Political Psychology – Psychology 391FF
(Fall, 2008)
Professor Linda M. Isbell
Phone: 545-5960
Office: 630 Tobin Hall
E-mail: lisbell@psych.umass.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Class Time: Tuesday/Thursday, 11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Class Location: 520 Tobin Hall
Course Description
This course examines the psychological factors that help to explain political behavior.
We will examine several areas of research in Political Psychology, and will discuss theory
and research in both Psychology and Political Science. First, we will discuss the way in
which our political system functions and review recent elections and campaigns. Then we
will discuss personality approaches to understanding political leaders, and the role of
socialization in the formation of political preferences. In the next part of the course, we will
examine how voters process political information, form impressions of political candidates,
and make voting decisions. In this section, we will consider the roles of both stereotypes
and affect in the candidate evaluation process. Next, we will examine the uses (and
abuses) of persuasion in politics, and the role of the mass media in politics. In this section,
we will consider the effects of political advertising, attack campaigning, and the role of the
media in dictating what the public thinks about. Finally, in the last section of the course, we
will briefly examine women in politics.
In this course, you will learn about Political Psychology from several different, but
complementary perspectives. You will learn by (1) reading literature in both psychology and
political science; (2) listening to and interacting with guest speakers; (3) analyzing current
and recent campaigns and elections; and (4) writing two papers designed to help you think
critically about current and recent political events and psychological explanations for these
events.
Course Prerequisites:
Psychology 241 (Research Methods)
Psychology 360 (Social Psychology)
Course Materials
Readings. No books are required for this course. Instead I have placed the course
readings on e-reserve and you may access them on-line for free through the University
Library. To do this, go to the following web site:
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http://ereserves.library.umass.edu/courseindex.asp
Then, search for our course (Psych 391FF) or my name (Isbell) to find the course listing.
The password to access the on-line readings is: xxxxxx. After entering the password, you
will see an alphabetical list of the available course readings. You will have to search for the
appropriate reading for a given class using the author’s last name. Some readings have
been divided into multiple files, so please be sure that you are reading the entire assigned
chapter or article.
You may choose to print out the material from e-reserves, or you may choose to read
it on-line. Any costs associated with printing out documents are obviously your
responsibility. It is essential that you do the reading for this course! We will often discuss
the assigned readings in class, so please read the material before coming to class. This
will not only allow you to participate in class more actively, but it will allow you to ask
questions about the material at the time it is discussed.
Course Note Packet. A note packet is required and can be purchased at the Text
Book Annex. This note packet contains skeleton outlines of the class material, along with
space so that you can take notes while you are doing the course reading and during
class discussions. These outlines will help you to follow the readings and class
discussions and help you to organize your notes better. This will allow you to be more
attentive in class and participate more actively. You are expected to bring the note packet
to each class. The note packet is not designed to be a replacement for attending class or
doing the reading. If you rely on this note packet for this purpose, you will do poorly in this
course.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
1. Exams. Two exams will be given. The exams will cover all material discussed in class
(including all lectures, demonstrations, discussions, videos, speakers, etc.) and in the
assigned readings. Further, you must attend to major political news (and debates)
during the semester. Questions on political news will be considered fair game for exam
questions. The exams will be non-cumulative.
 Makeup Exams. Makeup exams will be given ONLY in situations where students
can document their absence (e.g., a note from a doctor). All makeup exams will
be given within 5 days of the original exam date.
 Exam Dates
 Exam #1
 Exam #2


Thursday, 10/23
Thursday, 12/11
 Points. Each exam is worth 23% of your final grade. Together, the exams will
determine 46% of your final grade.
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2. Papers. You will be required to complete two papers about topics in political
psychology that we are currently studying. Each paper should be 6-8 pages (typed,
double-spaced in a font no greater than 12-point and margins no greater than one inch).
These papers will require you to (1) make connections between different areas of
research that we have discussed; (2) relate topics discussed in class and in the readings
to current and recent political events, campaigns, and elections, and (3) critically
evaluate current political events and research/theory in political psychology. These
assignments will depend, in part, on what is taking place in politics during the course of
the semester. Given this, it is very important that you stay informed of current political
events throughout this course!

All papers are due in class by 12:30 p.m. Late papers will be severely
penalized. 5% will be deducted from your paper grade for each day a paper is
late, including the day the paper is due. This means if you don’t hand it in by
12:30 on the due date, you will automatically loose 5% off of your paper (even if
you hand it in later that day). Of course, you are always welcome to hand
papers in earlier if you’d like.
 Paper Due Dates
 Paper #1
 Paper #2


Thursday, 10/9
Tuesday, 11/25
 Points. Each paper is worth 24% of your final grade. Together, the papers make
up 48% of your grade.
3. Guest Speakers. Throughout the semester, we will have numerous guest speakers.
The speakers generally will not lecture, but will engage in an informal discussion with the
class. Given this, you are expected to interact actively with our guest speakers.
 Mandatory Attendance at Guest Lectures. Our guest speakers are very busy
people who take time from their busy schedules to come and talk to us so that we
can learn more about Political Psychology. Attendance at these lectures is
mandatory. You will loose 1.5% off of your final course average for each guest
speaker’s presentation that you do not attend. In addition, because it is very rude
and disruptive to arrive late to class, especially when we have a guest speaker,
you must be on time for all guest presentations (and should plan to be on time for
all classes). For each guest presentation that you arrive late for, ½% will be
deducted from your final course average. (Note: If your bus arrives late,
this is not a good excuse for being late! Be sure to take an earlier bus on
days we have speakers scheduled!!)
 IMPORTANT: To encourage you to be very attentive to the speakers,
questions based on their presentations and discussions with us will be
included on exams!!

The dates that the speakers will visit are as follows:
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






State Representative Ellen Story  Tuesday, 9/23
Mayor Clare Higgins (Northampton)  Thursday, 10/16
Ken Dixon (News Reporter)  Thursday, 11/6
James Fleming (Political Consultant)  Thursday, 11/13
Chris Keating (News Reporter)  Tuesday, 11/18
U.S. Congressman John Olver  to be announced
Reed Hillman (former Head of Mass State Police, former State
Representative, former candidate for Lieutenant Governor)  to be
announced
 NOTE: If a speaker is unable to come on his/her scheduled date, s/he
will be rescheduled if possible. It is your responsibility to be in class
and to know of any changes in the speaker schedule.
4. Class Participation. As noted throughout this syllabus, participating in class
discussions and discussions with our guest speakers is critical. For this reason, 6% of
your final course grade will be determined by the amount and quality of your class
participation. Note that I am not “giving” these points away – you will need to be a very
active participant in this class to earn all 6 participation points!
5. Final Course Grades. Final grades will be determined using the following scale:
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
94-100
90-93
87-89
84-86
80-83
77-79
74-76
70-73
67-69
64-66
Below 64
IMPORTANT NOTE: Grades will not be rounded up or down to the nearest point!!
There is no extra credit available in this course!
REMEMBER: Your final course average will be reduced by 1.5 points for each speaker’s
presentation that you miss. Also, you will loose ½ point if you arrive late to
class on a day that we have a speaker. (Note: Even a “few minutes” late is
LATE! – so please plan to be on time! If the speaker has already begun
his/her presentation when you arrive, then you are “late”!!).
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COURSE POLICIES
1. Class Attendance. Class attendance is essential in a course like this. It will be
extremely difficult to earn a good grade in this course if you do not attend class. As
stated earlier, class attendance is mandatory on the dates that guest speakers come.
You should, however, plan to attend class regularly. In class, I will elaborate on
concepts from the reading, introduce new material, lead class discussions, conduct
demonstrations, show videos, and discuss current political events. The exams will be
based on everything that we do in class as well as the assigned readings, so regular
class attendance will help you to earn a higher grade in this course. If you do miss
class, you will need to obtain the notes for that day. It is your responsibility to find
out about any information presented during class, including announcements, new
material, assignments, etc.
2. Participation. Class participation is a critical part of learning. I expect that you will all
become active participants in lively discussion about the readings, the presented
material, and political events. In addition, you are expected to interact with our guest
speakers. All of these discussions will make this course very enjoyable and will help us
all to understand political psychology from many different perspectives. Learning about
political psychology is fun and interesting, and it will be more fun if you participate
actively!
3. Keeping Up with Current Political Events. It is important that you keep up to date
with political events during this course. Please plan to read the newspaper, watch the
evening news and/or listen to NPR regularly. You can also follow the news on one of
many reputable news web pages.
4. Cheating and Plagiarism. Cheating is not fair to honest students, is counter to the
purpose of the university, and is not in your best interest. Cheating and plagiarism will
not be tolerated. Students who cheat or plagiarize material in this course will be
severely penalized. In cases of cheating and plagiarism, students will receive an F in
the course. In addition, the University Academic Honesty Board will be notified and a
note indicating your academic dishonesty will be permanently placed on your transcript.
This will be particularly detrimental to you if you intend to apply to graduate school, law
school, medical school, etc. All students are expected to adhere scrupulously to the
University policy concerning academic honesty. For more information on the
University's academic honesty policy, check the following web site:
http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/codeofconduct/acadhonesty/
 Cheating. Students who observe others cheating are strongly encouraged to
notify me immediately.
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 Plagiarism. When reading over the university web page on academic
dishonesty, please pay particularly close attention to the description of plagiarism.
When writing your papers, do not copy information directly from a research
article, textbook, web page or other source without quoting the information and
providing the source. In addition, do not paraphrase someone else’s work and
submit it as your own. Finally, do not complete your assignments in collaboration
with other students. This is easily detected and will not be tolerated. All
students involved in copying a paper from another student (or allowing another
student to copy an assignment) will immediately receive an F in the course and
be subject to the consequences outlined above.
5. Students with Disabilities. Students with documented disabilities who need special
arrangements in this course should speak to me immediately.
COURSE TOPICS AND SCHEDULE
(TENTATIVE SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE!)
9/2 (Tuesday)
Overview of the course  What is political psychology?
Krosnick, J.A., & McGraw, K.M. (2002). Psychological political science
versus political psychology true to its name: A plea for balance. In K.R.
Monroe (Ed.) Political Psychology. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum. (pp. 79-94)
9/4 (Thursday)
Quick Review of American Politics, Current and Recent
Presidential Campaigns
Fiorina, M.P., & Peterson, P.E., Johnson, B., & Voss, D.S. (2005). The
New American Democracy. (4th Edition). New York: Longman 
Chapter 10, “Electing the President” (pp. 253-280).
Ornstein, N. (2001). No need to repeal the Electoral College. State
Legislatures, pp. 12-16.
9/9 (Tuesday)
Munsey, C. (2008, June). Why do we vote? Monitor on Psychology,
39(6), pp. 60-63.
Price, M. (2008, June). Building a better ballot. Monitor on
Psychology, 39(6), pp. 64-65
Mackenzie, D. (2000, November). May the best man lose. Discover
Magazine, pp. 85-91.
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9/11 (Thursday)
Boyett, J.H. (2008). Won’t get fooled again. New York: American
Management Association. Chapter 8, “Evaluating the leader – the facts
test,” pp. 135-161.
Guinier, L. (2000, December 4). Making every vote count. The Nation,
pp. 5-7.
9/16 (Tuesday)
History of Political Psychology
McGuire, W.J. (1993). The poly-psy relationship: Three phases of a
long affair. In S. Iyengar and W.J. McGuire (Eds.), Explorations in
political psychology (pp. 9-35). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Lau, R.R. (2003). Models of decision-making. In D.O. Sears, L. Huddy,
& R. Jervis (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, pp. 19-32.
9/18 (Thursday)
Cottam, M., Dietz-Uhler, B., Mastors, E., & Preston, T. (2004).
Introduction to political psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
(pp. 126-135). “Political sophistication in America.”
Cannon, Carl M. (1998, October 17). Hooked on polls. National
Journal. National Journal Group, pp. 2438-2441.
9/23 (Tuesday)
GUEST SPEAKER: State Representative Ellen Story
9/25 (Thursday)
Personality Approaches to Understanding Politicians
Post, Jerrold M. (2002). Ethical considerations in psychiatric profiling
of political figures. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 25, 635-646.
Elms, Alan C. & Song, Anna V. (2004). Alive and kicking: The
problematics of political psychobiography. Chapter in W.T. Schultz
(Ed.) Handbook of Psychobiography. Oxford University Press.
9/26 (Friday)
First Presidential Debate
9/30 (Tuesday)
Renshon, Stanley (2004). In his father’s shadow: George W. Bush and
the politics of personal transformation. Chapter in W.T. Schultz (Ed.)
Handbook of Psychobiography. Oxford University Press.
Renshon, S.A. (2005). George W. Bush’s cowboy politics: An inquiry.
Political Psychology, 26, 585-614.
10/2 (Thursday)
Vice Presidential Debate
Winter, D.G. (2004). Measuring the motives of political actors at a
distance. In J.M. Post (Ed.), The psychological assessment of political
leaders with profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton. (pp. 153-
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177). University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor.
Winter, D.G. (2001, Spring). Insights and observations about political
psychology: Measuring Bush’s motives. International Society of
Political Psychology News, Vol. 12(1), p. 9.
10/7 (Tuesday)
Second Presidential Debate
Political Socialization: Theory, research, and methods
Sears, D.O., & Levin, S.L., (2003). “Adult life history,” in D.O. Sears,
L. Huddy, & R. Jervis (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Political
Psychology, pp. 78-90.
Greenstein, F.L. (1960). The benevolent leader: Children’s images
of political authority. American Political Science Review, 54, 934-943.
10/9 (Thursday)
FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS!
Alwin, D.F., Cohen, R.L., & Newcomb, T.M. (1992) Political attitudes
over the life span: The Bennington women after fifty years. Madison,
Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. Chapter 2 (pp. 30-52),
“Newcomb’s Bennington Studies: The impressionable years” and
Chapter 5 (pp. 88-119), “Generations and the stability of sociopolitical
orientations over the life span”.
10/14 (Tuesday)
NO CLASS – MONDAY SCHEDULE
10/15 (Wed.)
Third Presidential Debate
10/16 (Thursday)
GUEST SPEAKER: Mayor Clare Higgins
10/21 (Tuesday)
Political Information Processing
Ottati, V.C., Wyer, R.S, Deiger, M., & Houston, D. (2002). The
psychological determinants of candidate evaluation and voting
preferences. In V.O. Ottati et al. (Eds.) The social psychology of
politics. (pp. 3-28). New York: Plenum Press Corporation.
10/23 (Thursday)
EXAM #1
10/28 (Tuesday)
Lodge, M., McGraw, K.M., & Stroh, P. (1989). An impression-driven
model of candidate evaluation. American Political Science Review, 83,
399-419.
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10/30 (Thursday)
Affect and Politics
Isbell, L.M., Ottati, V.C., & Burns, K.C. (2006). Affect and politics:
Effects on judgment, processing, and information seeking. In D.
Redlawsk (Ed.), Feeling politics: Emotion in political information
processing. (pp. 57-86). Palgrave Macmillan Publishing Company.
11/4 (Tuesday)
ELECTION DAY!!
Lerner, J.S., Gonzalez, R.M., Small, D.A., & Fischoff, B. (2003).
Effects of fear and anger on perceived risks of terrorism: A National
field experiment. Psychological Science, 14, 144-150.
11/6 (Thursday)
GUEST SPEAKER: Ken Dixon, News Reporter
Connecticut Post Capitol Bureau, Hartford
11/11 (Tuesday)
NO CLASS – VETERAN’S DAY!
11/12 (Wed.)
Political Attitudes and Persuasion
Hollihan, T.A. (2001). Uncivil wars: Political campaigns in a media
age. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s. Chapter 7, “Telling the people
what they want to hear: The importance of opinion polls”. Pp. 115-138.
Milburn, M.A. (1991), Persuasion and politics: The social psychology
of public opinion. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Chapter 8, “Persuasive communication and attitude change,” pp. 106130.
11/13 (Thursday)
GUEST SPEAKER: James Fleming, Political Consultant
11/18 (Tuesday)
GUEST SPEAKER: Chris Keating, News Reporter
The Hartford Courant
11/20 (Thursday)
The Role of the Mass Media and Advertising in Politics
Brader, T. (2006). Campaigning for hearts and minds. The University
of Chicago Press. Chapter 2, “The Art and Science of Campaigning”
(pp. 17-47).
Bell, S. (2001, March). The media and politics: It’s more than the news.
USA Today Magazine. (4 pages).
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11/25 (Tuesday)
PAPER #2 DUE IN CLASS!
Kinder, D.R. (2003). Communication and politics in the age of
Information. In D.O. Sears, L. Huddy, & R. Jervis (Eds.), Oxford
Handbook of Political Psychology, pp. 357-366.
Alger, D.E. (1989). The media and politics. Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Chapter 6 (pp. 97-131), “What’s news? The
formulation and presentation of the news”
Massing, M. (2001, Oct. 15). Press watch. The Nation, pp. 7, 31.
Tucher, A. (1997). “You news”: It’s not your father’s newscast anymore.
Columbia Journalism Review, pp. 26-31.
11/27 (Thursday)
NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING!
12/2 (Tuesday)
Graber, D.A. (1997). Mass media and American Politics. Washington,
D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. Chapter 6 (pp. 156-187), “The
media as policy makers”
Iyengar, S., Peters, M.D., Kinder, D.R. (1982). Experimental
demonstration of the “not-so-minimal” consequences of television
news programs. American Political Science Review, 76, 848-858.
12/4 (Thursday)
Jamieson, K.H. (1992). Dirty politics: Deception, distraction, and
Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 6 (pp. 136159), “Adbites, ad stories, and newsads”
Jamieson, K.H. (1992). Dirty politics: Deception, distraction, and
Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 2 (pp. 43-63),
“Tactics of attack”
12/9 (Tuesday)
Gender and Politics
Kahn, K.F. (1996). The political consequences of being a woman: How
stereotypes influence the conduct and consequences of political
campaigns. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Chapter 3 (pp.
30-42), “Gender differences in campaign appeals for the U.S. Senate”
and Chapter 4 (pp. 43-56), “Differences in campaign coverage: An
examination of U.S. Senate races”
12/11 (Thursday)
EXAM #2