This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

ATS2256 - Political psychology

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Arts

Organisational Unit

Politics and International Relations

Coordinator(s)

Mr Shaun Ratcliff

Offered

Clayton

Second semester 2016 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit offers a broad overview of political psychology, and introduces a new perspective on how to understand the political world around us. The objectives of the unit are to first introduce students to key concepts from psychology that are relevant to politics (e.g., personality, social identity, the dynamics of social groups, the role of emotions, etc.), and second, to apply these concepts to various topics within political science, including leadership, race and inter-group relations, the formation of opinions and ideologies, political violence, media and political advertising, etc.

Outcomes

Understand broad findings from psychology (and other related disciplines) and be able to apply them to political science questions;
Understand the complex interplay between psychological factors, social context, and politics;
Apply relevant theories in order to explain and predict political behaviour.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 60%
Exam: 40%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Mr Shaun Ratcliff

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Behavioural studies
Politics