A research-based guide to political psychology that is filled with critical arguments from noted experts
Political Psychology is solidly grounded in empirical research and critical arguments. The text puts the emphasis on alternative approaches to psychological enquiry that challenge our traditional assumptions about the world. With contributions from an international panel of experts, the text contains a meaningful exchange of ideas that draw on the disciplines of social psychology, sociology, history, media studies and philosophy. This important text offers a broader understanding of the different intellectual positions that academics may take towards political psychology.
Comprehensive in scope Political Psychology provides a historical context to the subject and offers a critical history of common research methods. The contributors offer insight on political thought in psychology, the politics of psychological language, narrating as political action, political decision-making and much more. This important text:
- Offers contributions from a panel of international experts on the topic
- Includes a review of some political ideas associated with the work of Karl Marx, Erich Fromm, R.D. Laing, Michel Foucault and others
- Presents information on prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination in the context of mass migration
- Reviews a wide range of relevant topics such as identity, social exclusion and foreign policy and more
- Contains questions for group debate and discussion at the end of each chapter
Written for academics and students of political psychology, Political Psychology is a comprehensive resource that includes contributions from experts in a variety of fields and disciplines.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors xv
Preface xx
CHAPTER 1 Some Historical and Philosophical Considerations 1
Christopher J. Hewer
When People Come Together 3
Social Psychology 4
The Development of Religious Identities 5
Intersecting Histories: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 5
The Issue of Governance 8
Transformations in the Twentieth Century 8
The Social and Moral Order 10
The Search for Scientific Understanding 11
Psychology: A New Way of Seeing the World 12
The Influence of Political Philosophy on Social Psychology 14
Locating the Root of Human Behavior 15
Social Cognition 17
A Societal Approach to Political Psychology 18
Social Constructionism 19
The Social Construction of Reality 22
Summary 24
Glossary 24
Further Reading 26
Questions for Group Discussion 27
CHAPTER 2 A Critical History of Research Methods 28
Ron Roberts and Christopher J. Hewer
What Do We Want to Know About the World and Why? 30
How Can We Know the World? 31
Searching for Universal Laws of Behavior 32
The Computability Problem 33
The Historic Nature of Research Findings 35
The Origin of Statistics 37
The Construction of Norms, Normality, and Normalcy 38
Using Statistical Measures and Models for Political Purposes 40
The Null Hypothesis Significance Test 43
Bayesian Methods 45
The Issue of Replication 47
The File Drawer Effect 48
A Cautionary Note on Theory 48
Conclusions 50
Summary 50
Glossary 51
Further Reading 52
Questions for Group Discussion 53
CHAPTER 3 From Alienation to Estrangement: Political Thought and Psychology 54
Ron Roberts
Mechanistic Models 56
Karl Marx 57
Alienation 58
Erich Fromm 59
R. D. Laing 61
Mystification 61
Michel Foucault 62
Discursive Regimes, Power, and Freedom 63
Disciplinary boundaries 63
Politics and governance of the self 64
Svetlana Boym 66
Estrangement 66
Off‐modern psychology 68
Art and dissent 69
Summary 70
Glossary 71
Further Reading 71
Questions for Group Discussion 71
CHAPTER 4 The Politics of Psychological Language: Discourse and Rhetoric 73
Simon Locke
Discursive Psychology, Rhetorical Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology 75
The Scientific Laboratory 76
The Validity of Experiments and Surveys 77
Language, Discourse, and Rhetoric 78
Arguing and Thinking 80
Relativism and Ideology - or the DP‐CA/RP‐CDA Fandango 81
Ideology 83
Critical Discourse Analysis 84
The Politics of Experience 85
Conspiracy Discourse 86
A Cognitive Approach to Conspiracy 87
Reinstating the Thinking Person 88
Summary 90
Glossary 90
Further Reading 91
Questions for Group Discussion 92
CHAPTER 5 Identity 93
Christopher J. Hewer and Evanthia Lyons Identity and Human Relations 95
Categorization 95
Self and Society 96
Occupational Identity: Roles and Performance 97
Political Mobilization: National Identity and Nationalism 98
Identity Threats 101
Identity Politics 102
Image, Images, and Appearance 104
Political Identities 106
Social Identity Theory 106
Identity Process Theory 108
Discursive Approaches to Identity 109
Narrative Identities 111
Conclusions 111
Summary 112
Glossary 112
Further Reading 113
Questions for Group Discussion 113
CHAPTER 6 Narrating as Political Action 114
Brian Schiff
Psychology and Politics 116
Speech and Political Action 117
The Personal and Political Nature of Narrative 117
Expansive Political Narratives 118
Psychoanalytic and Personological Tradition 119
Narrative Approaches 119
Narrative Hermeneutics 120
Narrative and Narrating 120
Intensifying Persons and Social Context 121
Collective Memory 121
Repression 122
Relational Contexts 123
Meanings and Action 123
Producers and Consumers of Memory 124
Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship 124
Hiba: The Real Story 125
Lana: Torn Between the Two 128
Conclusions 130
Summary 131
Glossary 132
Further Reading 132
Questions for Group Discussion 132
CHAPTER 7 Connecting Social Exclusion and Agency: Social Class Matters 134
Sarah Jay, Orla Muldoon, and Caroline Howarth
Class Matters 136
Cultural Capital 138
The Precariat 139
Capitalist Restructuring and Poverty 140
Stigma 141
Collective Identities 141
The Individualization of Class 142
Agency and Social Class 143
Social Capital 144
Cultural Incompatibility in Education 145
Threats to Identity 146
The Transmission of Cultural Capital 146
Implications for a Social and Political Psychology of Social Exclusion 147
Conclusions 148
Summary 149
Glossary 150
Further Reading 150
Questions for Group Discussion 150
CHAPTER 8 Migration 152
Spyridoula Ntani, Artemis M. Griva, and Xenia Chryssochoou
Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination Against Immigrants 155
Stereotyping, Racism, and Forms of Discrimination Against Immigrant Groups 155
Explanations of Prejudice 156
Individual and Collective Reactions to Prejudice 157
Reducing Prejudice? The Contact Hypothesis 158
Changing Societies: The Issue of Acculturation 159
Changing Individuals: The Issue of Adaptation 162
Calling for a New Social Organization: The Paradox of Integration 163
Summary 166
Glossary 166
Further Reading 167
Questions for Group Discussion 167
CHAPTER 9 Political Decision‐Making 168
Jack S. Levy
The Levels‐of‐Analysis Framework 171
The Rational Model of Judgment and Decision‐Making 173
Psychological Models of Information Processing 175
Cognitive Biases 176
Motivated Biases 180
Psychological Models of Choice 182
Prospect Theory 183
Conclusion 185
Summary 186
Glossary 186
Further Reading 188
Questions for Group Discussion 188
CHAPTER 10 Foreign Policy and Identity 189
Emma O’Dwyer
Foreign Policy and Identity: Conceptual and Theoretical Anchors 192
The Influence of Citizens on Foreign Policy 193
Outgroup Perceptions and Foreign Policy Attitudes 194
A Case Study: Irish Neutrality 196
Irish Neutrality in Context 196
The Social Representation of Irish Neutrality 198
Céad Mile Fáilte Neutrality 199
The Macropolitical Dimension of Identity Construction 200
Constructing the National Ingroup in International Affairs 201
Unanswered Questions: Opportunities for Future Research 202
Summary 203
Glossary 204
Further Reading 205
Questions for Group Discussion 205
CHAPTER 11 Social Memory and the Collective Past 207
Christopher J. Hewer
The Role of the Past in the Formation of Identity 209
The Social Nature of Memory 211
Taxonomies and Classifications 212
The Resurgence of Interest in the Collective Past 213
Competing Memory Narratives 214
Communicative and Cultural Memory 216
How to Study the Collective Past 217
Landscape, Social Space, and Memory 217
Narratives 221
Social Representations of History 221
The Nature of Representations 222
Memory as Performance 224
The Collective Pasts of Families, Groups, and Organizations 224
Time Conceptions 225
The Politics of Remembering and Forgetting 226
The Individual and the Collective Past 227
Summary 228
Glossary 228
Further Reading 229
Questions for Group Discussion 229
CHAPTER 12 Crowds, Social Identities, and the Shaping of Everyday Social Relations 231
Fergus G. Neville and Stephen D. Reicher
The Political Significance of Social Identities 233
Classic Crowd Psychology: The Loss of Individual Identity in the Mass 235
Dispositional Theories: The Accentuation of Individual Characteristics in the Mass 236
Crowds and the Expression of Social Identities 238
A Social Identity Model of Crowds 239
Crowds and the Construction of Social Identities 241
An Elaborated Social Identity Model of Crowds 243
The Impact of Crowds Beyond the Crowd 244
Contesting the Meaning of Crowd Behavior 247
Summary 250
Acknowledgments 250
Glossary 250
Further Reading 251
Questions for Group Discussion 251
CHAPTER 13 State Militarism and International Conflict 253
Stephen Gibson
A Political Psychology of International Relations 256
The Individual‐Social Dichotomy in Social and Political Psychology 257
Beyond Social Identity: Accounts of Military Service 259
Beyond Attitudes: Constructing Evaluations of the Iraq War 263
Concluding Remarks 268
Summary 269
Glossary 270
Further Reading 270
Questions for Group Discussion 270
CHAPTER 14 Social Influence and Malevolent Authority: Obedience Revisited 271
Ron Roberts
Milgram’s Studies of Obedience 273
How Did Milgram Interpret His Findings? 274
Ethics and Ecological Validity 274
Was There a Legitimate Parallel Between Milgram’s Laboratory and Nazi Germany? 276
The Political and Historical Context of Milgram’s Studies 278
The Contemporary Relevance of Milgram’s Work 279
The Role of Science and Bureaucracy 281
The Holocaust and the Eichmann Trial 282
A Reinterpretation of Milgram’s Studies 285
Free Will and Personal Responsibility 286
What Do We Learn From Milgram’s Studies? 287
A Social Psychology of Resistance 288
Summary 290
Glossary 290
Further Reading 290
Questions for Group Discussion 291
CHAPTER 15 Intergroup Conflict, Peace, and Reconciliation 292
J. Christopher Cohrs, Johanna R. Vollhardt, and Shelley McKeown
Intergroup Conflicts 295
Conflict Analysis 296
Conflict Management, Resolution, and Transformation 298
Conflict Resolution 299
Principles of Conflict Resolution 300
Achieving Conflict Resolution 300
Conflict Transformation 301
Conflict Transformation in Practice 302
Postconflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation 303
Social Psychological Definitions of Reconciliation 304
Instrumental Reconciliation 304
The Role of History and Power 304
Socioemotional Reconciliation and the Needs‐Based Model of Reconciliation 306
History as a Necessity for and an Obstacle to Reconciliation 307
Conclusion 309
Summary 309
Glossary 310
Further Reading 311
Questions for Group Discussion 311
References 313
Index 349
