This course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of recent and historical developments in political psychology. An ever-growing sub-discipline within the social sciences, political psychology merges the study of politics with the theories and research of psychological analysis—a relationship which has lent itself fruitfully to investigating inquiries revolving around political behavior and decision-making, polarization, partisanship, and even why your uncle began telling everyone at Thanksgiving about a new political conspiracy theory he found in the Facebook comment section. Through this course, students will learn about and engage with the numerous theories within political psychology which address many of these phenomena. Included among the broader topics covered in this course are the social, cognitive, and developmental psychology theories undergirding contemporary political research; the methods and epistemological challenges of political psychology; individual- and group-level theories of polarization and partisanship; and the role of emotions and affect in mediating one’s political decisions. Students will then apply these concepts to real-world political observations, granting them insight into the psychological mechanisms which often undergird the political happenings one encounters on a regular basis.
Prerequisites: Students must have completed 32-credits at Rhodes