Political Ideology : Its Structure, Functions, and Elective Affinities

Political Ideology : Its Structure, Functions, and Elective Affinities

Ideology has re-emerged as an important topic of inquiry among social, personality, and political psychologists. In this review, we examine recent theory and research concerning the structure, contents, and functions of ideological belief systems. We begin by defining the construct and placing it in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of psychology Vol. 60; no. 1; pp. 307 - 337
Main Authors: JEST, John T, FEDERICO, Christopher M, NAPIER, Andjaime L
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Palo Alto, CA Annual Reviews 2009
Annual Reviews, Inc
Subjects:
Attitude
Authoritarianism
Behavior. Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
Culture
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Ideology
Individuality
Motivation
Opinions
Personality
Politics
Prejudice
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social Environment
Social Identification
Social Problems - psychology
Social psychology
Social Values
United States
United States
Human
authritarianism
Political attitude
political orientation
Motivation
Ideology
system justification
Review
Authoritarianism
Social cognition
motivated social cognition
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Summary:Ideology has re-emerged as an important topic of inquiry among social, personality, and political psychologists. In this review, we examine recent theory and research concerning the structure, contents, and functions of ideological belief systems. We begin by defining the construct and placing it in historical and philosophical context. We then examine different perspectives on how many (and what types of) dimensions individuals use to organize their political opinions. We investigate (a) how and to what extent individuals acquire the discursive contents associated with various ideologies, and (b) the social-psychological functions that these ideologies serve for those who adopt them. Our review highlights "elective affinities" between situational and dispositional needs of individuals and groups and the structure and contents of specific ideologies. Finally, we consider the consequences of ideology, especially with respect to attitudes, evaluations, and processes of system justification.
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ISSN:0066-4308
1545-2085
DOI:10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163600