Political Psychology Preliminary Exam Field
Also available as component to the M.A. in global justice and security studies
Overview
The Department of Political Science at WSU offers graduate students the option of specializing in the sub-field of political psychology as one of their main Ph.D. preliminary examination fields OR as a selected area of specialization in their program of study for the M.A. in global justice and security studies.
The political psychology faculty work with graduate students to tailor the available courses to best fit their own individual research interests or professional aspirations. Courses that fall within this specialization are offered both in the Department of Political Science and in the Department of Psychology.
We encourage our political science graduate students to take some graduate seminars from our colleagues in psychology (along with the ones we offer in our own department) to not only broaden their understanding of psychological concepts important to the study of political psychology, but to emphasize the multidisciplinary nature of the endeavor.
Moreover, we welcome graduate students from all the sub-fields of political science to take political psychology as an exam field, since the courses are designed to suit the interests of students in comparative and international politics, American politics, criminal justice, public policy, and public administration.
There are many opportunities for collaborative work between faculty and graduate students in this area. In addition, there is an informal faculty-graduate student interest group (the Political Psychology Roundtable), which includes members of the psychology and political science departments, that meets to discuss ongoing research projects.
Graduate students with a specialization in political psychology have not only found employment in traditional academic jobs, but are routinely hired by U.S. governmental agencies as analysts. Indeed, our recognized expertise in political psychology has resulted in our department being one of a number of 'targeted' programs for recruitment of leader analysts by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which sends recruiters to scout our graduate students. Given that other targeted programs include programs at The Ohio State University, Northeastern, Syracuse, Arizona State, and Stanford, it is clear that Washington State University offers exceptional training in political psychology. According to Kathleen McGraw (2006: 23), the WSU program (founded in 1996) is one of 9 formal doctoral programs in political psychology in the U.S.; the others are at SUNY-Stony Brook (1979), University of Wisconsin (1982), CUNY-Graduate Center (1988), UC-Irvine (1989), UCLA (1989), The Ohio State University (1990), George Washington University (1992), and the University of Minnesota (1995). [See Kathleen M. McGraw, "The Infrastructure of Political Psychology," pp.18-35. In Linda Shepherd (ed), Political Psychology, 2006.]
Faculty
The Department of Political Science has 3 faculty members who specialize in political psychology, Martha Cottam (Ph.D. 1983, UCLA), Thomas Preston (Ph.D. 1996, The Ohio State University), and Travis Ridout (Ph.D. 2003, University of Wisconsin, Madison).
Dr. Cottam specializes in cognitive images, social identity, nationalism, ethnicity, and American foreign policy decision making. She is the author of several books and articles in political psychology including Foreign Policy Decision Making; The Influence of Cognition (1986), Images and Intervention: U.S. Policies in Latin America (1994), Nationalism and Politics: The Political Behavior of Nation States (2001, with Richard Cottam), and Introduction to Political Psychology (2004/2009), which was coauthored with Dr. Preston, Dr. Elena Mastors (a graduate of the political psychology program at WSU), and Beth Dietz-Uhler.
In addition to coauthoring Introduction to Political Psychology, Dr. Preston, who specializes in personality, leadership, and group decision making, is the author of numerous articles and The President and His Inner Circle: Leadership Style and the Advisory Process in Foreign Policy Making (2001).
Dr. Ridout specializes in political communication, voting, elections and campaigns, political participation, presidential nominations and survey methodology. He is currently working on a book on political advertising and its effects on citizen knowledge, voter turnout, and choice. He has also published articles on evaluating measures of campaign advertising exposure on political learning, the politics of mobilization, and the link between issue engagement and television advertising in journals such as Political Behavior, Annual Review of Political Science, and the American Journal of Political Science.
In addition to the political science faculty, the Departments of Psychology and Marketing at WSU have 2 faculty members interested in political psychology, Dr. Jeff Joireman (Ph.D. 1996, University of Delaware) and Dr. Craig Parks (Ph.D. 1991, University of Illinois).
Dr. Joireman has several related lines of research. He is interested in understanding how features of the person and the situation influence people to behave prosocially in a variety of interdependent settings, ranging from 2-person relationships to large group settings. His current central research interests include decision making in social dilemmas, as well as individual differences in universal values, social value orientation, empathy, aggression, and the consideration of future consequences.
Dr. Parks' primary interest is in understanding the internal, individual-level factors that influence a person's frequency of cooperative responses in an interdependent group setting.
Requirements
The following course work is necessary for meeting the requirements of the Political Psychology exam field:
- Pol S 533a: Seminar in Political Psychology
- Pol S 533b: Seminar in the Psychology of Political Leadership and Decision Making
- Select 2 from the following, with approval by graduate committee:
- Pol S 428: Introduction to Political Psychology
- Pol S 513: Seminar in American Political Behavior
- Psych 550: Attitudes and Social Cognition
- Psych 551: Groups and Interpersonal Processes
Course Offerings in Political Psychology
Pol S 428: Introduction to Political Psychology
Instructor: Martha Cottam
This course is an undergraduate upper-division overview of political psychology. The course introduces key psychological concepts and provides an introduction to most topics in political psychology, including voting behavior, the influence of the media on political attitudes, leadership, race, ethnicity, nationalism, political extremists such as terrorists, genocide, and war and deterrence.
Pol S 513: Political Behavior
Instructor: Travis Ridout
This is a graduate seminar providing an overview of the field of mass political behavior. In other words, our focus will be on the individual and his or her relationship with the political system. Accordingly, much of what we study will be about what happens inside citizens’ minds. Yet our approach will not be purely psychological as we will also explore how the institutions and rules of the system affect people’s political thinking and behavior. In sum, we will be careful not to remove the politics from political behavior and political science.
Pol S 533a: Seminar in Political Psychology
Instructor: Martha Cottam
This is a graduate seminar providing a survey of political psychology in American domestic politics (race, ethnicity, national identity), criminal justice issues (gangs, the impact of urban blight, militias), international politics (war, genocide, terrorism, bargaining and decision making), and comparative politics (ethnicity, ethnonationalist conflicts).
Pol S 533b: Seminar in the Psychology of Political Leadership and Decision Making
Instructor: Thomas Preston
This graduate seminar is designed to provide a solid overview of the psychological theories of political leadership and decision making, as well as a variety of methodological approaches useful in its study. The course provides in-depth reviews of a variety of methodological approaches (e.g., personality assessment-at-a-distance profiling techniques, operational codes, cognitive mapping, psychobiography) currently used to study political leadership. Also examined are how political leaders are selected and socialized, what factors affect their leadership, and how personalities affect leadership or decision making styles. An overview of the decision making literature is also provided, including problem representation, group dynamics, bureaucratic politics, and stress upon the decision process. Students take part in a simulation of professional leader analysts in the U.S. intelligence community. Each student selects a different world leader for analysis and produces an assessment-at-a-distance profile of this leader.
Psych 550: Attitudes and Social Cognition
Instructor: Jeff Joireman
This graduate seminar reviews classic and contemporary theory and research in the areas of attitudes and social cognition. Throughout the course, we will be concerned with theory, research, and application. Classic theories and studies will set the stage for more contemporary approaches to these topics, with the emphasis placed on more recent research. An attempt has been made to provide students with readings in a broad set of domains, but the majority of the readings will fall squarely in the area of social psychology.
Psych 551: Groups and Interpersonal Processes
Instructor: Jeff Joireman
This graduate seminar covers theory and research relevant to behavior in and between groups. The course is divided into 3 broad sections, each corresponding to a different "level of analysis." At the interpersonal level of analysis, we will consider such topics as social interdependence, prosocial behavior, aggressive behavior, and attachment. At the intragroup level of analysis, we will cover such topics as group formation, group membership, norms, conformity, roles, power, leadership, cooperation in groups, and group performance and decision making. At the intergroup level of analysis, we will consider various facets of intergroup conflict.
Political Psychology Faculty
Dr. Martha Cottam
Professor of Political Science
- Political psychology
- Conflict resolution
- Cognitive images, social identity, nationalism, ethnicity, and American foreign policy decision-making
Dr. Thomas Preston
Professor of Political Science
- Political psychology
- Leadership analysis and profiling-at-a-distance
- Group dynamics
- Leader–advisor interactions and presidential leadership style
- Information processing in decision making
- Expertise
- Crisis management and dynamics
Dr. Travis Ridout
Associate Professor of Political Science
- Political communication
- Political participation
Dr. Craig Parks
Professor of Psychology
- Individual differences in cooperative choice
- Cognitive and strategic approaches to social dilemma resolution
Dr. Jeff Joireman
Associate Professor of Marketing
- Social dilemmas
- Pro-environmental behavior
- Prosocial behavior
- Aggression
- Personality processes
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