Course Contents

1 Why study Political Psychology?An introduction to the discipline 2 A brief overview of the disciplines of psychology and political science and explaining the points of convergence and dissimilarities in explaining political phenomenon 3 Political elites and leadership 4 The characteristic and formation of a leader 5 Group influence and political socialization 6 Group conflict and racism, nationalism 7 Media influence and political advertising 8 Political propaganda and persuasion 9 Formation of political ideologies 10 Political participation, voting and party politics 11 Political non-participation and protest and other oppositional behaviours 12 Political violence 13 War and genocide 14 Case studies of the major wars in history and their shaping of today’s world politics 15 Political terrorism 16 Issues surrounding terrorism in today’s world and the proposed strategies to counteract violence, conflict, and terrorism.

Course Synopsis

Political Psychology is a field that uses experimental methods and theoretical ideas from psychology as tools to help understand political processes. The course, therefore, is designed in such a way that it introduces important concepts from psychology, offering new ways of thinking about subjects as varied as personality, the dynamics of social groups, and the ways in which emotion affects decision making, and then applies these concepts to various topics within political science. Objectives: The aim of the study of Political Psychology is to explore the psychological origins of political behaviour and the various patterns of political behaviour, including leadership, group behaviour, voting, race, ethnicity, nationalism, terrorism, war, and genocide, media and political advertising, the legitimacy of government institutions, and the formation of opinions and ideologies.The goal is to help the students understand the enormous complexity of human behaviour and the significant role political psychology and political dynamics can play in improving the human condition.

Course Learning Outcomes

The study of Political Psychology will enable students to develop an understanding of the burning issues of today’s world- from the running of state institutions to media influence on public perception, and from the dynamics of politics in the world in general and Pakistan in particular to the psychological predictors of terrorism, the course will provide the students an insight into today’s most pressing political issues.