Guides: Political Science: Political Psychology

Introduction

Political psychology focuses on the role human thinking and emotions play in political choice and behavior. Here are a few suggestions for starting your political psychology research:

Use a subject encyclopedia such as the SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior.
Search for articles in a general database such as EBSCO Mega File.
Use psychology subject databases such as APA PsycINFO to locate psychological journals and information.

For more in-depth overviews of psychology resources including, recommended databases, reference resources, literature reviews, recommended video resources, and tests & measures, please see the Penn Libraries Psychology research guide

Key Reference: Political Psychology

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior
Explores the intersection of psychology, political science, sociology, and human behavior. This encyclopedia integrates theories, research, and case studies from a variety of disciplines that inform this established area of study. Covers voting patterns, interactions between groups, what makes different types of government systems appealing to different societies, and the impact of early childhood development on political beliefs, among others.
The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology
Focuses on political psychology at the individual level (genes, early childhood, personality, decision-making, emotions, values, ideology) and the collective (group identity, social justice, mass mobilization, political violence, prejudice reduction), this interdisciplinary volume covers models of the mass public and political elites and addresses both domestic issues and foreign policy. It provides up-to-date, comprehensive, and expertly distilled accounts of cutting-edge research within both psychology and political science.
The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior
Provides a comprehensive review of the cross-national literature on citizen behavior and the relationship between citizens and their governments. The Handbook is one of The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science.

Core Academic Journals: Political Psychology

Journal Citation Reports (JCR) allows you to evaluate and compare journals using citation data from approximately 12,000 journals from publishers in over 80 countries. You can use JCR to find the best journals published within specific research areas. The following journals are listed in the JCR Political Science category as the most cited, best-quality journals in the areas of political psychology. If you would like to review the JCR list of the top-cited political science journals in the last year, go to Journal Citation Reports and choose: Categories > Social Sciences, General > Political Science.

Political Psychology
The journal of the International Society of Political Psychology is dedicated to the analysis of the interrelationships between psychological and political processes. International contributors draw on a diverse range of sources, including cognitive psychology, economics, history, international relations, philosophy, political science, political theory, sociology, personality social, and clinical psychology.
Political Behavior
Publishes original research in the general fields of political behavior, institutions, processes, and policies. Coverage focuses on the conventional and unconventional political behavior of individuals or small groups, and of large organizations that participate in the political process such as parties, interest groups, political action committees, governmental agencies, and mass media.
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
A peer-reviewed open-access journal (without author fees). It publishes articles at the intersection of social and political psychology from different epistemological, methodological, theoretical, and cultural perspectives and from different regions across the globe that substantially advance the understanding of social problems, their reduction, and the promotion of social justice.

Subject Databases: Psychology

PsyArXiv
PsyArXiv is an open-access, preprint digital archive dedicated to psychological science that gives the public free, first-hand access to new science.
PsycINFO
The American Psychological Association's comprehensive indexing and abstracting service for professional and scholarly literature in the fields of psychological and behavioral sciences. *Please note, the search filter for 'anywhere' does not include a search of the full-text. It only includes a search of the item's descriptive details/ metadata fields.
PsycNET (with PsycINFO)
APA PsycNET is an integrated collection of databases from the American Psychological Association (APA), including the following: PsycINFO, PsycBOOKS, PsycTESTS, PsycTHERAPY, PsycARTICLES, and PsycEXTRA.