Political Psychology

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 xvPreface xxCHAPTER 1 Some Historical and Philosophical Considerations 1Christopher J. HewerWhen People Come Together 3Social Psychology 4The Development of Religious Identities 5Intersecting Histories: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 5The Issue of Governance 8Transformations in the Twentieth Century 8The Social and Moral Order 10The Search for Scientific Understanding 11Psychology: A New Way of Seeing the World 12The Influence of Political Philosophy on Social Psychology 14Locating the Root of Human Behavior 15Social Cognition 17A Societal Approach to Political Psychology 18Social Constructionism 19The Social Construction of Reality 22Summary 24Glossary 24Further Reading 26Questions for Group Discussion 27CHAPTER 2 A Critical History of Research Methods 28Ron Roberts and Christopher J. HewerWhat Do We Want to Know About the World and Why? 30How Can We Know the World? 31Searching for Universal Laws of Behavior 32The Computability Problem 33The Historic Nature of Research Findings 35The Origin of Statistics 37The Construction of Norms, Normality, and Normalcy 38Using Statistical Measures and Models for Political Purposes 40The Null Hypothesis Significance Test 43Bayesian Methods 45The Issue of Replication 47The File Drawer Effect 48A Cautionary Note on Theory 48Conclusions 50Summary 50Glossary 51Further Reading 52Questions for Group Discussion 53CHAPTER 3 From Alienation to Estrangement: Political Thought and Psychology 54Ron RobertsMechanistic Models 56Karl Marx 57Alienation 58Erich Fromm 59R. D. Laing 61Mystification 61Michel Foucault 62Discursive Regimes, Power, and Freedom 63Disciplinary boundaries 63Politics and governance of the self 64Svetlana Boym 66Estrangement 66Off‐modern psychology 68Art and dissent 69Summary 70Glossary 71Further Reading 71Questions for Group Discussion 71CHAPTER 4 The Politics of Psychological Language: Discourse and Rhetoric 73Simon LockeDiscursive Psychology, Rhetorical Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology 75The Scientific Laboratory 76The Validity of Experiments and Surveys 77Language, Discourse, and Rhetoric 78Arguing and Thinking 80Relativism and Ideology—or the DP‐CA/RP‐CDA Fandango 81Ideology 83Critical Discourse Analysis 84The Politics of Experience 85Conspiracy Discourse 86A Cognitive Approach to Conspiracy 87Reinstating the Thinking Person 88Summary 90Glossary 90Further Reading 91Questions for Group Discussion 92CHAPTER 5 Identity 93Christopher J. Hewer and Evanthia Lyons Identity and Human Relations 95Categorization 95Self and Society 96Occupational Identity: Roles and Performance 97Political Mobilization: National Identity and Nationalism 98Identity Threats 101Identity Politics 102Image, Images, and Appearance 104Political Identities 106Social Identity Theory 106Identity Process Theory 108Discursive Approaches to Identity 109Narrative Identities 111Conclusions 111Summary 112Glossary 112Further Reading 113Questions for Group Discussion 113CHAPTER 6 Narrating as Political Action 114Brian SchiffPsychology and Politics 116Speech and Political Action 117The Personal and Political Nature of Narrative 117Expansive Political Narratives 118Psychoanalytic and Personological Tradition 119Narrative Approaches 119Narrative Hermeneutics 120Narrative and Narrating 120Intensifying Persons and Social Context 121Collective Memory 121Repression 122Relational Contexts 123Meanings and Action 123Producers and Consumers of Memory 124Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship 124Hiba: The Real Story 125Lana: Torn Between the Two 128Conclusions 130Summary 131Glossary 132Further Reading 132Questions for Group Discussion 132CHAPTER 7 Connecting Social Exclusion and Agency: Social Class Matters 134Sarah Jay, Orla Muldoon, and Caroline HowarthClass Matters 136Cultural Capital 138The Precariat 139Capitalist Restructuring and Poverty 140Stigma 141Collective Identities 141The Individualization of Class 142Agency and Social Class 143Social Capital 144Cultural Incompatibility in Education 145Threats to Identity 146The Transmission of Cultural Capital 146Implications for a Social and Political Psychology of Social Exclusion 147Conclusions 148Summary 149Glossary 150Further Reading 150Questions for Group Discussion 150CHAPTER 8 Migration 152Spyridoula Ntani, Artemis M. Griva, and Xenia ChryssochoouPrejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination Against Immigrants 155Stereotyping, Racism, and Forms of Discrimination Against Immigrant Groups 155Explanations of Prejudice 156Individual and Collective Reactions to Prejudice 157Reducing Prejudice? The Contact Hypothesis 158Changing Societies: The Issue of Acculturation 159Changing Individuals: The Issue of Adaptation 162Calling for a New Social Organization: The Paradox of Integration 163Summary 166Glossary 166Further Reading 167Questions for Group Discussion 167CHAPTER 9 Political Decision‐Making 168Jack S. LevyThe Levels‐of‐Analysis Framework 171The Rational Model of Judgment and Decision‐Making 173Psychological Models of Information Processing 175Cognitive Biases 176Motivated Biases 180Psychological Models of Choice 182Prospect Theory 183Conclusion 185Summary 186Glossary 186Further Reading 188Questions for Group Discussion 188CHAPTER 10 Foreign Policy and Identity 189Emma O’DwyerForeign Policy and Identity: Conceptual and Theoretical Anchors 192The Influence of Citizens on Foreign Policy 193Outgroup Perceptions and Foreign Policy Attitudes 194A Case Study: Irish Neutrality 196Irish Neutrality in Context 196The Social Representation of Irish Neutrality 198Céad Mile Fáilte Neutrality 199The Macropolitical Dimension of Identity Construction 200Constructing the National Ingroup in International Affairs 201Unanswered Questions: Opportunities for Future Research 202Summary 203Glossary 204Further Reading 205Questions for Group Discussion 205CHAPTER 11 Social Memory and the Collective Past 207Christopher J. HewerThe Role of the Past in the Formation of Identity 209The Social Nature of Memory 211Taxonomies and Classifications 212The Resurgence of Interest in the Collective Past 213Competing Memory Narratives 214Communicative and Cultural Memory 216How to Study the Collective Past 217Landscape, Social Space, and Memory 217Narratives 221Social Representations of History 221The Nature of Representations 222Memory as Performance 224The Collective Pasts of Families, Groups, and Organizations 224Time Conceptions 225The Politics of Remembering and Forgetting 226The Individual and the Collective Past 227Summary 228Glossary 228Further Reading 229Questions for Group Discussion 229CHAPTER 12 Crowds, Social Identities, and the Shaping of Everyday Social Relations 231Fergus G. Neville and Stephen D. ReicherThe Political Significance of Social Identities 233Classic Crowd Psychology: The Loss of Individual Identity in the Mass 235Dispositional Theories: The Accentuation of Individual Characteristics in the Mass 236Crowds and the Expression of Social Identities 238A Social Identity Model of Crowds 239Crowds and the Construction of Social Identities 241An Elaborated Social Identity Model of Crowds 243The Impact of Crowds Beyond the Crowd 244Contesting the Meaning of Crowd Behavior 247Summary 250Acknowledgments 250Glossary 250Further Reading 251Questions for Group Discussion 251CHAPTER 13 State Militarism and International Conflict 253Stephen GibsonA Political Psychology of International Relations 256The Individual‐Social Dichotomy in Social and Political Psychology 257Beyond Social Identity: Accounts of Military Service 259Beyond Attitudes: Constructing Evaluations of the Iraq War 263Concluding Remarks 268Summary 269Glossary 270Further Reading 270Questions for Group Discussion 270CHAPTER 14 Social Influence and Malevolent Authority: Obedience Revisited 271Ron RobertsMilgram’s Studies of Obedience 273How Did Milgram Interpret His Findings? 274Ethics and Ecological Validity 274Was There a Legitimate Parallel Between Milgram’s Laboratory and Nazi Germany? 276The Political and Historical Context of Milgram’s Studies 278The Contemporary Relevance of Milgram’s Work 279The Role of Science and Bureaucracy 281The Holocaust and the Eichmann Trial 282A Reinterpretation of Milgram’s Studies 285Free Will and Personal Responsibility 286What Do We Learn From Milgram’s Studies? 287A Social Psychology of Resistance 288Summary 290Glossary 290Further Reading 290Questions for Group Discussion 291CHAPTER 15 Intergroup Conflict, Peace, and Reconciliation 292J. Christopher Cohrs, Johanna R. Vollhardt, and Shelley McKeownIntergroup Conflicts 295Conflict Analysis 296Conflict Management, Resolution, and Transformation 298Conflict Resolution 299Principles of Conflict Resolution 300Achieving Conflict Resolution 300Conflict Transformation 301Conflict Transformation in Practice 302Postconflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation 303Social Psychological Definitions of Reconciliation 304Instrumental Reconciliation 304The Role of History and Power 304Socioemotional Reconciliation and the Needs‐Based Model of Reconciliation 306History as a Necessity for and an Obstacle to Reconciliation 307Conclusion 309Summary 309Glossary 310Further Reading 311Questions for Group Discussion 311References 313Index 349