Political Psychology

Cristian Tileagă is Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology and member of the Discourse and Rhetoric Group at Loughborough University. His research centres on developing critical frameworks for researching social and political behaviour and his research interests include the discursive analysis of political discourse, collective memory, the critical psychology of racism, and social representations of history.

• Introduction: political psychology as an interpretative field; 1. Public opinion and the rhetorical complexity of attitudes; 2. Mass subjectivity, values and democracy promotion; 3. The political psychology of intolerance: authoritarianism, extremism and moral exclusion; 4. Social representations of political affairs and beliefs; 5. From social to political identity: understanding self, intergroup relations and collective action; 6. Collective memory and political narratives; 7. Discourse and politics; 8. Political rhetoric; 9. Mediated politics: political discourse and political communication; Epilogue.

'Cristian Tileagă's impressive new book offers an exciting new vision for political psychology. Moving beyond individualistic paradigms that dominate the work on public opinion, political values, and behaviour, Tileagă argues for a critical and interpretive political psychology that draws on the best that European social psychology has to offer including: discursive and rhetorical psychology, social representations theory, social identity and collective action, narrative and collective memory.' Martha Augoustinos, University of Adelaide