Political psychology: subject, problems, methodology and methods

Political psychology is an interdisciplinary science that is at the intersection of sociology, psychology and political science. It has received more development and dissemination in the US and Canada, and to a lesser extent in the European countries. In Russia, the first works appeared only in the early nineties of the last century (E. Shestopal, A. Yuryev, E. Gantman-Egorova, etc.).

Political psychology has several subjects of study:

• Psychological components in the political behavior of man. They are the focus of most studies.
• The application of psychological knowledge in the explanation of political phenomena.

But that is not all. Political psychology is a young branch of science, therefore it is constantly supplemented by new research and theoretical developments. Each scientist adds his vision to the interpretation of the subject.

Political psychology deals with a wide range of problems.

First, foreign policy. It is about the psychology of peace and war, terrorism, political decision-making, ethnic and interstate conflicts, mutual perception of partners in the negotiation process.

Secondly, this science is engaged in domestic political life. It is about motivating political participation of citizens in institutions and movements, discrimination against minorities, the psychology of forming political identity, and so on.

This young science has a special, specific problem. This is about:

• Macro-political processes of various levels (national, regional and global);
• Transitional processes (democratization, change of political institutions, change of identity, dynamics of public opinion);
• Processes that take place in mass and group political consciousness, as well as behavior (decision-making, formation of political group attitudes, political conformism, leadership, conflicts, cooperation, mass political attitudes and so on);
• Political behavior and socialization of each citizen;
• The perception by voters of leaders and elected representatives, their vocabulary, thinking, ideology, and technology in decision-making.

The methods of political psychology are oriented toward obtaining empirical data of different levels. But the main emphasis is on studying individual consciousness and behavior. A wide use was made of the use of content analysis (speeches, documents, video materials), interviews and focus groups. In addition, political psychology in its arsenal has projective methods, tests, assessments of experts and so on. In the process of consulting with clients, some psychotherapeutic and corrective methods are used.

Separately, we need to dwell on the leading theoretical paradigms:

The main is political behaviorism. Its main task is to study various and specific forms in political behavior. The thoughts and feelings of the individual about the elected representatives, as well as the situation in the world and the country, are not taken into account. His supporters (R. Nayemi, D. Easton, D. Dennis, etc.) made a significant contribution to the study of various forms of political participation, interstate and interethnic conflicts, socialization, etc.

In addition, political psychology relies on the development of cognitivistic or humanistic trends (D. Adelson, L. Kolberg, R. Inglehart, S. Renshon, etc.). They are mainly devoted to the fact that citizens think about politics, how leaders, parties are perceived and how the mass media influence the worldview of a person.

Political psychology is a young and dynamically developing science.