Course Syllabus
Psychology of Political Behavior |
 |
| Semester & Location: |
Fall 2019 - DIS Stockholm |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Faculty Members: |
Merrick Tabor |
| Program Director: |
Lars Rossen |
| Time & Place: |
Tuesdays & Fridays, 10:05-11:25 Room #1D410 |
Description of Course
This course emphasizes the psychological mechanisms affecting political reasoning and behavior, such as how psychological biases affect our cognition, information-processing and political behavior. Comparisons between U.S. and Swedish political contexts are explored, specifically examining how the political mind is embedded in social frameworks. This course is based on theory and research from the field of political psychology, an interdisciplinary academic field studying the relationships between psychological and political processes.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, students are expected
- To understand and describe principles and concepts related to political cognition such as information processing, decision-making, and perception.
- To apply theory and analyze political phenomena in daily life from a psychological perspective.
- To critically evaluate scientific methods and research within the field of political psychology.
- To contrast and consider cultural differences between U.S. and European political contexts.
- To understand the dominant political ideologies in Sweden and how they differ from the US.
- To engage with Swedish political groups to learn more about their underlying moral values and perspectives.
Faculty
Merrick Tabor
Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. Merrick is also Honorary Guest Professor at Leshan Normal University, P. R. China. In addition, he has had teaching assignments at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication and at the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University and at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Merrick has worked on a number of international projects, among them as Project Advisor for the Eurasian Research Centre in the Kyrgyz Republic and as Project Co-coordinator and Lecturer for the Democracy School Project in Estonia. He is a recipient of the Pedagogical Award from Stockholm University. With DIS since 2019.
Readings
Required readings
Books
Cottam, Martha L.; Mastors, Elena; Preston, Thomas & Dietz, Beth (2016): Introduction to Political Psychology. Third Edition. Routledge.
Articles and Selected Chapters in Books
Appadurai, Arjun (2006): Fear of Small Numbers. An Essay on the Geography of Anger. Duke University Press (Chapter 4).
Arendt, Hanna (1964): Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil. The Viking Press (Epilogue & Postscript).
Baradat, Leon P. (2009): Political Ideologies. Their Origins and Impact. Tenth Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall (Chapter 2).
Belew, Kathleen (2018): Bring the War Home. The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard University Press (Introduction).
Bosworth, R. J. B. (2007): Nationalism. Pearson (Introduction & Chapter 1).
Eddy, Bill (2019): Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths - And How We Can Stop!. Berrett-Koehler (Chapters 1–5, excerpts).
Gibson, James L. (2009): Political Intolerance in the Context of Democratic Theory. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, Oxford University Press.
Granovetter, Mark (1978): Threshold Models of Collective Behavior. The American Journal of Sociology, 83 (6), 1420–1443.
Hermann, Margaret G. (2002): Assessing Leadership Style: A Trait Analysis. Social Science Automation.
Hermann, Margaret G. (2014): Political Psychology. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Leadership, Oxford University Press.
Hewer, Christopher J. & Lyons, Evanthia (eds.) (2018): Political Psychology. A Social Psychological Approach. Wiley (Chapters 1 & 2).
Houghton, David Patrick (2009): Political Psychology. Situations, Individuals, and Cases. Routledge (Chapters 1 & 2).
Jost, John T. (2006): The End of the End of Ideology. American Psychologist, 61 (7), 651–670.
Jost, John T.; Federico, Christopher M. & Napier, Jamie L. (2013): Political Ideologies and their Social Psychological Functions. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford University Press.
Kaldor, Mary (2012): New and Old Wars. Organized Violence in a Global Era. Polity Press (Chapters 1 & 4).
Koomen, Willem & van der Pligt, Joop (2016): The Psychology of Radicalization and Terrorism. Routledge (Chapters 1 & 10).
LaMarre, Heather L.; Landreville, Kristen D. & Beam, Michael A. (2009): The Irony of Satire. Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report. International Journal of Press/Politics, 14 (2), 212–231.
McIntyre, Lee (2018): Post-Truth. The MIT Press (Chapter 3).
Merritt, Anna C.; Effron, Daniel A. & Monin, Benoît (2010): Moral Self-Licensing: When Being Good Frees Us to Be Bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4 (5), 344–357.
Metzger, Miriam J. (2017): Broadcasting versus Narrowcasting: Do Mass Media Exist in the Twenty-First Century?. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication. Oxford University Press.
Milgram, Stanley (1965): Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority. Human Relations, 18(1), 57–76.
Möller, Tommy (2016): The Parliamentary System. In The Oxford Handbook of Swedish Politics. Oxford University Press.
Ostiguy, Pierre (2017): Populism. A Socio-Cultural Approach. In The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford University Press.
Post, Jerrold M. (2014): Personality Profiling Analysis. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Leadership. Oxford University Press.
Rothstein, Bo (2016): The Moral, Economic, and Political Logic of the Swedish Welfare State. In The Oxford Handbook of Swedish Politics. Oxford University Press.
Russell, Nestar (2019): Understanding Willing Participants, Volume 2. Milgram´s Obedience Experiments and the Holocaust. Palgrave (Chapter 9).
Steger, Manfred B. (2013): Political Ideologies in the Age of Globalization. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford University Press.
Stone, Susanna; Johnson, Kate M; Beall, Erica; Meindl, Peter; Smith, Benjamin & Graham, Jesse (2014): Political psychology. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 5 (4), 373–385.
Taber, Charles S. & Young, Everett (2013): Political Information Processing. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. Oxford University Press.
Valentino, Nicholas A. & Vandenbroek, L. Matthew (2017): Political Communication, Information Processing, and Social Groups. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication. Oxford University Press.
Weyland, Kurt (2017): Populism. A Political-Strategic Approach. In The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford University Press.
Zimbardo, (2004): A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil. In Miller, Arthur G. (ed.): The Social Psychology of Good and Evil. The Guilford Press (Chapter 2).
Websites
Blom, Ben (2018): The Lifespan of a Lie. The most famous psychology study of all time was a sham. Why can’t we escape the Stanford Prison Experiment?
– https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62
Gladwell, Malcolm (2016): Malcolm Gladwell on racism, Trump, and the moral licensing phenomenon
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjf8b_LLZ6g
Kaldor, Mary (2017): What are New Wars?
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BCl4dSR8KA
Kaldor, Mary (2017): New Wars as a Social Condition
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a8PKW_Astc
Milgram Study Obedience
– https://archive.org/details/MilgramExperimentObedience
SWEDEN.SE
This is Sweden – film
– https://sweden.se/society/thisissweden
Sweden – an overview
– https://sweden.se/society/sweden-an-overview
Key facts about Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/key-facts-about-sweden
History of Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/history-of-sweden
10 features of democracy in Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/10-features-of-democracy-in-sweden
The Swedish system of government
– https://sweden.se/society/the-swedish-system-of-government
The Swedish monarchy
– https://sweden.se/society/the-swedish-monarchy
Political parties in Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/political-parties-in-sweden
20 milestones of Swedish press freedom
– https://sweden.se/society/20-milestones-of-swedish-press-freedom
Sweden and human rights
– https://sweden.se/society/sweden-and-human-rights
Gender equality in Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/gender-equality-in-sweden
National minorities in Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/national-minorities-in-sweden
Sami in Sweden
– https://sweden.se/society/sami-in-sweden
The Nobel Prize – awarding great minds
– https://sweden.se/society/the-nobel-prize-awarding-great-minds
Sweden and migration
The Government Offices in Sweden
How Sweden is governed
– https://riksdagen.se/en/how-the-riksdag-works
Approach to Teaching
A variety of teaching methods will be used, including lectures, class discussions, group presentations, interactive classroom activities and multi-media to facilitate the understanding of theory, research and cultural implications of these. Psychological applications will be explored using case examples.
Expectations of the Students
Students are expected to have done the readings and come prepared with relevant questions and notes for each class. This will give us material to generate conversation. When responding to questions in class, make reference to our readings to support the points you are making. Students are expected to challenge themselves and their worldviews with an investigative mindset and curiosity, seeking to understand the topics at hand as well as how they relate to themselves as individuals and the world around them.
Evaluation
Evaluation: A number of diverse tasks will be given throughout the semester to address learning objectives. Emphasis will be on engaged participation and may include individual and/or group-based written/oral tasks. Projects may be given that will explore topics experientially.
Grading
|
Methods of Evaluation |
How evaluated |
Due Date |
Percentage of grade |
|
Engaged participation |
Individual |
Ongoing |
12.50% |
|
Presentation of Leader Trait Analysis
|
Individual |
October 15 |
31.25% |
|
Mid-term exam |
Individual |
October 18 |
25.00% |
|
Final exam |
Individual |
December 10 |
31,25% |
|
Total |
|
|
100% |
Evaluation: A number of diverse tasks will be given throughout the semester to address learning objectives. Emphasis will be on engaged participation, and may include individual and/or group-based written/oral tasks. Projects may be given that will explore topics experientially.
Engaged Participation (12.5%):
The participation grade reflects the importance of being active in this course, which relies in great part on the reflection, discussion and class assignments. Participants are expected to have done the required readings prior to each class and to contribute to the discussions.
Presentation of Leader Trait Analysis (31.25%):
Details regarding the Leader Trait Analysis will be presented at the beginning of the course.
Mid-term exam (25%)
There will be an exam covering the theories and concepts that have been discussed so far in the course.
Final Exam (31.25%):
There will be a final exam covering the theories and concepts that have been discussed throughout the course.
In order to receive a passing grade for the course, you must complete all of the assigned work.
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|