What shapes political behavior more: the situations in which individuals find themselves, or the internal psychological makeup—beliefs, values, and so on—of those individuals? This is perhaps the leading division within the psychological study of politics today. Political Psychology: Situations, Individuals, and Cases, 3rd edition, provides a concise, readable, and conceptually organized introduction to the topic of political psychology by examining this very question. Using this situationism—dispositionism framework—which roughly parallels the concerns of social psychology and cognitive neuroscience—this book focuses on such key explanatory mechanisms as emotion, cognition, neuropolitics, genopolitics, personality, beliefs and social identities to explore topics ranging from voting behavior and racism to terrorism and international relations.

The new edition is completely revised and contains new chapters to introduce and conclude the book, as well as fundamentally updated material on (for instance) foreign policy decision-making and electoral choice. Houghton has also updated the text to bring us into the era of Donald J. Trump, to pick apart the results of the 2024 US presidential election, and to include up-and-coming research in the areas of neuropolitics and genopolitics. Houghton's clear and engaging examples directly challenge students to place themselves in both real and hypothetical situations which involve intense moral and political dilemmas. This highly readable text will provide students with the conceptual foundation they need to make sense of the rapidly changing and increasingly important field of political psychology.