Psychology in Policy: Redefining Politics Through The Individual

ISBN-13: 9783031076183 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 108 str.

Kevin R. Carriere

Opis

This book takes an insider perspective of the psychological issues of creating policy. Instead of considering what the products of policy are - often the case in psychological and political science work - this book examines the individual processes present in proposing and engaging with policy. The individual who engages with the policy and its meanings, the individual who resists the policy through conformity, and the individual who writes the policy for their own ideological purposes are all political actors in a psychological system. This book puts forward a cultural political psychology as the psychological study of the process of values, policy, and power dynamics. Through exploring public policy through private policy generation and individual interaction, this book pushes theoretical understandings of policy and activism in new ways. Centering on an individual's own values in facing various policy restrictions from governments, parents, or peers, the importance of examining collective actions and also collective inactions of individuals is noted and expanded on in the text. The book provides applications of its arguments through examining the processes of unionization and actualized democracy. It seeks to point out new research avenues, including the hypogeneralization of values, one's exclusion through activism, and everyday revolutions. This book addresses the centrality of the individual and meaning-making systems when considering where policy, politics, and psychology intersect. This book is primarily addressed to psychologists and political scientists interested in how to make change in public policy. While the experiences within the book are United States-centric, the thoughts and theories behind them are meant to be applicable to a wide variety of political systems. As there is currently very little literature on the topic, this book seeks to fill the gap and offer concise information on such an important dimension of cultural and political psychology. It is expected that the book will be of great interest for researchers in these areas, as well as for graduate-level students. In particular, this book will be relevant to researchers and students working on political psychology, public policy, development, community psychology, social representations, semiotics, activism, and social movements, to name a few.

Spis treści

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: The non-partisan scientist: An illusion in the ever-making

·         Chapter 1: The intersections of psychology and public policy

A large overview of where at contemporary consideration of the intersection of psychology and public policy is – at the results of large studies. However, proposes a shift towards the individual story as the true meeting of public policy. Two stories to consider: The individual who is a part of those large studies – implying a heavier consideration of idiographic methods – but also of the staffers who translate these issues to the Congressperson.

·         Chapter 2: The psychology of political meaning systems

In considering both stories, this chapter examines the political influences of both. While ‘science’ is non-partisan (and discussion on this idea – through expansions of the methodological cycle), the partisanness of human being influences our meaning-systems to always translate science into a partisan manner.

·         Chapter 3: When advice is (not) sought

Once we recognize the importance of the political meaning-systems, issues of demand come into play. The influence of what (the party) desires may at points conflict with what the facts are – and instead of advice on a given issue, instead, advise of how to fit into the prescribed meaning-system is demanded. In this way, psychology finds itself at a border – of wanting to give advice to change, yet at points, being demanded to give advice to stay the course.

·         Chapter 4: Translation, transitions, and trepidation

This chapter discusses the issue of the verbiage of the ivory tower in attempting to seem smart to our colleagues, we often fail to translate the findings to those who matter. In doing so, psychology has created in itself a meaning-system, gate-kept by journals and publication metrics. In its quest for recognition, it has become unrecognizable.

·         Chapter 5: The difficulties of uncertainty

Chapter 5 explores the outcome of Chapter 4 – uncertainty around any given issue. First, I discuss the value of uncertainty – in regression models, in decision making, and in social interactions. I then highlight research that examines how political identity interacts differently with uncertainty. However, for psychology to have its impact – it is exactly here at the moment of uncertainty that similarities across political groups can be found.

·         Chapter 6: The difficulties of application

Chapter 6 deals with the issue of uncertainty by considering a re-embracement of qualitative methods and community psychology research. By looking at the individual story as a method of application, we find ways to reconsider where policy can affect the lives of others the best, and remember that policymakers are also people too.             

·         Conclusion: Psychology’s desire to make a significant impact

The conclusion focuses itself on the theoretical advancements made in the book, discussing issues of political meaning-systems and re-centering the arena under which policy takes place – away from the politicians and towards the staffers and public servants who work (too hard) to understand the science behind it all. In the end, it is the story of the individual – the tangible experience – that drives policy. Recommendations for researchers who wish to engage in such work is provided. 

O autorze

KEVIN R. CARRIERE is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. He was the James Marshall Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, working as a Policy Advisor for then Congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico’s 1^st District. His portfolio covered immigration, foreign policy, criminal justice, and labor. His research interests include increasing intergroup contact through disrupting meta-perceptions, effects of intergroup threat and perceived control on restricting human rights, the motivations and identity formation of collective action, and the perception and reactions to performative and structural activism. His edited books include Where culture and mind meet: Principles for a dynamic cultural psychology and Imagining collective futures: Perspectives from social, cultural, and political psychology. He is the Editorial Director of Culture & Psychology, Editor of the Virtual Series Issues for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and an Associate Editor of Current Psychology.