Test 2: Political Psychology Lectures and Readings

Question 1

What is the average turn out for electoral votes in NZ?

Answer 1

70%

Question 2

What is the average turn out for electoral votes in Australia?

Answer 2

90%

Question 3

What is the average electoral turn out for the USA?

Answer 3

50-54%

Question 4

Why is the turnout for Australia electoral votes so high?

Answer 4

A) because they made it illegal not to vote

B) because they require legal documentation to support why they can not vote

Question 5

In the cartoon of depicting an australian women dressed like Elizabeth the first upon a throne with “beady eyes that always follow him”. What political event is it depicting?

Answer 5

Juliet Gillard an Australian premiere who back stabbed the current prime minister Kevin Rudd out of office despite Australia having 15 consecutive years of growth.

Question 6

Rural areas tend to be more ____ than ____.

Answer 6

Conservative than Liberal.

Question 7

Electoral timing is made in reference to…

Answer 7

Wins in sports games because they increase votes by 5% to the incumbent I.e. the current prime minister.

Question 8

“Is voting an act of affirmation or fo choice?”

Harrop and Miller, 1987

Answer 8

Research by Harrop and Miller identify two main approaches to voting behaviors:

A) Expressive
Voting is used to express something about
ourselves, our beliefs our identity.
B) Instrumental
Votes are made rationally by weighing up the
pros and cons of each alternative (political
party) to choose the best alternative for you.

Question 9

Are votes purely motivated by expression or instrumentally?

Answer 9

》No it’s not purely black and white.
》There is overlap between these two
approaches to voting.
》The distinction between the two voting
approaches is not based on their function but
in their expression.

Question 10

What are the three stages of political psychological research?
(McGuire, 1993)

Answer 10

》40s/50s political personality (leaders and
masses)
》60s/70s political attitudes and voting
》80s/90s political ideology (=content and
process of political systems!!)

Question 11

40s/50s political personality era was based on ____ theories and ____ methods.

Answer 11

Theories:
Environmental determinism I.e. psychoanalysis, behaviorism and Marxism. (All unique camps of psychology approaches but they overlap in the sense that they focus on environmental factors determine voting behaviour)

I.e. behaviorism what environmental factors at the time of important desicions were present and influenced political leaders behaviour.

I.e. Fruedian what environmental factors present during childhood lead to a political leader developing their beliefs and path into political power and influence their behavior.

I.e. Marxism which looks at socioeconomic status leading to social disorder and conflict.

Methods:
Content analysis (examining text and communication tools for patterns and themes in talk and language) I.e. interviews and reports with politicians.

Question 12

60s and 70s political attitudes and voting uses ___ theories and ___ methods.

Answer 12

Theories:
Rational Actor ( I.e. subjective utility maximization and cognition-affect-action)

Methods:
Questionnaires in survey research or participant observations. (Linked to the shift from singular case studies to agratte data, multiple generalizable grouped data and societies demand for utility from psychological research).

Finding:
That people vote as they are socially, you vote in accordance with the social groups in which you belong e.g. religion, union, family etc.

Question 13

80s and 90s studied political ideology using ___ theories and ____ methods.

Answer 13

Theories:
Information processing ( cognitive, heuristics and decision theories) looks at how we make political desicions... it requires effort, and is unlikely that we have the resources required to make fully rational decisions so it moves to examine what heuristics we use to maximize the efficiency of our vote.

Methods:
Experimental manipulation I.e. bringing voting into the laboratory.

E.g. how word choices on how one can describe the same social group differently and influence voting behaviors.

》Poor vs welfare dependent
》Terrorists vs freedom fighters

Words hold different connotations and envike different affective responses that influence voting behaviors.

Question 14

What is the 3 polyside affair?

Answer 14

McGuire’s 1993 depicts the 3 eras of political psychological research.

Question 15

What is the end of the ideology era?

Answer 15

The belief that voting behaviors are not influenced by an individual’s principled belief system.

Question 16

What is the end of the ideology era?

Answer 16

The belief that voting behaviors are not influenced by an individual’s principled belief system.

Question 17

What is the current political psychology era?

Answer 17

The end of the end of ideology era.

Recent research indicates that people do engage in voting behaviors based on a principled belief system.

Question 18

If we plot the history of research against the McGuires 1993 eras we spot a progression in research models. What are the 4 stages?

Answer 18

A) Sociological Models
B) Michigan Models
C) Symbolic Politics (SP)
D) Rational Choice Theroy (RCT)

Question 19

What is the sociological model? 40s and 50s

Answer 19

A model of political voting behaviours that emphasises:

》primary group membership and social position
I.e. using survey methods they found that
if you were Christian you were more likely to
vote for a political leader who holds the same
religious views as us.
》votes tend to be enduring
I.e. that since votes are based on an
individual’s group membership and in turn their
identity which are enduring their subsequent
political affiliations will also be enduring.
》Instrumental/Expressive
I.e its instrumental in the sense that votes
are made to benefit our in group and they are
expressive in the sense that it displays our in
group identity.

Question 20

What is the Michigan Model? 60s and 70s

Answer 20

Where psychological constructs become a large part of political science and also had the foster successful prediction of who would win the electoral vote.

How? Instead of simply asking people leading up to the election which candidate they would vote for they asked participants if they viewed themselves as being Republican, Democrate, independent or other.

Highlighting that all though they may not like the candadite specifically people would still select them If the political party to which they belonged matched their political beliefs, ideology and social identity.

Thus, votes are made with relative consistency. I.e. homecoming instictint- you dont always vote in line with your party identity but in the following election you are overwhelmingly more likely to vote for your party identity.

Emphasises:
》psychological group membership
》identification is enduring because it is tied to 
    our identity development
》expressive

Question 21

What two models make up the 80s and 90s political ideological research?

Answer 21

A) Symbolic Politics
When people are not engaging in rational
decision making they make decisions based
on gut feelings, based on the symbolic
meaning that political party choice express.

Emphasises:
》affect
》symbols
》votes are stable as it reflects enduring   
    predispositions 
》highly expressive 

In contrast,

Rational Choice Theory
》cost benefit analysis
》instrumental

Question 22

What is the Motivated Social Cognition model (MSC)

Answer 22

Is an integrative model that argues people engaging in a matching process where they adopt political ideology which meets their psychological needs. Epistemic motivations (dogmatism-intolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty avoidance and need for structure, closure and order) Existnetial motives (self-esteem, loss prevention and terror management) and ideological motives (rationalization of self interests, group based dominance and systems justification).

Question 23

What are the two core dimensions of political conservatism?

Answer 23

1. Resistance to change:
2. Endorsement of
   inequality:

*these can be triggered by
situational and
dispositional psychological
variables

Question 24

Which psychological variables are strongly correlated with political conservatism? (5)

Answer 24

1. Dogmatism
2. Intolerance of Ambiguity
3. Openness to experience
4. Mortality Salience
5. Systems Instability

Question 25

What psychological variables were moderately correlated with political conservatism? (4)

Answer 25

1. Uncertainty Avoidance
2. Integrative Complexity
3. Need for Closure,
   Structure and Order
4. Fear, Anger and Threat

Question 26

What psychological variables were weakly correlated with political conservatism?

Answer 26

1. Pessimism, Content and
   Disgust
   2.Threat to Self-Esteem

Question 27

What are two types of motivations that underly beliefs?

Answer 27

(A) Driectional
      Reflect a desire to reach 
      one conclusion.
      e.g. the self is worthy 
      or the economy will get 
      better 
(B) Non-Directional
     Reflects a desire to arrive 
     at a belief that is 
     independent of its 
     context and non-specific 
     closure.

*the same motives can underly different beliefs (LW vs. RW) and the same belief systems can have different underlying motivations.

Question 28

Two key influences that determine belief formation?

Answer 28

(A) Informative
     Beliefs are used as 
     evidence, to rationalise 
     and preserve our belief 
     systems.
(B) Motivational
     Belief formation is 
     motivated by a need to 
     avoid, threat, uncertainty, 
     maintain security and 
     prevent negative 
     outcomes.

*these two underlying influences that drive belief formation do not determine the validity or accuracy of the belief.

Question 29

Two limitations of traditional research on political conservatism:

Answer 29

(A) Research is hindered by 
     their failure to clearly 
     distinguish between 
     psychological and 
     ideological variables.
  > Although they are 
    distinct they are also 
    closely interrelated 
    constructs. 
(B) Treating political 
     conservatism as being 
     purely dispositional, and 
     thereby disregarding 
     that situational influence 
     the adoption of 
     conservative political 
     ideology.

Question 30

Is the social cognitive motivational model of political conservatism a cold cognition or hot cognition model?

Answer 30

The SCM model is a “hot cognitive” model. Argues that ideological beliefs are formulated to satisfy our epistemic needs, a desire to see the world in a particular way. (informative and motivational)

A “cold cognitive” models are like most traditional research on political conservatism which focuses on informative and not motivational influences that effect belief formation. i.e. personality theories disregard situational influences.

Question 31

Name three models that are distinctively different from the social cognitive motivational model?

Answer 31

(A) Stable individual 
     differences e.g. 
     personality theories
(B) Pure Instrumental or Self- 
     interest models e.g. 
     conservatism is adopted 
     by the elites of society to 
     maintain privilege and 
     power.
(C) Theories of modelling, 
      imitation or 
      reinforcement e.g. 
      adopting the political 
      beliefs of your parents, 
      friends or peers.

Question 32

What is the conservative paradox?

Answer 32

Rare cases where the two cores aspects of political conservatism: endorsement of inequality and resistance to change are NEGATIVELY correlated!

e.g. Hitller and Stalin. Who advocate social change in an attempt to decrease egalitarianism (belief that everyone should have equal rights).

***traditionally, being resistant to change inadvertently supports maintaining inequality due to society being traditionally hierarchal.

Question 33

SCM model is not a ___ cognitive model which…

Answer 33

of “cold cognitive” approaches to attitudes and social judgment, which discount motivational constructs as explanations, favoring instead information-processing limitations and mechanisms as determinants of social judgments

Question 34

Abstract of scm

Answer 34

Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates theories of personality (au- thoritarianism, dogmatism–intolerance of ambiguity), epistemic and existential needs (for closure, regulatory focus, terror management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system justifi- cation). A meta-analysis (88 samples, 12 countries, 22,818 cases) confirms that several psychological variables predict political conservatism: death anxiety (weighted mean r 􏰀 .50); system instability (.47); dogmatism–intolerance of ambiguity (.34); openness to experience (–.32); uncertainty tolerance (–.27); needs for order, structure, and closure (.26); integrative complexity (–.20); fear of threat and loss (.18); and self-esteem (–.09). The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat.

Question 35

dogmatism:

accounts for ___

Answer 35

close-mindedness- the tendency to view principles as undeniably true without consideration of evidence or others opinions.

double think- how people can hold contradictory liberal and conservative beliefs.

Question 36

intolerance of ambiguity

Answer 36

the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as sources of threat. which in urn causes people to cling to familiarity and jump to premature conclusions.

Question 37

The dominance submissive embrace of conservatism:

Answer 37

How RWA can point in two directions-
(A) active hostility 
      a dominant approach 
      with dealing to societies 
      scape goats. Aggression - 
     best captured with SDO 
     scale.
(B) passively submissive
      posture towards authority.
      motivated by fear-best 
      captured with RWA scale.

*more radical RW politicians will be motivated by fear and aggression.