Political Psychology Final Exam Concepts

i fucking hate this class

Political Balance Theory

A theory that suggests individuals strive for a balanced perspective in their political beliefs, often seeking to maintain an equilibrium between opposing viewpoints to reduce cognitive dissonance.

Social Judgement Theory

1. Motivated to agree with candidates we like (assimilation)

2. Motivated to not agree with those we don’t (contrast)

Heider and Political Balance Elements

1. Our position on issue

2. Candidate’s position on issue

3. How we feel about the candidate

Memory model shortcomings

1. cognitive constraints

2. evaluative constraints

3. black-box models

simplifications of memory models

1. kelley and mirer “decision rule”

2. zaller and feldman “top of head responses”

Wyer and Ottati reading - 3 things when person is cued

1. frequency and recency of prior use

2. information-processing objectives

3. effects of prior knowledge and expectations

online processing— alternative to memory models

1. individuals retain running tallies

2. for electoral candidate judgements

two chief methods of decision-making

1. statistical

2. intutition

“bounded rationality”

cognitive limitations on rationality or reasoning

pre-existing knowledge frameworks— stereotypes or heuristics

1. representativeness heuristic

2. lack of political knowledge

3. drunkard’s search

4. one-dimensional vs. multi-dimensional decision-making

party id as heuristic/stereotype— experimental research

1. issue competencies

2. issue positions

3. ignoring information inconsistent with stereotypes

4. one-dimensional decisions

candidate demographic stereotypes

1. gender reviewed

2. race

even lower information effects

1. ballot information

2. ballot order

3. candidate occupations

4. name recognition

affective polarization

the phenomenon where individuals develop strong emotional responses towards their political in-group and out-group, leading to increased division and hostility.

levels of conceptualization

1. growth in ideologues

2. growth in constraint

social identity theory

theoretical framework that explains how individuals' self-concepts are influenced by their group memberships, affecting their attitudes and behaviors towards in-groups and out-groups.

SIT effect on behavior

1. alienation from outside partisans

2. relative to racial bias

3. trust

4. driven by outgroup bias more than ingroup favoritism