Political Psychology
| Module title | Political Psychology |
|---|---|
| Module code | POL3136 |
| Academic year | 2019/0 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Darren Schreiber (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 30 |
|---|
Module description
Aristotle claimed that man was, by nature, a political animal. This course uses a broad range of tools and theories to evaluate such claims. We will explore methods from psychoanalysis all the way to more recent approaches such as genetic analysis and neuroimaging. We will consider behavior in other species and ask if we are the only political animals. And, we will discuss what it means to be a political animal and how that informs the institutions that we can and should develop.
Module aims - intentions of the module
Beliefs about how people think about politics have been at the core of theories of politics since the ancients. In this course, we will begin with a survey of important theories of political psychology from the past century. We will focus mainly on hypotheses about how people develop their political attitudes and on the methods used to test those hypotheses. Twentieth century researchers were constrained to observing behavior and relied on surveys, interviews, and simple experiments to make inferences about the political mind. The second half of the course will look at the future of political psychology. We will learn about cutting edge insights from fields like neuroscience, genetics, computational modeling, and evolutionary theory. And, we will ask how those insights should inform our understanding of political cognition, affect, and behavior.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. apply a wide variety of models of human decision-making, even in difficult contexts;
- 2. design and critically evaluate experiments testing hypotheses about human decision-making;
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. analyze a broad spectrum of research designs;
- 4. synthesize competing theories in order to apply them to novel social science problems;
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. understand the physiology of anxiety and how to manage it in order to improve their performance in challenging contexts;
- 6. employ an inductive writing method to facilitate more powerful communication; and
- 7. use the IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) method to more effectively respond to problems in both written and verbal contexts.
Syllabus plan
The course is roughly organized around “20th Century” and “21st Century” approaches to questions in Political Psychology:
20th Century approaches
Psychoanalytic Approaches
Rational Choice Theory
Philip Converse and His Legacy
Schema Theory
The Online Model
Racial Attitudes
Zaller’s RAS Model
21st Century approaches
Affective Intelligence
Neuropolitics
Evolution of Machiavellian Intelligence
Genopolitics
Race and Neuroscience
Physiological measures
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | 251 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 44 | 22 x 2 hour seminars |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 5 | 5 x 1 hour lab sessions |
| Guided independent study | 163 | Completing assessment tasks: Reading, research and writing |
| Guided independent study | 88 | Preparing for seminars: Reading and research |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socratic method | 20 minutes | 1-6 | Verbal comments |
| In class practice examination | 45 minutes | 1-6 | Written feedback |
| Pop quizzes | 4 written quizzes (10 minutes each) | 1-6 | Written feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 40 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short essay | 20 | 1,500 words | 1-6 | Written feedback |
| Long essay | 40 | 3,000 words | 1-6 | Written feedback |
| Examination | 40 | 1.5 hour examination | 1-6 | Written feedback |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short essay | 1,500 words essay | 1-6 | August/September assessment period |
| Long essay | 3,000 word essay | 1-6 | August/September assessment period |
| Examination | 1.5 hour examination | 1-6 | August/September assessment period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, Richard Lannon (2000) Vintage Press
The Nature and Origin of Mass Opinion John Zaller (1992) CambridgeUniversity Press
Your Brain is Built for Politics Darren Schreiber (in review) Princeton University Press
Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences. John R. Hibbing, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Alford. (2013) Routledge Press.
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 14/06/2013 |
