English BulletPoints - Applied social psychology: Understanding and managing social problems van Steg & Buunk - 1st edition

1. Introduction

•  Social psychologists play an important role in fixing and preventing societal problems. They try to understand which behaviour causes the problem, what factors influence the behaviour and they try to make different interventions. For interventions, social psychology and applied psychology are important. Social psychology is the science that tries to understand the core and causes of individual behaviour and thinking in social situations. Applied psychology is the systematic appliance of social psychological constructs, theories, intervention techniques, research methods and research results to understand social problems better or to improve them. Social psychologists have to work often with scientists from another field to make an intervention.

• There are multiple similarities between fundamental and applied social psychology. One of those similarities is to develop and test theories. Another similarity is using scientific methods. There are four important values: accuracy (search and evaluate information carefully), objectivity (minimalizing the bias when getting and evaluating the data), scepticism (the extent to which results are verified determines the accuracy of the results) and open-mindedness (accept the evidence, regardless of the consequences). There are also differences between fundamental and applied social psychology. Fundamental social psychological tries to develop tests and theories and it uses a deductive approach (to research if a theory is useful for understanding social behaviour). Applied social psychology tries to understand practical problems and solve them. It uses an inductive approach (which theories help us to understand a social problem). Applied social psychology is usually applied in the field.

• Within the applied social psychology there are different jobs. There are researcher jobs (to research which factors cause social problems), consultants (assisting groups, individuals and organisations in solving their problems, giving training and coaching) and policy advisor (giving advice to policy makers to change cognitions and behaviour).

2. Using theory

• There are different theories about social influence in psychology. Social influence has to do with the way in which the social environment can influence our thoughts, behaviour and feelings. Some theories look at imitation (automatically, unintentionally cooping someone’s behaviour), other theories look at conformity (changing behaviour to be consistent with real or imagined social expectancies) and other theories look at obedience. Cialdini and Goldstein suggest that people give way to a request when obedience results in attaining goals. Three goals are: developing important social relationships, getting to know oneself and to decrease ambiguity. Obedience is the change of behaviour after an explicit question (Milgram’s experiment). People can react differently on persuading messages. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) gives insight into how people can react on persuading messages. This model is important for interventions. A difference in reacting on persuading messages is caused by the route of conviction. When a message goes via the central route, it is processed elaborately. This is a strong route and it’s resistant to counter arguments. When a message goes via the peripheral route, it isn’t really processed. This is a weak route and someone’s opinion can be easily changed through this route (because the person doesn’t really think much about the strength of the arguments).

• There are also many different theories that have to do with social cognition. Social cognition is the way in which we acquire, organise and interpret social information. people try to explain their own behaviour and the behaviour of others. They can ascribe behaviour to internal attributions (caused by the person himself) or external attributions (caused by the environment). Unfortunately, people are biased and they ascribe their own good behaviour to internal causes and their own bad behaviour to external causes. When we describe the behaviour of others, the opposite is true. This is called the fundamental attribution bias. It is also often the case that people think much better about their own group than about other groups (ingroup bias). This can lead to discrimination. One way to prevent discrimination is the contact hypothesis. Groups need to come in contact with each other and they can then see that not all members of a group are the same and that members of the outgroup are not bad. Other ways to reduce prejudice is by giving the groups an equal status, giving them the same goal, making sure they work together and support from institutions to not be prejudiced.

• One must consider certain things when using theories in applied work. (1) Not all social problems are identical. Many variables need to change to solve a problem. (2) Sometimes, different theories need to be combined, which makes it harder to meet the boundary conditions for each theory. (3) Prediction and explanation are not equally accessible. (4) The complexity of the problem is the complexity of the theory. It is often difficult to apply in the real world, because it exists out of many parts. (5) it’s challenging to recognize the boundary conditions in the real world and it demands a certain extension. Research has two central dimension: research of fundamental understanding (developing knowledge, not considering the applicability) and consideration of use (applied research, with the goal of solving problems and it also adds to theoretical knowledge).

3. Applications and behaviour-focused intervention

• Behaviour analysts try to change behaviour with the help of psychological principles (interventions). The analysts can look at different principles. The three-term contingency means that the sequence of antecedent-behaviour-consequences is used. They can also look at compliance principles: consistency, liking, reciprocity and social prove.

• Some antecedent strategies are education and training, behavioural commitment (people are asked to formally agree with the behavioural change by making a commitment), modelling (showing a particular behaviour to the intended group) and prompts (verbal or written messages). Some consequence strategies are feedback (giving information about behaviour and consequences), penalty’s (identifying undesirable behaviour and giving negative consequences), rewards (a positive consequence after good behaviour) and incentives (antecedents that show the availability of a reward after completing a particular behaviour). There are also disadvantages of giving rewards/punishment. One is that the intended behaviour may stop when the rewards go away and a third disadvantage is that rewards lower the intrinsic motivation.

• Compliance principles are techniques that enhance the chance an individual will comply the request of changing his/her behaviour. There are different compliance techniques. (1) Liking is that we do the things we know and like more easily. We accept opinions from people we know more easily. (2) Consistency is wanting to have internal consistency and a person wants to come over as consistent on others. Some consistency techniques are the foot-in-the-door-technique (someone who has said yes to a small request will be more willing to say yes to a bigger request) and cognitive dissonance (the uncomfortable psychological tension that arises when someone is aware of inconsistencies in his behaviour and attitudes). (3) Reciprocity is the norm that people who received certain advantages from others have to pay these people back. (4) Social evidence is that behaviour is being influenced by the behaviour of others. In unknown situations, a person follows the herd. Social norms are part of social evidence. Social norms are codes of behaviour that give information about how members of a certain group should behave in particular situations. There are descriptive norms (what members from a group typically do) and injunctive norms (what a group approves and disapproves of). People often think that their negative behaviour is caused by situational circumstances and that the negative behaviour of others can be ascribed to stable, internal attitudes. This is called the attribution error. (5) Authority means that people will be more likely to comply to the request of someone with authority than to the request of someone with a lower status. (6) Scarcity has to do with query and offer. When something is difficult to get, it’s value will probably be higher than the value of a thing that is easily acquired. People try to avoid losses, so techniques like a one-day-only sale or shortages in supply work pretty well.

4. Research methods

• A researcher needs to know the unique pros and cons of every research design. He/she also needs to use a research programme with multiple designs in order to compensate for the weaknesses of every method. The researcher needs to conduct research that uses most advantages of every design and minimises the disadvantages of the design. Researchers want a research to be precise, generalizable to situations and generalizable to humans. Unfortunately, maximising one means minimising the other two. This is called the three-horned dilemma.

• There are different research designs. An experimental design is often used in fundamental research to test common theories. Cause and effect relationships can be established by manipulation and random allocation. The precision in experimental designs is high and it can be achieved by removing the influence of a third variable (confound), by removing personal confounds (an individual difference that may influence the dependent variable), this can be done with random allocation; and by removing procedural confounds (when a researcher unknowingly varies two variables or more every time). This can be reduced by conducting the experiment in a lab. A downside of experiment designs is that the generalisability isn’t that high. That’s because the sample is drawn from a homogenous population. The results you find in a lab, might not be found in the real world, because labs are artificial. A quasi-experiment is a combination of some parts of an experiment (high control) and correlational research (no random allocation). There is somewhat control over the independent variable and the allocation to conditions, by means of natural criteria. There is a high level of control over the dependent and external variables. The advantages of a quasi-experiment are that it’s a compromise between experimental and correlational research. It has control over confounds and external variables, and the measures of behaviour are natural. It can be used for independent variables that can’t be manipulated or when it’s not ethical to manipulate them. A disadvantage is that it isn’t really precise and not generalizable to situations. It can also be somewhat artificial.

• Correlational design: a relation between different measured variables in a natural situation. This is especially useful when there can be no manipulation. An advantage is that it maximises generalisability (because the behaviour can be measured in the real world). A disadvantage is the lack of control over the results, because the precision is low. No causality can be established. There is also no generalisability to other people. A survey research collects information of a sample of people that has been systematically selected to represent a bigger population. A survey gives quite accurate information about trends happening in a population. An advantage of a survey is that it’s efficient and flexible (doesn’t cost that much, participants from around the world). Disadvantages are that it doesn’t have precision/control and doesn’t generalise that much to situations. Sampling errors may also occur. It’s best to combine different designs. A disadvantage of combining different designs is that it costs more and takes much time.

5. Economic behaviour

• There are different reasons for people to buy something or to desire something. Utility measures pleasure. Disutility is the negative emotion people want to avoid. Hedonic utility is striving for pleasure and avoiding pain. There are different theories about economic behaviour. The subjective expected utility (SEU) is a dominant theory about making decisions. The costs and advantages of an option are multiplied with the perceived likelihood they will occur. The option with the best net-balance of costs and advantages will be chosen. According to the prospect theory, there is an asymmetrical relationship between wins and losses. Wins and losses are relative concepts and they are evaluated from a reference point. Losses are more painful than wins are pleasurable. When wins and losses occur in a longer period of time, people will adapt to the new situation.

• People have different incomes and they often compare their incomes to each other. People also have different motives when helping others with their welfare. Social reference is the comparison of your own income with that of another. A reference shift can occur: when friends/colleagues earn more for the same job, someone may become unsatisfied with his/her own income. People often use a personal reference: they compare their welfare with the welfare they used to have in the past. After an increase in income, people adapt to this higher income and take this income as their new reference point. People can also be altruistic. They show behaviour to increase the welfare of others, without self-interest. However, this isn’t a pure intention: it’s motivated by wanting a good relationship with people in future transactions. There is egoistic interest in people.

• The prospect theory states that an integrated loss has a smaller negative worth than two or more separate losses. The motivation of people is a loss aversion. The asymmetrical value function is higher for losses than for gains. Loss activates the amygdala (the centre of activation and danger). Sometimes it’s difficult to give up your own product. That’s why people often ask a higher price when they sell a product, then when they would pay for the product. This is called the endowment effect. Giving up a unique product is more difficult than giving up a set of equal items. People sometimes, when there are more options, go for the option they already have (default option). People are sometimes not highly motivated to gain and process all the information about the alternatives they could choose from. Then it’s easier to go for the default option. This is called the status-quo bias.

• Economist and psychologists think differently about economic behaviour. Economists especially use theories about utilisation maximisation under conditions of complete information and stable preferences. Psychologists use more theories and the theories are available to explain and predict behaviour in many situations and domains. The social psychology has to be aware of the boundary conditions of the applicability of these theories. Economy is focused on predicting consumer behaviour. Economists don’t describe actual behaviour, but they offer a normative guide and write how people have to behave. Psychology focuses on describing and predicting behaviour, with taking into account individual differences.

6. Diversity

• People have the need to understand intercultural relationships. Because of globalisation, economic growth, scarcity of the workforce and certain wars (WO II), there is a growing cultural diversity in countries and there is also migration. There are different ideas and theories about the best ways for migrants to adapt to a new culture. Acculturation is the process of adapting to another culture. One dimensional models see the cultural changes as a linear process that goes from original culture to host culture. The own culture is abandoned and people identify more and more with the host culture. It used to be usable, because host societies were more homogenous and immigrants used to be relatively more welcome. The melting pot ideology states that immigrants are allowed to choose their own acculturation and values, but that there is a strong informal pressure to merge in the main culture. This is realistic if the host culture is homogenous. Multidimensional models state that processes of cultural changes take place independently in original- and host cultures.

• Berry thinks that immigrants have to deal with 2 questions. (1) Is it worth keeping my own culture? (2) Is it worth to have relations with the host culture? There are four strategies that can be distinguished on these questions: (1) marginalisation (both questions are not taken into account). (2) integration (keeping cultural identity and a positive relation with the host society). (3) separation (only keeping the own culture is important). (4) assimilation (only a positive relation with the host culture is important. According to some researchers there are more strategies. For example, there is cosmopolitism: selectively accepting elements from different cultures. Interactive acculturation mode of Bourhis: focused on the role of acculturation expectations of the receiving society and the acculturation orientations that are accepted by the immigrants. There are five acculturation orientations. (1) integration, (2) segregation, (3) assimilation, (4) exclusion (this is a variant of marginalisation, immigrants are a threat for the national society) and (5) individualism (this is a variant of marginalisation, individuals see which strategies are the best for them). The similarity between the acculturation preference of the host country and the immigrant doesn’t always match and can cause problems.

• There are different types of societies with groups. There doesn’t have to be a dominant group within a society. Transnationalism looks at the various bonds and interactions people and institutions have with different countries. It refers to the process that immigrants create and maintain various social relations that connect original and new societies with each other. It gets easier when there is good telecommunication and a better geographical proximity. It has more alternatives in life in the new society and there are more possibilities for immigrants to distance themselves from the new society when the identity is threatened. Pluralism encourages a person to keep a culture and intergroup contacts. The cultures are not being mixed, but different groups form a new community. There can be a difference in status, but every group is equally important. The difference with integration: with integration, there is a dual relationship between immigrants and host society. Creolisation means that different cultural groups exist next to each other and there is no clear dominant group. It especially takes place in transnational youths who had their first socialisation on places where different cultural influences come together. The effect is that immigrants form the host culture with certain elements of their own culture and the host culture and they also identify more easily with the national culture.

7. Education

• In the previous thirty years there has been more research on the bridge between education and social psychology. People evaluate each other and compare each other on social concepts. Social comparison arises in the school years. Children see how teachers and parents react to other children. Social comparisons usually arise when someone is 9 or 10 years old. Observational learning is learning through observations. Social comparison can enhance motivation. One of the causes is that individuals identify with their successful comparison person. Another cause is that people take on a higher personal standard when they see that another person is successful. By seeing that others can perform well, individuals can get the feeling that they can also perform well and they confidence in themselves will grow. Festinger thinks that there is a preference in the comparison with others. The equality principle states that people want to compare themselves with others who have the same attitudes.

• Studies conducted in Dutch middle/high schools show that more than 90% of the students compares themselves to others of the same gender. Approximately 60% compares themselves to classmates who’s grades are just above their own. The upward comparison enhances mental gymnastics. Stereotype threat is the threat that confirms a negative stereotype that is associated with the group a person belongs to. Research shows that girls perform worse when they believe that a task measures mathematical skills and when they are in the self-threatening condition (they are told that girls are not good in maths), in comparison to boys, but they perform better in more neutral conditions.

• Most people have either an entity theory or a growth theory. The entity theory states that intelligence is a stable trait and that common accomplishments are restricted by innate attitudes. people with a growth theory believe that they can enhance their accomplishments by effort. Research has shown that it’s better for children to have a teacher who praises efforts than one who praises competence. The Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect states that pupils with equal accomplishments have a lower academic self-concept on schools who focus a lot on academic accomplishments than on schools with a lower focus on academic accomplishments. There are different strategies to prevent a negative academic reputation: (1) not showing the weaknesses of a pupil publicly, (2) a teacher needs to be careful when he gives a test back and (3) students with a positive attitude need to talk about themselves to others.

8. Environmental issues

• Social psychological research used to focus on how the physical environment influences us, now it focuses on how we influence the environment. Environmental psychologists are involved with the planning phase and the formal design of a construct and they also evaluate certain plans and constructs. They look at whether they goals have been reached. Environmental problems are caused by human behaviour and that means that problems can be solved by changing human behaviour. Before you can change a behaviour, you have to look at (1) which behaviour contributes to environmental problems, (2) which factors cause the behaviour and (3) which interventions can promote pro-environmental behaviour.

• Personal norms are activated when people see adverse consequences of their behaviour for others or the environment. This is called awareness of consequence, AC. Ascription of responsibility (AR) means that you see how you can turn the consequences around. People often have a choice conflict: a conflict between a behaviour that’s in their best interest and one that’s in the collective best interest. People often deny their moral obligations to behave in a pro-environmental way and in that way they try to justify them not being environmental friendly. They can do this in different ways: (1) ignore, change or minimise the environmental problems (selectively using scientific articles), (2) not thinking about the obligation they have (people often think that their contribution is small and that it won’t be noticed), (3) denying personal competence to perform pro-environmental behaviour and (4) thinking that pro-environmental behaviour isn’t effective enough to change environmental problems.

• Different strategies can be used to change human behaviours. Consequence strategies award good behaviour and punish bad behaviour. They are most effective when they can start behavioural change. People will then ascribe behavioural change to personal convictions. The stimulation to do something you really want is sometimes stronger than the motivation to show pro-environmental behaviour. The availability and quality of products may also be changed. Legal measures can be used, but these are only effective when the rules and laws are accepted and enforced by the people and when there are sanctions for not behaving according to the laws and rules. A fine can be paid when one doesn’t act according to behaviour rules. Interventions can be aimed at motivation, cognitions, norms and perceptions. There are also antecedent strategies. These strategies try to not ensure that the behaviour doesn’t occur in the first place. Information can be given and behavioural commitment can occur.

9. Gender issues

• Gender is about the expectancies a person has about being a man or woman. At the beginning of the 20th century, people thought that women were less intelligent than men and physically unfit for different types of jobs. Later research has shown that biology is not an important factor and that the gender differences are not as big as psychologists first thought them to be. Social influences play a big role in causing the gender differences in work behaviour. There are gender differences in work situations. these are qualitative (the type of work men and women perform) and quantitative (how much work and how much pay) in nature. Less women than men work in high organisational functions (qualitative) and men work more hours than women (quantitative). In the workplace, there can be a glass ceiling: a difficult, invisible barrier that keeps skilled women from reaching the top. The difference in participation or income between men and women is called gender gap.

• People have gender stereotypes. These are expectations about the typical characteristics and behaviours of men and women. We often think that men are masculine: aggressive, independent and decisive. We see women as feminine: emotional, helpful and kind. Certain biases can arise because our ideas about gender. A descriptive bias occurs when gender stereotypes lead to the expectation that women have no mail characteristics that are needed for a certain job. A prescriptive bias occurs when someone behaves in a way that goes against the stereotype. For example, when a woman presents herself in a promoting way. Because of the existing stereotypes about men and women, leader positions are less often given to a woman. Research did however show that women are better in leader roles when the roles are characterised in a less masculine manner. However, research has also show that when women are successful in a male job, their success doesn´t add to their overall status, while for a man that would have been the case.

• People have certain ideas about their effectivity. Those are task/specific judgments about your competence to perform a certain task. Gender differences about effectivity are developed at an early age and are strongly associated to gender stereotypes for jobs. Women have more negative views about effectivity than men, are motivated to avoid failure (women focus on performing well, men focus on doing the correct thing), perform less challenging tasks in a performance situation and if people negotiate about the number of tasks, women end up with less tasks than men.

10. Health and illness

• People in different countries have different life expectancies. Life expectancies are based on statistics and they give the average age that a certain population has. The life expectancy can be an important indicator of diseases and health. However, the factors that influence health and life expectancy depends on the country. In developmental countries, the factors are child death, undernourishment, infections and housing. In developed countries, the factors are lifestyle choices (smoking/diet). These factors can lead to chronical diseases. In developed countries, people suffer longer from chronical diseases, because they live longer in these countries and because there is effective medicine which keeps them alive. Social psychologists can contribute to health, by primary prevention: by preventing people from behaving in an unhealthy manner. Social psychologists research how people who are unhealthy, can be persuaded to change their behaviour. They also research how people can be promoted to keep using their medication.

• There are many health models (Health Belief Model, Health Action Process Approach and Protection Motivation Theory) that explain healthy and unhealthy behaviour and almost every model looks at two common psychological categories: own efficacy beliefs about certain behaviour and the motivation to perform a certain behaviour. Own efficacy is the belief people have about being able to perform a certain behaviour or task. When a person has a high efficacy belief, he/she will be more motivated to behave in a healthy way. The motivation for healthy behaviour is primarily based on avoiding dangers of unhealthy behaviour, but the advantages of health are also seen as important. In motivation, positive outcome expectations play a role. These are the beliefs about the advantages that changing a certain behaviour will have. When a person thinks that changing a certain behaviour will give him/her more positive results, he/she will be more motivated to change the behaviour. Gain-frame appeal messages focus on showing the advantages of a certain behaviour. It looks at preventing certain types of behaviour. Loss-frame appeal messages look at the costs that a failure of performing the behaviour has. This looks more at screening behaviour.

• People can perceive symptoms in different ways and give their own meaning to symptoms. The social context has an influence on the perception of symptoms. People are often influenced by the doctor/patient relationship and the social environment. People will more likely listen to someone they know than someone they don’t know. The social context also plays a role in the willingness to change the behaviour. The Trans Theoretical Model has five successive stages of behaviour change: (1) pre-contemplation phase (no motivation to change behaviour), (2) contemplation phase (one thinks about changing behaviour, but actually doing it is being pushed back), (3) preparation phase (planning to accept new behaviour on the short-term), (4) action phase (performing the behavioural change) and (5) maintenance phase (integration of new behaviour in lives). A phase can’t be skipped, but you can fall back to an earlier phase. To go to the next phase, you need to perform task-specific behaviours in the phase you are in.

11. Mental health

• Mental health disorders are the most common problems in adults. In Western societies, depression is a big problem. Depressions can arise out of the nowhere or after a stressful event. Most depressions are not treated. Women experience more stress and depression after a certain event than men do. Some theoretical explanations for this are that women have less power than men in most societies. They have more chronical tensions, they have to make more forced choices and have a higher risk of being sexually assaulted during their childhood than men do. According to some, women are also more vulnerable for depression because of certain unique biological characteristics. Besides depression, ones mental health can also deteriorate when having a negative body image. This occurs mostly in Western societies (the media is one of the causes). Problems with the body image can cause eating disorders or self-mutilation.

• According to the stress theory, there are two types of coping strategies: problem-focused coping (try to change the source of the stress, it goes together with less depressed symptoms and is especially used by men) and emotion focused coping (regulation of emotional reactions on the stressor, especially used by women). The social comparison theory states that social comparison processes are important links between the social environment and the evaluations about someone. Depressive people search for negative comparison goals: they use more upward comparisons, which emphasise their inferiority. Adverse social comparison strategies make people vulnerable to depression and they are activated early on in life. The theory of involuntary subordinate strategies is a combination of the social comparison theory and the evolutionary psychological perspective. When a loss in the rank is experienced, social comparisons to other people with a higher status will result in more feelings of worthlessness, depression and fear.

• Cognitive behaviour programmes are meant for adolescents. They are effective in reducing the risk of developing depression. You learn to identify pessimistic thought and the evaluate them by thinking of alternatives. Governmental campaigns can reduce the costs of depression for the society. Short intervention programmes are effective in reducing feelings of helplessness and inferiority. People with depression often think that it will take much effort to get out of the depression. If other people can do it in a short time, they can do it as well. Interventions for a low body image need to be directed at children and adolescents in order for them to reach adolescents with confidence and a higher level of autonomy. This functions as a buffer against social-cultural influences on the body image. The interventions may also look at the attachment styles the children had to their mother.

12. Organisations

• Collaboration processes are used by companies to stay effective in changing and insecure situations. It often takes place in small and temporary work teams. An advantage of this is that this context challenges workers. A disadvantage is that a temporary and flexible forms of collaboration don’t provide a social context in which people feel safe and at home. The workforce has changed. Because of migration, growth in international tasks and more women in management, the structure is more heterogeneous. The age has also increased. An advantage of this is that more creative and better decisions are being taken. A disadvantage is that people have to deal with norms and values that are different from one’s own norms and values. Different people in a team can increase the group creativity. Because of this, more flexible and original thoughts can be created and new and better ways for doing something in a company are found. Some workers might show resistance against change (conservatism). They will try to focus on ideas that are already familiar for everyone. Sometimes it’s also good that not too many ideas are created.

• According to the Social identity theory (SIT), people ascribe a big part of their identity to the group they belong to. Social identity: people have a need to have a positive feeling of self-worth and they want to assimilate information of the ingroup and contrast information from the outgroup. Being part of a company, will give you an important social identity, will create solidarity, will create goals and give rewards for achieving these goals. It has positive effects, like more effort to achieve goals, satisfaction with work and connectedness. Forming subgroups within teams will reduce a bit of these positive effects. The differences between these subgroups will result in fragmentation, and this in turn will cause lower trust in the group. Subgroups need to be recategorized.

• Lewin thinks that all activities in groups develop around two processes. Movement goals state that members have a need to reach groups goals and cohesion goals are goals that have to do with safety and solidarity. People first need to achieve a solidarity goal, before they can reach a movement goal. High cohesion means that there is a sense of invulnerability, no discussion and fast agreement. Low cohesion means there is insecurity about group norms and expectations, a forming of subgroups, conflict and low achievement. Movement can be promoted by stimulating the members to give their own opinion in a group.

13. Politics

• There are different types of research on the topic of politics psychologists can conduct. Political research isn’t directly about politics, but it contributes to our understanding of political processes. Psychological theories are applied to politics, but they aren’t primary meant to explain political phenomenon. Research that focuses on political phenomenon can also be applied outside the area of politics. Psychological research on politics can be focused on why people vote for certain leaders, why some people don’t vote at all and research can also be conducted on the differences between leaders and left-voters and right-voters. For the latter, the Big Five can be used. It appears that left-voters score higher on openness and right-voters score higher on conscientiousness.

• Political leadership is often researched by looking at autobiographical sources (related to personality traits) and/or by looking at interviews and speeches. We call this type of analysis content analysis. Winter looked at opening speeches of US presidents. He looked at their motives. The research show that popularity is influenced by the match between the motive score compared to the society at that moment. Achievement is influenced by leadership characteristics. Next to leadership, there are also other factors that can influence the choice of a leader. One of these factors is the public opinion.

• Much research has been conducted on the reason why people don’t vote. According to the Rational choice theory, people don’t vote because they think that the chance their vote will change something, is very low. Other research shows that other people do vote, because they see it as their obligation (social norm). The theory of reasoned action thinks that the intention to behave in a certain way is the defining factor for behaviour. The Michigan model of voting is the most important theory about voting behaviour. It identifies the attitudes that influence voting.