A PROBLEM SOLVING PERSPECTIVE OF POLITICS
• FRAMING POLITICAL ISSUES • LIMITED INFO PROCESSORS • SHARED PROBLEM REPRESENTATION • “CONTEXT MATTERS” • INFORMATION • (amount & type) • BIASES
• DECISION-MAKING • LEARNING
Political issues as problems to be FRAMED SOLVED
• What to do about North Korea? • What to do about North Korea?
• RISK ADVERSIVE framing
• RISK SEEKING • framing
People as LIMITED INFORMATION PROCESORS
• WORKING MEMORY • CONSTRAINTS • BITS of information •
•
• WORKING MEMORY • CONSTRAINTS • DIMENSIONS of an • “ill-structured problem” • •
7 + or - 2
3 to 5
How do we cope?
• MENTAL HEURISTICS • (informal rules of thumb)
Example of common heuritics
• Personal • Political
• • What should we do about problem….? • What homework should I do first? • (make minor adjustments to status quo)
Political Decision-Making
• Descriptive models of decision-making: • Most political decision-makers • “find a good enough solution” (not optimal)
• “SATISFICING”
• The status quo as • cognitive anchor • (or bias)
INFORMATION (perceived to be relevant)
• VALID • RELIABLE • TIMELY • • “the CNN effect”
Role of cognitive (mental) BIASES
• LEARNING BIASES • “lessons of history” • REMEMBER • SOMALIA
• REMEMBER • Bosnia (Kosovo)
• REMEMBER • Vietnam
ATTRIBUTIONS (inferences how world “works”l)
• TRAIT ATTRIBUTES • CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS…> • (self) • RELATIONSHIPS • (others) • UNIVERSAL BIAS: •
• FUNDAMENTAL • ATTRIBUTION • ERROR
• self- situtational others - motivations
Cognitions - Political Science
• ATTITUDES • BELIEFS • Ideology
• VALUES
CONTEXT MATTERS
• Classroom • Classroom with visitor • Classroom with Superindentent visiting • POLITICS • Prez with close advisers • Prez with cabinet
• Prez on TV
Political Psychology
• UNITS: • Political Actors • UNITS:Political Actors
• (mico-level)
• individuals • in small groups
• (macro-level) • large aggregates
• (ethnic groups, the public, nation-states)
FOCUS of POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY
• INDIVIDUALS - in SMALL GROUPS • interacting about SPECIFIC PROBLEM in specific SITUATION • POLITICAL decisions w/i a MICROENVIRONMENT • CONSTRAINTS: • effected and impacted by MACOENVIRONMENT • “the sea” (political, economic, cultural, historical, context)
Explanatory factors
• PERSONAL • Biological • Personality • Cognition • Emotions
MOTIVATIONS Personality theories
• Classical Psychoanalytical • Approaches • I.e., FREUD
• Univeral Drives
• “Libido” • Conscious & Unconscious drives
• • • • •
Modern Psycho-biographical Approaches Need for POWER Need for ACHIEVEMENT • Need for AFFLIATION
EMOTIONS
• INDIVIDUAL • ANXIETY • GUILT • DEPRESSION • GROUP “Invisibility”>>>> GROUP THINK • …>SHIFT TO RISK
FACULTIES - skills & abilities
• •
•
PSYCHOLOGY
Experts vs Novices POLITICAL EXPERTS?
• Reputation (image) • “Articulateness” • Interpersonal skills • ****Beliefs*****
Other important factors and contraints
• Habits - B.F. Skinner - 80% all behavior is habit! • Hybrids small group -construct a “shared representation of an ill-structured problem” • CONTEXTUAL FACTORS • Situational • Environmental • Micro • Macro
Microenviornment
• Interpersonal “eyeball to eyeball”
Roles…..(.formal/info rmal norms & expectations) • REFERENCE GROUPS
• ROLES
• • • • • • Multiple roles Focal person (sender) Two-way Situational …..>NORMS & CONSTRAINTS
Information - micro-level (decision-making process)
• Information about the problem & environment • What information most likely to be used? • 3 key attributes
Macroenvrionment
• CONTSTRAINTS • Organizational Structure - type (hierarchy) • position (role) • Economic • “The Sea” history, culture, “temper of the • times:
APPLICATIONS
• BASIC Theories: • BELIEF & ATTITUDE change • GROUP DYNAMICS • POWER of SITUATION • IMPACT perceptions AGGREGATE factors • APPLICATIONS: • Polls, Voting, Propaganda • Effective leadership • Influencing decision outcomes, “agenda” • “damage control”
So which ones are more important?
• SUBJECTIVE or OBJECTIVE factors?
• “it depends”
• individuals (in small groups) working under varying micro and macro constraints
Take a guess
• WHO SAID THIS? • WHEN?
– “TO FIGHT AND CONQUER IN ALL YOUR BATTLES IS NOT SUPREME EXCELLENCE: – SUPREME EXCELLENCE CONSISTS IN BREAKING THE ENEMY’S RESISTANCE WITHOUT FIGHTING”
ANSWER:
– SUN TZU – 500 B.C.
Commander’s Guide to Tactical Psy Ops
• “PSYOP..WAS A GREAT THREAT TO TROOP MORALE. SECOND ONLY TO THE COALITION BOMBING CAMPAIGN”
• •
AN IRAQI GENERAL (after GULF WAR 1991)