Thoughts on Political Psychology

[Zahar Berkut]

For future reference: do any PhD hopefuls know much about political psychology? By which I mean, are those applicants who express at least a side interest in it (as a part of their broader interest in a better established subfield) expected to have a certain undergraduate background in psych? Are there many programs with faculty working between political psychology and a subfield that is not American politics? Are there any risks associated with focusing too much on it?

There's no rush for me personally-- but as I speculate in the long-term, I wonder if it would even be worth it to seek out programs that are strong in political psychology, let alone mention it too much in a personal statement. And if anyone happens to know a lot about this, could you comment on what programs are strong on variants within the field-- cognitive, social, moral, etc?

I only found a few programs that seem to have a special focus on it-- Michigan maybe, Minnesota, U Washington. But that does not mean you need to go to this type of program to actually do work in the field, does it? My impression is it's still more important to choose a program on the basis of your main subfield.

[firefly28]

My broad research area is Political Behavior; I took a Political Psychology undergrad class along with a basic Psychology class. I didn't explicitly mention political psychology in my Apps, but the topics I mentioned are interlinked with the subfield.

[slacktivist]

I'd recommend looking at UC Irvine. They specify political psychology as one of their major subfields and the department as a whole does a lot of interdisciplinary work. You are probably looking at the top 15, but this would be a good program to put in your consideration set.

[firefly28]

Along with UC Irvine, I'd consider University of Minnesota and SUNY Stonybrook. Horrible weather but good programs.

[wtncffts]

On 2/14/2011 at 3:12 PM, firefly28 said:

Along with UC Irvine, I'd consider University of Minnesota and SUNY Stonybrook. Horrible weather but good programs.

Yes, I'd second the Minnesota option. It seems they have a pretty thorough poli psychology program. Of course, I'd know it better if they had admitted me when I applied to that program three years ago...

[Tufnel]

I don't do political psychology but I believe OSU is pretty good. You should, of course, confirm that with someone involved in the area.