Psychology of Political Behavior in a Time of Change

Jan D. Sinnott, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Towson University in Baltimore, MD, and a Licensed Psychologist. She specializes in Lifespan Positive Development and the applications of existential, transpersonal, mind-body and positive psychology to adult growth and development.  After completing a Postdoc at the National Institute on Aging, she developed her theory of complex problem-solving in adulthood, termed Complex Postformal Thought. She has authored or co-authored over 125 scholarly and applied books and publications. Her research team is currently studying Complex Problem-solving, Concepts of the Self, Intelligence, and Mindfulness.  Her recent books include: Positive Psychology: Advances in Understanding Adult Motivation (2013, Springer), Adult Development: Cognitive Aspects of Thriving Close Relationships (2014, Oxford University Press), and Identity Flexibility During Adulthood: Perspectives in Adult Development (2017, Springer).Joan S. Rabin, PhD, isa retired Associate Professor of Psychology at Towson University in Baltimore, MD. She served on advisory committees for both the major in Animal Behavior and the minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies at Towson, and has 20 publications and 40 conference presentations on the behavior of tropical sand fishes as well as issues relating to gender, diversity, the lesbian experience, and the relationship between biology and behavior. As a bio-psychologist she spent many years doing scuba-based research on sand-dwelling tropical fishes with Dr. Eugenie Clark of the University of Maryland and Mote Marine Laboratory, and as a participant in the birth of the Women’s Studies Program at Towson, Dr. Rabin created courses in Sex Differences: Psychological Perspectives, Gender Identity in Transition, and the Psychology of Diversity. She served as project director for research in the Red Sea (Egypt), Bismarck Sea (Papua New Guinea), as well as numerous sites in the Caribbean, Belize and the Netherlands Antilles. Her most recent research trip (2015) was to the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific.

• 1Introduction.- 2Blue brain, red brain: The biopsychology of political beliefs and behaviors.- 3Behavioral epigenetics: The underpinnings of political psychology.- 4How diversity in nature impacts political psychology.- 5Psychology, politics and complex thought: A time for postformal thought in politics.- 6How do cognitive styles influence political attitudes?  A joint consideration of dual-process model and construal level theory.- 7  Understanding polarization through a cognitive lens.- 8Postformal psychology: The new normal in times of exponential change.- 9Political cognition: The unconscious mechanisms underlying political beliefs and actions.- 10How psychological processes impact voter decision making.- 11How belief in conspiracy theories addresses some basic human needs.- 12Why is populism so robustly associated with conspiratorial thinking?  Collective thinking and the meaning maintenance model.- 13Pathways to social connection and civility in a time of political and social polarization.- 14Voice and votes: Gender, power and politics.- 15Political identity development in a changing world.- 16Nonverbal cues in leadership.- 17Inclusion of conservatives in science: Acknowledging liberal and conservative social cognition to improve public science attitudes.- 18Can we deliberate?  How motivated reasoning undermines Democratic deliberation and what we can do about it.- 19American national identity: Issues of race, culture, social class, gender and politics affected by social change.- 20"Authoritarian responses to social change: Psychological mechanisms underlying the election of Donald Trump.- 21Psychological mechanisms underlying the populist threat to democracy.- 22Trumped: Making sense of the “Narcissist-in-Chief”.- 23Psychological reactions to “House of Cards”: The role of transportation and identification.- 24Political betrayal, political agency, and international politics.- 25(De)humanization of Muslim immigrants: Newspaper discourse and public responses during the UK 2015 general election.- 26Quantitative and qualitative methods of predicting geopolitical events.- 27Control and counter-control in Brazilian public policies: Conjectures from a humanist-contextualist behaviorism.