Understanding Ideological Differences: Insights from Political Psychology
- 3 credits
- PSYC 470
- COLL 300
What makes some people liberal and others conservative? This course aims to answer this question by examining differences in political ideology using a psychological lens. Specifically, this course will discuss various psychological processes that help shape people's political ideology, including but not limited to personality and dispositions, emotion and affect, goals and motivation, attitudes and beliefs, and geography and culture. This course will also address how understanding such psychological processes can help us create strategies to bridge political gaps. Students will be introduced to prominent theories and research in political psychology, and will be provided with a detailed background of how people may arrive at liberal or conservative ideologies from a psychological perspective.
{{youtube:medium:center|-BiY2O7lt4o, Hear Professor Xu discuss her awesome D.C. Summer Session 2025 course}}
