Political Psychology
shohreh pirani; Sajjad sharifasgari
Abstract
Mossadegh is an influential figure in the modern history of Iran, whose anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian actions in the field of nationalizing the oil industry and confronting the policies of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah are well recalled by Iranians. Most writings on Mossadegh believe that Mossadegh's ...
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Mossadegh is an influential figure in the modern history of Iran, whose anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian actions in the field of nationalizing the oil industry and confronting the policies of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah are well recalled by Iranians. Most writings on Mossadegh believe that Mossadegh's failure to advance the rights of the Iranian people, both nationally and internationally arenas was due to the actions and conspiracies of his domestic and international enemies and opponents, and few writings attribute this problem to the personality of Mossadegh and his decisive style. In this article, to examine Mossadegh's character based on oral history and books published about Mossadegh's life, we are looking for an answer to the question of how Mossadegh's personality influenced macro-political decisions and the type of interaction he had with the people. To this purpose, our method in this article is a qualitative document analysis based on library resources. To achieve the goal of this work is a combination of the type of personality theory of Karen Horney's and the personality model of C. G. Jung.
Political Sociology
Reza Rastegarpour; Hasan Shafiee; Mohammad Reza Dehshiri
Abstract
Researchers, political parties and groups, and states have always been interested to understand the behavior and mental processes influencing the political choice, the reasons underlying participation or non-participation, and the behavior and motivation of voters. In addition to the contextual factors ...
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Researchers, political parties and groups, and states have always been interested to understand the behavior and mental processes influencing the political choice, the reasons underlying participation or non-participation, and the behavior and motivation of voters. In addition to the contextual factors (e.g., mass media, groups, political parties, states, ideologies, ethnicity, religions, regions, social classes, and the like), the behavioral processes of feeling, perception, motivation, or emotion can also play a determining role in the political attitude, understanding, and choice—alongside the prevailing conditions, culture, and atmosphere of a given society. This is a legitimate research topic in the field of political psychology worthy of further investigation. In this respect, the present research intends to examine emotion as one of the internal, behavioral states and processes influencing the political choice and the participation level.The motivation behind voters’ participation in elections depends on various factors. The first and perhaps the most important one is the acceptance of sovereignty and state by people, so the legitimacy of the governance system, trust in the health and fairness of elections, and confidence about the candidacy of real representatives of people are the determining factors influencing people’s participation. The second important factor is the general atmosphere prevailing in society, that is, the extent to which the most important issues of the day can motivate and encourage people’s participation in elections. Economic, social, and political crises or the events such as the possibility of war and internal disputes, together with healing and savior-like promises, can be considered as effective issues in the election process. Definitely influencing the participation level, the third significant factor is the candidacy of prominent, popular, charismatic, and influential figures. Moreover, a competitive and partisan atmosphere can increase the participation level to its high. Finally, by helping individuals, parties, and candidates in different ways, advertising and media performs a significant role in their victory or defeat. Besides these important reasons, the findings of political psychology show that in many cases the election result usually depends on emotion as a factor influencing the type and level of people’s participation in elections.Offering a brief overview of the Iranian presidential elections, the present research employs the theory of rational choice as a theoretical framework and the descriptive–analytical method in order to analyze the collected historical documents. The research tries to answer the key question of whether people’s tendency in elections is more influenced by rational choice or by emotion. In other words, which variable has a more influential role in the election process? and what spectrum of society, why, and under what conditions is affected by the emotional atmosphere? Assuming the rational choice as a logical goal, regardless of the positive and negative effects of emotion on the choice, an overview of the Iranian presidential elections confirms the hypothesis that influential events along with the presence of certain figures and competitors at different times can arouse emotion and create a passionate political and competitive atmosphere, leading to a high participation level.The study briefly reviews the results of the Iranian presidential elections from the beginning until now, but it especially focuses on the phases that witnessed the highest and lowest participation rates. The highest rate was seen in the third election (the election of Ayatollah Khamenei), the seventh election (the election of Mohammad Khatami) and the tenth election (the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) while the sixth election (the election of Hashemi-Rafsanjani) and the thirteenth election (the election of Ebrahim Raisi) had the lowest level of people’s participation.There are various reasons behind the decrease and increase in the participation rate. The focus on motivational factors makes manifest the undeniable effect of changes in political emotion on the participation level. As an answer to the research questions, the findings generally confirm the theory of rational choice subscribing to the view that people naturally rely on rational calculations and consider personal interests in each choice, including the political one. However, the study of the presidential elections in Iran made clear that, in addition to motivational factors, other factors such as certain events and the presence of certain political figures at different times could arouse emotion and create a passionate political and competitive atmosphere, leading to an increase in the participation level.
Hossein Pourahmadi Meybodi; Mohammad Soltanpour
Abstract
The Iranian revolution caused an offensive approach in the American foreign policy towards Iran, and US Offensive foreign policy has taken a different form with the change of each of the presidents. Based on the critical role of the presidency in US foreign policy and the fact that the study of lives ...
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The Iranian revolution caused an offensive approach in the American foreign policy towards Iran, and US Offensive foreign policy has taken a different form with the change of each of the presidents. Based on the critical role of the presidency in US foreign policy and the fact that the study of lives and personalities of presidents has been a significant part of the study of political psychology. The study seeks to find the psychological effects of the life of George W. Bush and his personality on the macro approach of US foreign policy, specifically to Iran. The theoretical framework in this study is the "activator, ideas and results" model of Albert Ellis, an American psychologist. This approach examines the psychological state by examining the role of events and how they are interpreted by individuals. In fact, the data used is data from Bush's biographies, which are examined in a historical and longitudinal way. In the following, Bush's psychological cycle is described and explained by determining the examples of "activator", "ideas" and "results", and his personality traits such as excitement, impulsive behaviors and extraversion are extracted. The results show the decisive influence of Bush's personality traits on his administration's macro-foreign policy approach and important decisions such as the invasion of Iraq, as well as placing Iran at the center of evil and the nuclear issue.
Jalil Bayat
Abstract
This research has endeavored to explain Barack Obama's approach to the Iranian nuclear crisis based on the image theory in international relations. While competing theories point to issues such as the structure of the international system or comprehensive international sanctions as key factors in reaching ...
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This research has endeavored to explain Barack Obama's approach to the Iranian nuclear crisis based on the image theory in international relations. While competing theories point to issues such as the structure of the international system or comprehensive international sanctions as key factors in reaching a nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1, this study focuses on the mental, perceptual, and personality traits of President Obama. Accordingly, the main research question was asked as follows: Why did Barack Obama take a different approach to his predecessor’s to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis? Based on the psychological principles and image theory, our initial answer is: Obama's perception of Iran as a regional power and considering the previous policy as damaging, as well as his personality type, led him to take a different approach from that of George W Bush in resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis. The approach of this research is explanatory and its method is a case study. The documentary method of data collection has been used.
