Chapter 15 Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is political psychology?
The application of what is known about human psychology to the study of politics.
What are the ‘Big Five’ personality factors?
Neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experiences, conscientiousness.
Which personality trait is positively related to liberalism?
Openness to experience.
Which personality trait is positively related to conservatism?
Conscientiousness.
What challenges exist when using self-reports to assess the personality of political leaders?
Very low response rate and limited room for many items.
What traits do successful presidents seem to score higher on?
Openness, extraversion, and neuroticism.
What is content analysis in the context of profiling political leaders?
A method that focuses on relevant passages from biographical sources, speeches, and interviews.
According to Winter (1987), what influences the performance of political leaders?
The match between leader’s personality and the needs of society at that time.
What does the operational code refer to?
A political leader’s belief system about the world.
What is prospect theory?
A theory that posits decisions deviate from expected utility outcomes due to risk aversion in loss situations.
What does groupthink theory suggest about decision-making in small groups?
Ingroup cohesion, isolation, directive leadership, and stress lead to poor decisions.
What is the main reason people vote?
They believe it is a civic duty.
What does the Theory of Reasoned Action state?
Behavior is directly determined by an intention based on personal assessment and compliance with subjective norms.
What does the Michigan model of voting posit?
Vote choice is determined by voters’ party identification.
What are the six determinants of partisan attitudes in the Michigan model?
- Personal attributes of Democratic candidates
- Personal attributes of Republican candidates
- Issues of domestic policy
- Issues of foreign policy
- Memberships of social groups
- Parties’ records in government management.
What is the hot-cognition hypothesis?
All information in long-term memory is stored with emotional evaluations attached.
What is the theory of motivated reasoning?
Citizens process information in a biased manner to align with prior attitudes.
What is disconfirmation bias?
Citizens put in more effort to generate counterarguments to contradictory information.
What is confirmation bias?
Citizens seek information that confirms and is consistent with prior attitudes.
What is the prior-attitude effect?
Citizens with strong attitudes evaluate congruent arguments as stronger.
What are nonattitudes?
Apparent attitudes that have little meaning outside the interview context.
What are the four categories of values based on equality and freedom?
- Socialism (high equality, high freedom)
- Communism (high equality, low freedom)
- Capitalism (low equality, high freedom)
- Fascism (low equality, low freedom).
What do materialism and postmaterialism refer to?
Materialism emphasizes economic security while postmaterialism emphasizes self-expression and quality of life.
What is right-wing authoritarianism?
A personality type that leads to ingroup glorification and prejudice against outgroups.
