ABSTRACT
Political psychology, along with the rest of the social sciences, is at something of a crossroads. In part, this is an internal matter-the result of the exhaustion of existing paradigms. The product of psychological or sociological theorizing of the early and mid-20th century, these research paradigms have oriented political psychological research for most of the last 50 years. They did so because they were heuristically valuable and because they yielded considerable insight into the nature of political thought and behavior. Now, however, there is an increasing awareness that most of what can be done within these frameworks has indeed been accomplished. In response, there is a call for new direction emerging from within political psychology. The contributions in this volume by Robert Lane, David Winter, and Kristen Monroe are good examples of this.
