Politics

Political Psychology

Module code: L3013
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay, Coursework

Political psychology is an interdisciplinary field that brings together political science and psychology. It’s concerned with the psychological dimensions of politics.

We’ll be looking at how psychological processes help us understand a variety of concepts, theories and approaches that social scientists use to study the political word.

In doing so, we will explore some of the major issues in political psychology and their applications to political life.

Some of the topics we will be covering are:

• the history of political psychology
• personality in elites and mass publics
• belief systems
• the structure of political attitudes and attitude change
• mass media
• the determinants of vote choice and participatory behaviour in general
• the role of emotions in political behaviour.

In exploring these, we’ll also be looking at processes such as political cognition, political affectivity, information processing and decision making.

Module learning outcomes

• Develop a familiarity with the main concepts, principles, theories and methods used in used in political psychology research
• Have an appreciation of the different scholarly perspectives and explanations on various topics in political psychology as well as develop an understanding of how political psychology research is conducted and applied to analyse recent political dynamics and events
• Identify the major debates in the field of political psychology
• Apply relevant concepts and methodological approaches to their own research proposal
• Apply their knowledge of political psychology to the exploration of current political affairs and research puzzles
• Develop critical reading and writing skills (assessing empirical research quality, writing scholarly papers, communication through participation in group discussions)