Psychology of Political Desicionmaking and Leadership

Political psychology sits at the intersection of how people actually think and how political outcomes get produced — this course treats leaders, voters, and groups as cognitive agents whose biases, ideologies, and emotional attachments shape decisions that rational-choice models can't fully explain. You'll work through frameworks for analyzing leadership styles, group dynamics, and belief formation, with a midterm, final, and a project that pushes you to apply these tools to a real case. It's a graduate elective that complements the more institutional or formal-theory side of POLS, and it's especially useful if you're heading toward research on elites, public opinion, or comparative politics.