From Social to Political Psychology: The Societal Approach

The boundaries between social psychology and political psychology are hard to trace in a sharp way. Indeed, a large amount of research in social psychology has been devoted to issues such as racism (Katz & Hass, Kinder & Sears, 1981; 1988; Pettigrew et al., 1998), prejudice (Allport, 1954; Biernat, Vescio, Theno, & Crandall, 1996; Dovidio & Gaertner, 1986), gender (Hoffmann & Hurst, 1990; Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1998), social justice (Bierhoff, Cohen & Greenberg, 1986; Deutsch, 1985), and nationalism (Billig, 1995; Bar-Tal, 1997). All these issues have an important political component. They are present on political agendas and are subject of political debates and decisions.