vote? The Political Psychology of the Media in Politics | Chapter 1 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 |
| November | 6 | Cognition, Social Identity, Emotions, and Attitudes in Political Psychology The Political Psychology of Groups |
Chapter 3 Chapter 4 |
| November | 13 | Personality and Politics The Study of Political Leaders | Chapter 2 Chapter 5 |
| November | 20 | Exam I The Political Psychology of Race The Political Psychology of Social Movements | Chapter
8 Chapter 11 Woolf Social Justice Article |
| November | 27 | From Ethnic Conflict to Genocide | Chapter 9 Woolf & Hulsizer Genocide Article |
| December | 4 | The Political Psychology of Nationalism The Political Psychology of Terrorism |
Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Woolf & Hulsizer Terrorism and Hate Articles |
| December | 11 | The Political Psychology of International Security and Conflict Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Book Review Due - December 15 | Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Staub Article |
| December | 18 | Finish up material Exam II | No Readings |