Aufbauseminar Political Psychology

THE COURSE IS TAUGHT BY A VISITING LECTURER FROM THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, FLORENCE (ITALY). FOR QUESTIONS ON THE COURSE Mr Davide Morisi CAN BE CONTACTED AT: davide.morisi@eui.eu.        This course will review basic and applied research from psychology, political science and decision making. The course will be divided in four days in which the students will receive a broad overview of the foundations of political psychology, in addition to the most recent advances in the field.   Day 1 1. Course introduction and overview - During this class we will assign student's presentations for day 3 and day 4. - Discussion of pre-assigned book (Kahnema, 2011) 2. Rationality, Decision Making, and Prospect Theory 3. Judgment and Heuristics   Day 2   4. Heuristics and Cues Most people know very little about politics. An important question in political psychology is whether they can nevertheless make good political decisions. That is a large part of what we'll discuss today. 5. Framing Framing'' has two very different meanings. Psychologists chiefly study equivalence framing.'' Political scientists chiefly study issue framing.''   Day 3 6. Selective exposure to information The idea that people selectively expose themselves to information that is likely to confirm their prior beliefs is one aspect of motivated reasoning. It has proved controversial in the past, especially where politics is concerned. But evidence in favour of political selective exposure seems to be mounting. 7. Motivated Reasoning   Day 4 8. Affect and Emotion Do we need more than valence affect to explain political behavior? Do emotions matter? 9. Groups and Partisanship 10. The Rationalizing Voter In this class we will discuss the consequences for the practice of political science of treating voters as motivated reasoners. Sozialwiss. - Medien.Pol. (BA, PO 2013) Required Reading before starting the course: Kahneman. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow . New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. This book will introduce you to the core concepts of this course     Assignments: Class presentation and one response paper (around 500 words)     Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2016/17 Dr. Thierse Stefan