Political Psychology A Social Psychological Approach

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. 

Christopher J. Hewer is Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Psychology at Kingston University, London where he teaches critical social psychology and the psychology of art and film. His research interests focus on collective memory, shifting memorialisation and forgetting in cultural discourse.

Evanthia Lyons is Head of School and Professor of Social and Political Psychology at Kingston University, London, UK. Her research focuses on people’s understanding of political processes and the factors that influence their engagement in conventional and unconventional political actions. 

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

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