Introduction

POLSCI 240 / PSY 225: Political Psychology

January 8, 2025

Welcome!

Instructor: Chris Johnston

  • Email: cdj19@duke.edu
  • Office: Gross Hall 294J
  • Office hours: by email appointment (please feel free to reach out - I am always happy to meet!)

TA: Ryan Clifton

  • Email: ryan.clifton@duke.edu
  • Office hours: Wed 2-3

TA: Kristina Mensik

  • Email: kristina.mensik@duke.edu
  • Office hours: Thurs 4-5

What is political psychology?

Tools used

The study of politics using the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological tools of psychology

  • Social identity theory for understanding ethnic conflict
  • Motivated reasoning and political disagreement
  • Experimental research designs, neuroscience

Topics studied

The study of psychological phenomena in the context of politics

  • Personality and political ideology
  • Automaticity in political cognition
  • Heuristics and vote choice

Our approach

Not much interested in defining sharp boundaries between fields

  • Start with simple models of important political phenomena (often “rational” or “economic”)
  • Identify ways in which these models fail
  • Add additional complexity slowly, as needed (often “psychological”, “less than fully rational”)

Some of the most interesting work is at the intersection of multiple fields - psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, …

Topics

  • Is it rational to vote? If not, why do people do it?
  • How do people answer questions about politics, and what does this say about the quality of their opinions?
  • Why do some people end up “liberals” and others “conservatives”?
  • Can people listen openly to alternative views and change their minds?
  • What is an “identity” and how does it influence political behavior?
  • What decision rules do people use when choosing among candidates?
  • Is partisanship a good or bad influence on politics?

Your responsibilities


  1. Complete reading assignments on-time
  2. Attend lectures and sections
  3. Participate in section discussions
  4. Contribute to group project
  5. Regularly review your notes and study for exams
  6. Get help when needed

Reading assignments


  • Recommended to complete assigned readings prior to start of Monday’s class
  • Required to complete by start of class on Wednesday (for quiz and section discussions)

Quizzes

You will have one quiz each (non-exam) week.

  • Cover reading assignments and material in Monday’s lecture
  • Straightforward if you do reading and attend lecture
  • Wednesdays at the start of lecture.
  • Each quiz will be ~5 minutes long and will begin sharply at 10:05.
  • There are no make-up quizzes!
  • Drop lowest 2 scores at the end of the semester

Gradescope

You will complete the quiz using Gradescope pre-printed bubble sheets - bring these sheets and a pen or pencil to class every Wednesday

Before your first quiz, do the following:

  • Print out (at least) 14 copies of the first page of Gradescope’s bubble sheet template, and store them in a bag, notebook, etc. that you know you will bring to class. You will use 12 for quizzes and 2 for exams.

  • Make sure you have a pen or pencil in a bag, notebook, etc. that you know you will bring to class.

  • Make a plan to be in class on-time, every time! There are no make-up quizzes.

Exams

You will take 2 exams this semester.

  • Neither is cumulative
    • Midterm -> weeks 1-7
    • Final -> weeks 8-15.
  • Both exams will be taken in-person using pen and paper.
  • Combination of multiple choice, short answer, and short essay questions - need to bring Gradescope bubble sheet to each exam for the multiple choice, and two (just in case) blue books for short answers.
  • If you have an accommodation that affects your exams, please let us know well before the exam.

Sections

Your section grade has two, equally-weighted components:

  • Attendance (10%)
  • Participation (10%)

Participation means contributing directly to the discussion and being engaged (attentive)

  • We have 6 sections dedicated to discussion

    • For each, you will get a grade of 0 (unacceptable), 1 (unsatisfactory), 2 (satisfactory), 3 (exceptional)
    • Your final participation grade is divided by 12 (6 * 2 gives you a 100 final grade)

Final project

  • Groups of 4-6 people in your section
  • Task is to design, conduct, and analyze a survey or survey experiment on a topic of interest to you in the field of political psychology
  • Last week of semester, you will present your project to the class.
  • Final project grades are equal weight of group and individual grade

Final project sequence

  1. Pick a topic in political psychology that is of interest to your group (due 1/24 at 5pm).

  2. Review existing research on that topic (due 2/7 at 5pm).

  3. Choose 1 of the studies you read to replicate (due 2/21 at 5pm).

  4. Design your study in Qualtrics (due 3/7 at 5pm).

  5. We (Johnston and TAs) will collect data for your survey over Spring Break.

  6. Conduct the replication tests required for your study, and present these in professional-looking tables or figures (as needed) (due 4/4 at 5pm).

  7. You will turn your project into a slide deck (due 4/18 at 5pm) to present to the class during the last week of the semester.

Policies

  • Duke Community Standard

  • LLMs

    • Very helpful for programming-related work on group project
    • Do not use for writing
  • Short-term illness
    • submit form for section
    • “built-in” accommodation for quizzes (drop 2)
  • Accommodations
    • Let us know early

How to do well

Read on-time and attend (and pay attention in) lectures

  • readings and lectures are not substitutes
  • quizzes can be easy points if you keep up
  • reading and lecture is essential to Midterm and Final

Participate in section and your group

  • section reading discussions
  • final project contributions

Get help early, when needed