Final Exam

Final Exam
Political Psychology, Fall 2019

Please write answers to four of the following questions / prompts. Spend about 15 minutes on each question. Do not answer more or less than 4!

1) What is meant by the "erosion of scientific rationalism"? Why is this an area of research within the discipline of political psychology?

2) What have you learned this semester about the political psychology of social media? Your answer should be informed by a theoretical discussion such as le Bon's "The Crowd" and should also be rooted in Maslow's pyramid.

3) Why and how do people "Exit"? What have you learned this semester about the varying motivations people have for Exiting, and the ways other members of society respond? In what ways are these motivations and responses grounded in psychology but expressed in politics?

4) Describe the research methodology in the articles we read demonstrating that Gender Bias in Elections is real. Why might voters be more susceptible to this bias during times of global conflict or military threat? Which elements of Maslow's pyramid are most relevant?

5) What are some key elements that describe the political psychology of nationalism? Do we see something we could call "New Nationalism" forming in the world or in the US at the present time?

Final Exam Study Guide

Final Exam Study Guide

In addition to your own notes you may, in preparing for the final, use articles posted and linked from the class website, along with student posting of research, research summaries, and statements linking research to political psychological theories. The final itself will be done without notes.

What is meant by the "erosion of scientific rationalism"? Why is this an area of research within the discipline of political psychology?

What have you learned this semester about the political psychology of social media? Your answer should be informed by a theoretical discussion such as le Bon's "The Crowd" and should also be rooted in Maslow's pyramid.

Why and how do people "Exit"? What have you learned this semester about the varying motivations people have for Exiting, and the ways other members of society respond? In what ways are these motivations and responses grounded in psychology but expressed in politics?

What is the difference between nationalism and patriotism? In what ways are both expressions of Crowd psychology? What parts of Maslow's pyramid of needs are most relevant to this discussion? Why?

Describe the research methodology in the articles we read demonstrating that Gender Bias in Elections is real. Why might voters be more susceptible to this bias during times of global conflict or military threat? Which elements of Maslow's pyramid are most relevant?

How would you define the "New Nationalism"? How is this different from what is traditionally understood as nationalism?

What did you learn this semester about Research Skills and Methodology? How might this help you in the real-world job market?

Which of our content areas did you find most personally relevant this semester? Why?

Authoritarian Personality

https://solidarity-us.org/atc/187/p4900/

Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality

Christopher Vials

IN THE EARLY post-World War II years, antifascism’s most intricate, intersectional analysis of the political right came from a highly influential work within the academic social sciences: The Authoritarian Personality (1950, reissued 1982), by Theodor Adorno and University of California-Berkeley psychologists Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford. [For background on Adorno’s life and work, see the essay in “The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,” http://www.iep.utm.edu/adorno/ — ed.]

The book is most remembered for its development of an “F Scale,” a quantifiable measure of an individual’s susceptibility to fascism, gleaned from survey questions and interviews. According to Adorno et al, if you strongly agreed with the following statements, you might not be a fascist right now, but you would be the kind of person who would probably fall for a fascist demagogue when one came calling:

• There is too much emphasis in college on intellectual and theoretical topics, not enough emphasis on practical matters and on the homely virtues of living.

• Homosexuality is a particularly rotten form of delinquency and ought to be severely punished.

• Human nature being what it is, there will always be war and conflict.

• There are some things too intimate or personal to talk about even with one’s closest friends.

• There are some activities so flagrantly un-American that, when responsible officials won’t take the proper steps, the wide-awake citizen should take the law into his own hands.

• No insult to our honor should ever go unpunished.

• Every person should have a deep faith in some supernatural force higher than himself to which he gives total allegiance and whose decisions he does not question.

• Too many people today are living in an unnatural, soft way; we should return to the fundamentals, to a more red-blooded, active way of life.(1)

What Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson and Sanford were looking for in such questions was not a conscious, well-formulated fascist politics among their interview subjects. Rather, they were trying to pinpoint an underlying set of pre-political personality traits that formed the wellsprings of fascist support.

The authors identified the core of the “authoritarian personality” — the thing they tried to draw out through their surveys — with the following main features: conventionalism (“rigid adherence to middle class values”); authoritarian submission (“uncritical attitude toward idealized moral authorities of the ingroup”); authoritarian aggression (a desire to punish those who transgress conventional values); anti-intraception (a rejection of imaginative, reflective, or empathetic people); superstition and stereotypy (“the belief in mystical determinates of the individual’s fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories”); power and toughness (“preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension”); projectivity (“the disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world”), and sex (“exaggerated concern with sexual ‘goings-on’”).(2)

A few of the traits on their list may seem dated in the 21st century — for instance, the “exaggerated concern with sexual goings-on” may no longer apply following the transformation of Western cultures by consumerism, feminism, and the LGBTQ movements. Be that as it may, it is precisely the hunt for an underlying fascist personality that makes this book so valuable at the present conjuncture.

Research Project assignment

Student’s Name

World History, Andrews

Research Paper

Date

Original Title for yourResearch Write-Up

This semester, you have the opportunity to dive more deeply into a specific question that interests you. You will do this by conducting a small original research study that builds upon one of the thematic areas we have discussed in class. As a way of supporting one another, you’ll choose thematic areas as teams, but each student must conduct his or her own study, write up individual results and make an individual presentation. Your write-up will be about 6 double-spaced pages in length+ Bibliography and contain the following named sections: 

ü  Introduction

ü  Review of the Literature

ü  Method

ü  Results

ü  Analysis

ü  Conclusions / Directions for Future Research

ü  Bibliography

Examples of Format for Bibliographic Entries

Aurelius, Marcus. “Meditations.” In Heritage of Western Civilizations.Ed. John L. Beatty and Oliver A. Johnson. Vol 1. 8^thed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 1995. 212-220.

Corbett, Bob. The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803: An Historical Essay in Four Parts. http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution1.htm (accessed 1/18/2012)

Post-Midterm Schedule

Post-Midterm Schedule

WEEK NINE

October 22

Reconfigure teams & begin research project 

October 24

Big picture and research agenda

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WEEK TEN

October 29

Fine tune research approach and goals, Review of the Literature component, keys to successful surveys

DUE:  Conduct your Review of the Literature & draft this segment of your write-up

October 31

Survey development, informed consent requirements

DUE:  Bring a draft of your survey. 

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WEEK ELEVEN

November 5

Other theories in political psychology… authoritarian personality / Stanford prison experiment

DUE:  Bring a copy of your final survey instrument & READ about the Stanford Prison Experiment… https://www.prisonexp.org(see The Story)

November 7

Team Time: Independent research day. Use your class time this day to further an aspect of your research projects using resources or e-sources beyond the classroom such as the library, success center or writing tutor, or conduct your survey this day.

DUE:  As self-assigned by your team and/or by yourself

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WEEK TWELVE

November 12

Survey results & write-up

DUE: Bring all draft materials & survey results

November 14

Presentation guidelines; practice mini presentations

DUE: Final Research Project write-up

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WEEK THIRTEEN

November 19

Other theories in political psychology… authoritarian personality / Stanford prison experiment

DUE:  READ and BLOG about the Stanford Prison Experiment… https://www.prisonexp.org (see The Story)

Thursday, November 21

Research Presentations – 1^stTwo Teams: Exit & Social Media

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WEEK FOURTEEN

November 26

Research Presentations – 2^ndTwo Teams: New Nationalism & Women in Elections

November 28

No class – Thanksgiving holiday.

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WEEK FIFTEEN

December 3

Review & final exam study guide
DUE: Post the following 4 items to your blog:
1) the final version of your Research Write-Up (must include your graphical results)
2) a 2-paragraph Summary of your research
3) a 1-or-more-paragraph that explicitly links your research to one or more of the political psychology themes we explored this semester
4) a bullet point, in a format you could include on a resume, that highlights your work on this research project in a way that demonstrates your qualifications for a job

December 5

Final Exam.

MIdterm Exam

Political Psychology Midterm EXAM

Please respond to 4 of the following 5 questions/prompts. You may use your notes as well as the articles themselves. There is no time limit.

Answers are due by email at 10:00 pm on Thursday, October 17. Please use standard file formats such as Word doc, PDF or copy/paste into the body of your email to ensure I am able to access your answers. Please do not send me a link to a Google doc.

1) What is Political Psychology? Give 4 examples from our readings and discussions so far this semester. What makes them political psychology? Describe one of the examples in a way that would render it “just politics.” Describe it in a way that would render it “just psychology.”

2) We explored the psychology of political exit. What psychological motivations underlie the impulse to politically exit? Is this topic area informed by Maslow’s Hierarchy or by The Crowd? List 3 examples of political exit on a group level. List 3 examples of political exit on an individual level. Is there a common thread that links all these examples together? 

3) We explored the political psychology of social media. How would you define this? Is this topic area informed by Maslow’s Hierarchy or by The Crowd? Does the existing research demonstrate that social media is merely another outlet for youth who are already politically active, or does it inspire new youth engagement? Why do some young people use social media for political engagement while others do not?

4) We explored the political psychology of nationalism and envisioned a new direction we could call “the New Nationalism.” How would you define the political psychology of nationalism? List 2-3 examples. Is this topic area informed by Maslow’s Hierarchy or by The Crowd? Can you be a patriot without being nationalistic? Can you be a nationalist without being patriotic? Is MAGA the New Nationalism, or is the New Nationalism still in formation?

5) We explored psychological barriers to electing female political leaders. Describe the two studies we read about. What was their method, and what were their conclusions? Is this topic area informed by Maslow’s Hierarchy or by The Crowd? What are the implications for the men and women currently running to be the Democratic nominee for President?