Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE PPL1943

 
TITLE Political Behaviour

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 8

 
DEPARTMENT Policy, Politics and Governance

 
DESCRIPTION Our understanding of political behaviour changes constantly as new political landscapes unfold in both the real and the virtual world. A major split in the field is that between individualised views on political behaviour, and the societal turn witnessed in a variety of European approaches to the subject. This split can be appreciated both within political psychology itself and also at the intersections of psychology and political science. Accordingly, this study-unit provides an introduction to the study of political behaviour, by addressing the above developments and advancing critical approaches to the topic.

Students will be exposed to the debates relevant to the field, such as those concerning the different levels of political behaviour (e.g., ranging from political involvement to participation), the conceptual frameworks relevant to our understanding of political behaviour (e.g., the societal turn and related critiques); the tools (e.g., from public opinion polling, to discursive and rhetorical approaches) needed to understand this topic; the critical political psychology inherent in the study of political behaviour; and relevant case studies ranging from everyday community organising to political militancy.

This study-unit will provide students with knowledge on political behaviour by focusing on topics such as: public opinion and human values, social change and ideology, intergroup relations, social representations, voting behaviour, and the behavioural role played by political narratives. The study-unit emphasises societal and critical approaches in the field, as developed in recent strands of European scholarship, whilst retaining a global perspective in the examples provided.

Study-Unit Aims:

- To provide students with the conceptual frameworks relevant to the understanding of political behaviour;
- To provide students with an understanding of the empirical tools relevant to political psychology (within which crucial research on political behaviour takes place), and the critique of such tools;
- To discuss the latest case studies in political behaviour, with a focus on issues that are translational across different worldly regions (e.g., relating to ecological sustainability);
- To provide students with an opportunity to think critically about the implications of the above, vis-a-vis the difference between how political behaviour plays out (the 'is') and how it should play out (the 'ought').

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Meaningfully differentiate between different schools of thought in the study of political behaviour (e.g., 'American' vs. 'European' approaches);
- Identify the different methods used to study political behaviour (e.g., public opinion polling vs. the analysis of social representations), with the help of case studies;
- Critically discuss the different histories behind contemporary studies on political behaviour;
- Discuss the transformational spaces that critical political psychology opens up.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Design a plan to understand a specific form of political behaviour (from conceptualisation, to research design and analysis);
- Identify and critique the ideological assumptions of different scientific approaches to political behaviour;
- Analyse human activities ranging from voting to militancy, from a psychological lens;
- Discuss a multiplicity of examples of political behaviour, using cross-referencing.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Tileagă, C. (2013). Political psychology: Critical perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
- Akram, S. (2019). Re-thinking Contemporary Political Behaviour: The Difference that Agency Makes. Routledge.
- Anderson, M. (2010). Community identity and political behavior. Springer.

Supplementary Readings:

- Bornschier, S., Häusermann, S., Zollinger, D., & Colombo, C. (2021). How “us” and “them” relates to voting behavior—social structure, social identities, and electoral choice. Comparative Political Studies, 54(12), 2087-2122.
- Moghaddam, F. M. (Ed.). (2017). The SAGE encyclopedia of political behavior. SAGE Publications.
- Norris, P., & Goodin, R. E. (2007). Oxford handbook of political behavior. Oxford Handbooks.
- Mannarini, T., Buhagiar, L. J., Rochira, A., Avdi, E., Koutri, I., Mylona, et al. (2020). Understanding political participation in media discourse: A social representations approach. Papers on Social Representations, 29(1), 1-34. https://psr.iscte-iul.pt/index.php/PSR/article/view/541
- Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society. New York: Knopf.
- Staerklé, C. (2015). Political psychology. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 18, 427-433.
- Hamlin, A., & Jennings, C. (2011). Expressive political behaviour: Foundations, scope and implications. British Journal of Political Science, 41(3), 645-670.
- Buhagiar, L. J., & Sammut, G. (2020a). ‘Social re-presentation for…’: An action-oriented formula for intergroup relations research. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 352.
- Buhagiar, L. J., & Sammut, G. (2020b). Attitude Measurement. In G. Ritzer & C. Rojek (Eds.), The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos1587
- Hewer, C. J., & Lyons, E. (Eds.). (2018). Political psychology: A social psychological approach. John Wiley & Sons.
- Boswell, J., Corbett, J., Dommett, K., Jennings, W., Flinders, M., Rhodes, R. A. W., & Wood, M. (2019). State of the field: What can political ethnography tell us about anti‐politics and democratic disaffection?. European Journal of Political Research, 58(1), 56-71.
- Nader, Laura (1972) `Up the Anthropologist - Perspectives Gained from Studying Up', in Dell Hymes (ed.) Reinventing Anthropology, pp. 284-311. New York: Pantheon.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture and Seminar

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Presentation SEM1 Yes 35%
Assignment SEM1 Yes 65%

 
LECTURER/S Luke Buhagiar

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

Study at UM

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit