Political Psychology Flashcards
(33 cards)
Vamik Volkan’s transgenerational transmission of trauma
Identification with a victimized past can be a powerful force in shaping the collective identity of a group. Just like there is transgenerational trauma transmission in the analogy of Gregory, Peter, and Julie, you can see transgenerational trauma transmission in the people of Serbia 1990s caused in 1381 Battle of Kosovo.
What 5 things does Anthony Downs say the rational man will do?
According to Downs, the rational man will:
Always Makes A Decision
Ranks All The Alternatives In Order Of Preference
Their Preference Ranking Is Transitive
Always Chooses The Highest Ranked Preference
Always Makes The Same Decision When Confronted With The Same Alternatives
What is Phillip Converse’s Social Diffusion?
Social diffusion of “what goes with what” influences voter behaviour. The views of politically aware ‘opinion leaders’ diffuse to those who are less politically aware.
Inheriting beliefs from family and community as social groups play a significant role in shaping political attitudes.
The liberal/conservative yardstick shifts over time, so people can’t define conservative or liberal when asked, despite defining themselves as conservative or liberal. What is considered extreme/ moderate is decided socially. Converse argued that a significant portion of the public lacks a consistent and coherent ideology. Many individuals do not possess a well-organized set of beliefs or a comprehensive political ideology that guides their political decisions, but their preferences may change based on the framing of issues, political events, or the influence of political elites.
Converse suggested that public opinion tends to be issue-specific rather than ideologically driven. People might have preferences on specific issues, but these preferences may not be part of a broader, systematic belief system.
Converse’s 3 Sources of Constraints on Political Belief Change
Logical: Some policies cannot be logically compatible e.g. one cannot believe that government expenditures should be increased, that government revenues should be decreased, and that a more favourable balance of the budget should be achieved all at the same time.
Psychological: Individuals’ cognitive or emotional processes, e.g. biases, emotions, dispositions
Social: Influenced by family, friends, community, identity etc
What are Converse’s 5 levels of conceptualisation?
Ideologues: Consistent political ideology
Near-Ideologues: Near consistent political ideology
Group Interest: Votes on what is best for their community e.g., being a member of a trade union, so voting based on the union position.
Nature of the Times/ Single Issue: Some individuals may base their political decisions on the prevailing circumstances or a single, specific issue rather than a comprehensive ideology. They may prioritize current events or issues they deem particularly important at a given moment
No Issue Content: 20% of people have no concept of political issues, so have no consistent political ideology.
Explain Milton Lodge’s Online Model
Memory-Based Models (Schema theory, Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma, Rational Choice Theory, RAS Model) assume Veridical Recall and Memory Based Evaluation.
People are cognitive misers, so new information is valued and added to a running tally, and an impression is formed, with the original information being forgotten. Thus people may have opinions but may not be able to tell you the specific reason why.
Conflicts with Zaller’s RAS Model as Zaller’s RAS Model emphasizes the importance of pre-existing attitudes in shaping how individuals accept or reject new information. Lodge’s model, on the other hand, underscores the role of immediate contextual cues.
Explain what Axelrod and Kuklinski’s definition of Schema is
Schemas are cognitive structures which channel the way the information is processed. We tend to see, understand, and remember things the way we expect them to b in conformity with our schemas. When new information becomes available, a person tries to fit the new information into the pattern which he has used in the past to interpret information about the same situation.
For something to become part of your schema you must believe it to be a credible source
Zaller’s Memory Based RAS Model
John Zaller posits
* People “receive” political messages in proportion to how cognitively aware they are of political news.
* People “accept” political messages based upon how consistent with their existing ideas, ,uch like when new information aligns with schema, new information which aligns with political predispositions is more likely to be absorbed.
- Zaller posits that the most recent information a person has absorbed is most mentally accessible and decisions are made by averaging this
Therefore, the most recent information a person has received is the most influential in their decision-making.
Given that mass opinion generally reflects elite discourse, if there is elite consensus about a
policy, then the greater the level of a person’s political awareness, the greater the likelihood of their support for the mainstream policy.
What is Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect?
The Law of Effect states that responses that are followed by a satisfying outcome in a particular situation are more likely to be repeated, while responses that are followed by discomfort or dissatisfaction are less likely to be repeated.
Critics suggest that the Law of Effect reduces behaviour to a series of stimulus-response associations, neglecting higher-order cognitive processes and internal states. Human behaviour is often influenced by complex cognitive processes such as perception, memory, reasoning, and language, which may not be adequately accounted for by the Law of Effect.
Similarly, twins who have a very similar upbringing may lead very very different lives.
What is Behaviourism?
Behaviourism is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning, and conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment.
Behaviourists believe that our actions are shaped by environmental stimuli.
What is Jim Sidanius’ theory of Social Dominance Orientation?
SDO is a theory to explain why humans forms groups, hierarchies, and why they seek to oppress other social groups. Indeed, people with high level of SDO (usually men due to testosterone) favour in-group members and are hostile to out-group members as they perceive them as competition for scarce resources (RGCM)
Legitimising myths are used to justify the prejudice and oppression, and symbolic racism shows how despite consciously supporting equality people will consistently oppose policies which would increase it.
What are 3 functions of Lewis’ Reptilian Brain?
- Primitive instincts (fight, flight, mating)
- Temperature Regulation
- Glandular system e.g., Pineal Gland to regulate melatonin production.
What are 3 functions of Lewis’ Limbic (Mammalian) Brain?
- Arousal
- Memory as incudes Hippocampus. The Hippocampus is larger in London taxi drivers due to memorising The Knowledge.
- Emotion and Limbic Resonance (Empathy)
What are 3 functions of Lewis’ Neo-Cortex (Primate) Brain?
- Sleep, memory and learning processes.
- It is also involved in instrumental conditioning; responsible for transmitting sensory information and information about plans for movement to the basal ganglia
- Abstraction, allows for humans to understand language
What is behavioural assymetry?
Behavioural Asymmetry: systematic outgroup favouritism or deference (minorities favour hegemony individuals, such as Jesse Jackson being concerned that a Black man is following him, but relieved when it’s a white man)
What are 3 things that can affect how the brain treats race?
Alcohol consumption can affect ability to regulate implicit racial attitudes
People with William’s Syndrome see everyone as friends, and do not recognise race, but recognise gender due to biological reproduction urges (Kurzban)
Those with BPD have a higher tendency towards categorical thinking and thus have a higher propensity towards racism and antisemitism
What is Machiavellian Intelligence according to Orbell?
Machiavellian Intelligence according to Orbell, is the theory that, using theory of mind in order to be deceptive, people can free-ride and maximise their own personal utility from other people
However, it appears that cooperative dispositions might be an evolved part of human nature. Those who act apparently altruistically are more successful in survival and thus reproduction, whereas those who are selfish and take advantage are generally less successful.
Some free-riders do manage success however.
What is Epigenetics, and what are 2 examples of it?
Epigenetics: How your behaviours and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.
DNA Methylation allows for the flexibility of DNA e.g. Pollution methylating a mother’s DNA, and causing her future children to have asthma despite being born in the countryside
Gut bacteria also affects gene flexibility
What is Neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity: Neuroplasticity is the idea that the brain can flexibly adapt, grow, and change, building new connections and pruning old ones
If our character flaws and poor skills were hardwired into our brains, then learning new abilities or virtues would be a fight against biological destiny.
Learning The Knowledge made London taxi drivers hippocampi grow. They weren’t born to be a taxi driver, but their brain grew.
Similarly, Paul Bach-y-Rita’s father was able to recover some function after a stroke after lots of training
What is coalitional cognition?
Coalitional Cognition: Race and ethnicity exists because we have a brain built for coalitions.
Coalitions are dynamic, competing, overlapping, and nested.
- Affect how to treat the ingroup and outgroup members, given our multiple identities and the constant shifts in who is an “us” and who is a “them”
If coalitional cognition is at the core of race and ethnicity, then deficits in coalitional cognition should affect racial attitudes e.g. such as William’s syndrome etc.
What is Social Dominance Orientation Theory?
Jim Sidanius’ Social Dominance Theory combines the Realistic Group Conflict Model, the Self-Esteem Enhancement Model, the Attitude Consistency Model, and Biopolitical Models in order to explain why people from one social group oppress people from another social group
In-group preference and out-group hostility
Explain the 4 models used to create SDO Theory
The Realistic Group Conflict Model describes as to how negative stereotype and prejudices will form when groups which perceive each other as competition for scarce resources, and that in-group solidarity and out-group hostility will increase
The Self-Esteem Enhancement Model describes as to how groups build images of their own superiority, and thus other group’s inferiority in order to boost their own self-esteem
The Attitude Consistency Model describes how groups create stories in order to maintain cohesion between their observations and beliefs, such as how individuals might think that they live in a meritocratic society where everyone has equal opportunities, but then observe economic inequalities affecting specific racial groups, and thus conclude that certain racial groups are lazier or less intelligent and so are responsible for their own inequality
Biopolitical models describe how biological differences can cause certain people to have higher levels of Social Dominance Orientation meaning they have a greater preference for enforcing social hierarchies. Sidanius’s studies show that men and boys were consistently higher on SDO or anti-egalitarianism than women and girls, and that is due to sex specific hormones such as testosterone, and thus men are more likely to be greater enforcers of social hierarchies and in-group and out-group boundaries
What was mentalism and why did Watson reject it?
Mentalism refers to those branches of study that concentrate on perception and thought processes, such as psychoanalysis
Watson thought stimulus response was the only way to apply the scientific method towards psychology, as mentalism was subjective
Mentalism is also biased as it accepts denial as confession in order to achieve a certain answer e.g. ‘he denies that he loves his mother so therefore he is actually repressing his love for his mother because it is so strong’
What does FMRI stand for, and how does cluster based thresholding work?
Functional magnetic resonance imaging measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood oxygen levels.
For example, the amygdala may light up as it experiences oxygenated blood flowing into it as it detects a threat.
Cluster based thresholding is a method which lights up brain regions that show statistically significant activation in response to an experimental manipulation. These findings can provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes, perception, emotion, and behaviour.
