Political Psychology : Cultural and Crosscultural Foundations

Relationships of culture and political psychology shape a wide range of important contemporary political issues. The distinguished contributors to this book make use of diverse theories of psychology, informed by a broadly comparable understanding of the nature of culture. The book is an important landmark in developing the field of political psychology, developing insights from psychological anthropologists, political scientists and crosscultural psychologists. Critical contemporary social, political and cultural issues of ethnic and crosscultural conflict around the world are crying out for theories making use of the powerful lens of culture along with other refractory frameworks. Front Matter....Pages i-xix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Cultural and Crosscultural Political Psychology: Revitalizing a Founding Tradition for a New Subfield....Pages 3-17 The Elusive Concept of Culture and the Vivid Reality of Personality....Pages 18-32 The Relevance of Culture for the Study of Political Psychology....Pages 33-46 Taboo Trade-Offs: Constitutive Prerequisites for Political and Social Life....Pages 47-65 Substance and Method in Cultural and Crosscultural Political Psychology....Pages 66-86 Front Matter....Pages 87-87 Culture, Personality and Prejudice....Pages 89-107 The Political Culture of State Authoritarianism....Pages 108-127 Conflict and Injustice in Intercultural Relations: Insights from the Arab-Israeli and Sino-British Disputes....Pages 128-145 Culture and Ethnic Conflict....Pages 146-155 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 The Political Unconscious: Stories and Politics in Two South American Cultures....Pages 159-181 Cultural Nationalism and Beyond: Crosscultural Political Psychology in Japan....Pages 182-200 Change, Continuity and Culture: The Case of Power Relations in Iran and Japan....Pages 201-216 Value Adaptation to the Imposition and Collapse of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe....Pages 217-237 Front Matter....Pages 239-239 Social Authority and Minority Status: Problems of Internalization and Alienation Among Japanese and Koreans in Diverse Cultural Settings....Pages 241-262 Multicultural Policy and Social Psychology: The Canadian Experience....Pages 263-284 American Character and National Identity: The Dilemmas of Cultural Diversity....Pages 285-310 Back Matter....Pages 311-320 Politics and psychology are defining cores of political psychology. Yet each alone, and both together, are deeply embedded in cultural contexts. Psychology surely permeates political life, but culture pervades both. Drawing on the strongest traditions and most compelling new theoretical developments, this volume brings together internationally distinguished psychologists, anthropologists and political scientists to build the foundation of a truly cultural and crosscultural political psychology. The book is divided into four parts: Foundations of Cultural and Crosscultural Political Psychology; Culture, Psychology and Political Conflict; The Political Psychology of Change in Cultural Regions; and Political Psychology and the Dilemmas of Multiculturalism. In the first part, contributors define the historical and conceptual bases of this new subfield. An innovative forum of expert views on critical methodological issues follows. In the second part, contributors explore the cultural bases of political conflict and ethnocentralism. In the third part, contributors examine political psychology and cultural change in South America, Japan, Iran and Eastern Europe. The final part focuses on the dilemmas of identity and diversity in multicultural societies