Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology
- The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Part I Foundations of Political Psychology
- 1 Political Psychology
- 2 The Evolutionary Basis of Political Ideology
- 3 Genetic Contributions to Political Phenomena
- 4 The Psychology and Neuroscience of Partisanship
- 5 The Personality Basis of Political Preferences
- 6 The Structure, Prevalence, and Nature of Mass Belief Systems
- 7 The Psychology of Public Opinion
- 8 Rational Choice and Information Processing
- 9 Emotions and Politics
- 10 The Developmental Science of Politics
- Part II The Politics of Intergroup Attitudes
- Part III Contemporary Challenges to Democracy
- Part IV Diversifying Perspectives in Political Psychology
- Index
- References
10 - The Developmental Science of Politics
Insights from the 2016 US Presidential Election
from Part I - Foundations of Political Psychology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2022
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology
- The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Part I Foundations of Political Psychology
- 1 Political Psychology
- 2 The Evolutionary Basis of Political Ideology
- 3 Genetic Contributions to Political Phenomena
- 4 The Psychology and Neuroscience of Partisanship
- 5 The Personality Basis of Political Preferences
- 6 The Structure, Prevalence, and Nature of Mass Belief Systems
- 7 The Psychology of Public Opinion
- 8 Rational Choice and Information Processing
- 9 Emotions and Politics
- 10 The Developmental Science of Politics
- Part II The Politics of Intergroup Attitudes
- Part III Contemporary Challenges to Democracy
- Part IV Diversifying Perspectives in Political Psychology
- Index
- References
Summary
The primary topic of our chapter is the need for possible theoretical foundations of, and empirical approaches to, a developmental science of politics. We demonstrate the utility of studying political socialisation surrounding presidential elections by describing the results of a large study of US elementary-school-age children’s views of the 2016 US presidential election. We review some potential sources of influence on children's political knowledge and attitudes, highlighting the role of gender, and we speculate about the beliefs that children may have internalised from watching the 2016 election. Finally, we argue that US institutions and parents should strive to improve children's political socialisation by, for example, providing youth with environments that are rich in information related to the purpose and value of politics, and ripe with opportunities and encouragement for political thought and action.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology , pp. 159 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
Allen, G. L. (1994). The growth of children’s political knowledge during an election year. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40(3), 356–377. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23087350Google Scholar
Andolina, M. W., Jenkins, K., Zukin, C., & Keeter, S. (2003). Habits from home, lessons from school: Influences on youth civic development. PS: Political Science and Politics, 36(2), 275–280. https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909650300221XGoogle Scholar
Barrett, M. D., Born, M., Macek, P., et al. (2018). Processes influencing democratic ownership and participation (PIDOP) in nine European countries, 2009–2012. Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37137.v1Google Scholar
Beck, P. M., & Jennings, M. K. (1982). Pathways to participation. American Political Science Review, 76(1), 94–108. https://doi.org/10.2307/1960445CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bigler, R. S., Arthur, A. E., Hughes, J. M., & Patterson, M. M. (2008). The politics of race and gender: Children’s perceptions of discrimination and the U.S. presidency. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 8(1), 83–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2008.00161.xGoogle Scholar
Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L. S. (2007). Developmental intergroup theory: Explaining and reducing children’s social stereotyping and prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(3), 162–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00496.xGoogle Scholar
Bigler, R. S., & Wright, Y. F. (2014). Reading, writing, arithmetic, and racism? Risks and benefits to teaching children about intergroup biases. Child Development Perspectives, 8(1), 18–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12057Google Scholar
Bishop, B. (2008). The big sort: Why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.47-2303Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, C. S. (2017). Discrimination in childhood and adolescence: A developmental intergroup approach. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315208381Google Scholar
Brown, C. S., Alabi, B., Hyunh, V., & Masten, C. (2011). Ethnicity and gender in late childhood and early adolescence: Group identity and awareness of bias. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 463–471. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021819CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, C. S., & Lee, C. A. (2015). Impressions of immigration: Comparisons between immigrant and nonimmigrant children’s immigration beliefs. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 15(1), 160–176. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12067Google Scholar
Cho, J., & McLeod, D. M. (2007). Structural antecedents to knowledge and participation: Extending the knowledge gap concept to participation. Journal of Communication, 57(2), 205–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00340.xGoogle Scholar
Conway, M. M., Ahern, D., & Wyckoff, M. L. (1981). The mass media and changes in adolescents’ political knowledge during an election cycle. Political Behavior, 3, 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00989956Google Scholar
DellaVigna, S., & Kaplan, E. (2007). The Fox News effect: Media bias and voting. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1187–1234. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1187Google Scholar
Diekman, A. B., & Schneider, M. C. (2010). A social role theory perspective on gender gaps in political attitudes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34(4), 486–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2010.01598.xGoogle Scholar
Fox, R. L., & Lawless, J. L. (2004). Entering the arena? Gender and the decision to run for office. American Journal of Political Science, 48(2), 264–280.Google Scholar
Gainous, J., & Wagner, K. M. (2014). Tweeting to power: The social media revolution in American politics. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Galston, W. A. (2001). Political knowledge, political engagement, and civic education. Annual Review of Political Science, 4, 217–234. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.4.1.217Google Scholar
Geller, R. C. (2020). Teacher political disclosure in contentious times: A ‘responsibility to speak up’ or ‘fair and balanced’? Theory & Research in Social Education, 48(2), 182–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2020.1740125Google Scholar
Gerber, A. S., Huber, G. A., Doherty, D., Dowling, C. M., & Ha, S. E. (2010). Personality and political attitudes: Relationships across issue domains and political contexts. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055410000031Google Scholar
Hess, D. E., & McAvoy, P. (2016). The political classroom: Evidence and ethics in democratic education. Routledge.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315738871Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, R., Plutzer, E., & Sprague, J. (1993). Alternative contexts of political behavior: Churches, neighborhoods, and individuals. The Journal of Politics, 55(2), 365–381. https://doi.org/10.2307/2132270Google Scholar
Hughes, J. M., & Bigler, R. S. (2011). Predictors of African American and European American adolescents’ endorsement of race-conscious social policies. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 479–492. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021309Google Scholar
Junn, J., & Masuoka, N. (2020). The gender gap is a race gap: Women voters in US presidential elections. Perspectives on Politics, 18(4), 1135–1145. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592719003876Google Scholar
Leshin, R. A., Vraneski-Shachnai, R., & Cimpian, A. (2019, March). Are presidents bossy? Boys’ and girls’ concepts of presidents differentially predict political aspirations [Poster presented at the 2019 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Baltimore, MD].Google Scholar
Liben, L. S., Bigler, R. S., Ruble, D. N., Martin, C. L., & Powlishta, K. K. (2002). The developmental course of gender differentiation: Conceptualizing, measuring, and evaluating constructs and pathways. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 67(2), i–183.Google Scholar
Lizotte, M. (2017). Gender differences in American political behavior. Scholars Strategy Network. https://scholars.org/contribution/gender-differences-american-political-behaviorGoogle Scholar
McDevitt, M. (2005). The partisan child: Developmental provocation as a model of political socialization. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 18(1), 67–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edh079CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McIntosh, H., Hart, D., & Youniss, J. (2007). The influence of family political discussion on youth civic development: Which parent qualities matter? PS: Political Science & Politics, 40(3), 495–499. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096507070758Google Scholar
Orfield, G., Kucsera, J., & Siegel-Hawley, G. (2012). E pluribus…separation: Deepening double segregation for more students. The Civil Rights Project. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/mlk-nationalGoogle Scholar
Owen, D., & Dennis, J. (1988). Gender differences in the politicization of American children. Women & Politics, 8(1), 23–43. https://doi.org/10.1300/J014v08n02_02Google Scholar
Pacheco, J. S. (2008). Political socialization in context: The effect of political competition on youth voter turnout. Political Behavior, 30(4), 415–436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-008-9057-xGoogle Scholar
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble: How the new personalized web is changing what we read and how we think. Penguin.Google Scholar
Patterson, M. M., Bigler, R. S., Pahlke, E., et al. (2019). Toward a developmental science of politics. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 84(3), 7–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12410Google Scholar
Patterson, M. M., Pahlke, E., & Bigler, R. S. (2013). Witnesses to history: Children’s views of race in the 2008 United States presidential election. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 13(1), 186–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2012.01303.xGoogle Scholar
Payne, K. A., & Journell, W. (2019). ‘We have those kinds of conversations here…’: Addressing contentious politics with elementary students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 79, 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TATE.2018.12.008Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. (2017, May 15). U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/15/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/Google Scholar
Rideout, V. (2017). The common sense census: Media use by kids age zero to eight. Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/csm_zerotoeight_fullreport_release_2.pdfGoogle Scholar
Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G., & Roberts, D. F. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfmGoogle Scholar
Sears, D. O., & Valentino, N. A. (1997). Politics matters: Political events as catalysts for preadult socialization. American Political Science Review, 91(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.2307/2952258Google Scholar
Simon, A. (2017). How can we explain the gender gap in children’s political knowledge? American Behavioral Scientist, 61(2), 222–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764216689123Google Scholar
Stewart, E. A., Baumer, E. P., Brunson, R. K., & Simons, R. L. (2009). Neighborhood racial context and perceptions of police-based racial discrimination among Black youth. Criminology, 47(3), 847–887. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2009.00159.xGoogle Scholar
Sugarman, S. (2007). If kids could vote: Children, democracy, and the media. Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. MIT Press.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. (2017). Voting in America: A look at the 2016 presidential election. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2017/05/voting_in_america.htmlGoogle Scholar
van Deth, J. W., Abendschön, S., & Vollmar, M. (2011). Children and politics: An empirical reassessment of early political socialization. Political Psychology, 32(1), 147–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00798.xGoogle Scholar
Wolak, J., & McDevitt, M. (2011). The roots of the gender gap in political knowledge in adolescence. Political Behavior, 33(3), 505–533. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11109-010-9142-9Google Scholar
Zelezny, L. C., Chua, P. P., & Aldrich, C. (2000). New ways of thinking about environmentalism: Elaborating on gender differences in environmentalism. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 443–457. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00177CrossRefGoogle Scholar