Programs Strong in Political Behavior/ Political Psychology

[bmarsh]

Hi,

I'm still a few applications cycles away but am wondering which programs in the Top 15 have strengths/ distinct weaknesses in political behavior/ political psychology.

I would appreciate any thoughts here, as I am still getting the layout of the academic field in this specific niche. I have a particular interest in China, but any professors working on political behavior/expression in authoritarian regimes or the constraints public opinion place on authoritarian decision-makers would be of great relevance. Fascinated by survey experiments and text mining as well.

In my understanding, this niche might mostly pertain to CP and IR sub-fields? 

 

Thanks!

 

[Dwar]

Minnesota (top 25) has a specific political psychology minor field. Link  

[cardinal35]

If you are going off the rankings from US news then Ohio State (ranks 15) also has a "department specialization" in political psychology. Check more about it out here. I assume this is like a minor that Dwar mentioned for Minnesota. I am going for political behavior, public opinion, and political psychology in American Politics. Duke (7) also is unique in the fact that instead of the standard AP, CP, IR, Methods, and Theory fields they offer other fields. One of those is Political Behavior and Identities. This is one that I wanted to apply to, but they were not accepting applications this year because of financial concerns :(. (See all of those here.) Of course, there are even more institutions that offer behavior or psychology in political science. Though not in the top 15, Pittsburgh offers Political Behavior as a field alongside the normal AP, CP, IR, Methods, and Theory. Might would be a good safety school to apply to if you were interested. See more on them here.

[Theory & Quant]

7 hours ago, bmarsh said:

Hi,

I'm still a few applications cycles away but am wondering which programs in the Top 15 have strengths/ distinct weaknesses in political behavior/ political psychology.

I would appreciate any thoughts here, as I am still getting the layout of the academic field in this specific niche. I have a particular interest in China, but any professors working on political behavior/expression in authoritarian regimes or the constraints public opinion place on authoritarian decision-makers would be of great relevance. Fascinated by survey experiments and text mining as well.

In my understanding, this niche might mostly pertain to CP and IR sub-fields? 

 

Thanks!

 

I am not sure whether it would count as top 15, but you may want to have a look at LSE. They have several faculty working in political behaviour / psychology. Though, I am unsure about the intersection with authoritarian regimes (and China in particular). 

[sloth_girl]

Usually the top few programs have people working in Political Psychology (I fall within the Political Behavior category myself with an interest in Political Psychology). Stanford, one of the schools I'm considering, has faculty who do work in this area. Your best bet is to keep up with the CVs of faculty of interest. 

[palindromo202]

Hi! If you are interested in Political Psychology you should definitely look at the PoliSci program at SUNY Stony Brook.

Good luck!

[bmarsh]

All really helpful, thank you!

 

As a general rule for future placement prospects, would it be better to attend a T10 institution with only a limited focus on political behavior in terms of faculty or a program of lesser overall repute but with more of a relevant focus? I figure this could be especially important to keep in mind given the propensity or research interests to shift at least slightly over the 5-6 years!

[uchenyy]

1 hour ago, bmarsh said:

All really helpful, thank you!

 

As a general rule for future placement prospects, would it be better to attend a T10 institution with only a limited focus on political behavior in terms of faculty or a program of lesser overall repute but with more of a relevant focus? I figure this could be especially important to keep in mind given the propensity or research interests to shift at least slightly over the 5-6 years!

How hell-bent are you on studying political psychology? If you're at a T20 institution (e.g., Ohio State) and decide to switch areas , you'll probably be in a better position than if you were at, say, a T30 program (e.g., Stony Brook). Whereas at the former you'll have less of a problem finding a suitable adviser should you decide to switch research areas, that might not be the case at the latter.

Edited March 27, 2020 by uchenyy

[sloth_girl]

On 3/27/2020 at 3:04 PM, bmarsh said:

All really helpful, thank you!

 

As a general rule for future placement prospects, would it be better to attend a T10 institution with only a limited focus on political behavior in terms of faculty or a program of lesser overall repute but with more of a relevant focus? I figure this could be especially important to keep in mind given the propensity or research interests to shift at least slightly over the 5-6 years!

Usually you only want to apply for places with a pretty good "fit," and usually you'll only get into places with a pretty good "fit." That being said, there are a lot of programs with good political behavior faculty both in the T10 and in the T25 or so. Usually specific faculty is what you'll want to look into, though having a major or minor listed for Political Psychology is good as well. As someone also interested in political behavior, I went through the faculty pages/CVs of program in the Top 30. Even just a cursory glance often told me if the department was an adequate "fit" or not. Generally speaking, you want to go somewhere great (T10-15) but also have good fit with faculty in order to perform well on the market. 

[munch22]

To be 100% honest, a "minor" in anything doesn't really mean a thing. Don't think one school prioritizes psych over another because it has a minor. All it means is at some point there were faculty there who had a focus in it and created a minor. Institutional norms and rules last a lot longer then faculty who stay there.

All top 5's have really strong programs (Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley, Umich - although each program has a different "flavor" of political behavior, so definitely take the time to familiarize yourself with what each faculty member is doing there). Beyond that, Columbia, Duke, UNC, UCLA, Davis, Penn, and Vandy all have top faculty doing cutting edge research in some form of political behavior, although most in the US context. Because your specific area of interest is political behavior in China, it will be important to have a mix of faculty doing authoritarian research with a focus on China along with some faculty who study behavior/psych more broadly. Again, read through each faculty members page because political behavior is a broad term; you want to really understand the different sort of avenues each school has. Go to a school that has a good fit within the type of behavior you want to do, and has faculty to match for your area focus.