Category: Political Science

Answer all parts please and make sure you do the reflection part on how your thinking changed and I put 3 articles that must be used as well as the lecture that must be used

Political opinions do not emerge from pure reason. They are shaped by what people feel as much as what they think. A citizen encountering information about immigration, climate policy, or election security is not a neutral processor weighing evidence dispassionately. They are angry, anxious, enthusiastic, or disgusted, and those emotional states determine which information registers as important, which arguments feel persuasive, and whether contradictory evidence prompts reconsideration or defensive rejection.

This module examines emotion as a foundational element of public opinion, not an unfortunate interference with it. The readings demonstrate that discrete emotions, anxiety, anger, enthusiasm, disgust, operate as distinct psychological systems that regulate attention, information processing, and belief formation. They explain patterns that cognitive models alone cannot: why corrections backfire, why persuasion depends on emotional state, why some beliefs feel immune to evidence.

Your task in this A&R is to examine a real case of emotionally grounded public opinion and unpack the psychology at work. You will trace how emotion functions not just as background noise but as an active force determining what opinions people construct and how resistant those opinions become to change.

Prompt

Choose a political issue where public opinion appears deeply entrenched and difficult to shift despite available evidence. This could be immigration, climate change, gun policy, healthcare, vaccine safety, election fraud claims, policing reform, or another domain where beliefs seem emotionally anchored rather than purely factual.

First, diagnose the emotional landscape. What specific emotion, anxiety, anger, enthusiasm, or disgust, appears most operative in shaping how people form opinions on this issue? You may find different emotions dominating different sides of the debate. Choose one emotional pathway to analyze in depth. Explain what triggers this emotion and why it becomes attached to this particular issue.

Second, walk through the cognitive consequences. Once this emotion is activated, how does it alter opinion formation? What happens to information seeking, source credibility judgments, interpretation of evidence, and receptivity to counter-arguments? Use concepts from affective intelligence theory or other frameworks to explain the psychological mechanisms. Show your work; trace the process from emotional activation through to belief formation or reinforcement.

Third, assess the functional versus dysfunctional dynamics. Is this emotion providing useful information (signaling real threats, highlighting genuine values) or distorting judgment (creating selective attention, triggering defensive reasoning)? Under what conditions does this emotional pathway help versus hinder the formation of well-grounded opinions? Avoid blanket claims; specify when and why emotion functions as it does.

Finally, consider the implications for opinion change. If this emotion is anchoring beliefs, what would it take, emotionally, not just informationally, to create the conditions for opinion revision? Why do fact-checks and evidence often fail when opinions are emotionally grounded? What does this tell us about the challenge of persuasion in domains where emotion and belief are tightly linked?

This is an exercise in psychological diagnosis. You are identifying how an emotional mechanism operates in a specific domain of public opinion and explaining why it produces the opinion patterns we observe.

Submission Guidelines

• Length: 35 pages (7501250 words)
• Citations: APA style
• Sources: Reference course readings and lecture ideas naturally. No outside sources are required, though they may be included if clearly relevant.
• Style: First person is encouraged where appropriate. This is an analytical reflection, not a formal research paper.
• Focus: Demonstrate synthesis and original insight rather than summarizing individual articles.
• Do not include a cover page.

Tips for Success

1) Pick a real, specific case. Generic discussions of “emotion in politics” will not work. You need a concrete issue where you can trace emotional mechanisms in detail. The more specific your case, the stronger your analysis can be.

2) Focus on process, not outcomes. The interesting question is not “do emotions make people wrong?” but “how do emotions shape the construction and defense of beliefs?” Trace the mechanism, not just the result.

3) Use theory to explain, not decorate. Do not bolt on references to affective intelligence theory or discrete emotion effects as afterthoughts. Use these frameworks to genuinely explain why the opinion patterns you describe make psychological sense.

4) Distinguish between emotions. Anxiety operates differently from anger. Enthusiasm is not the same as contentment. Precision about which emotion matters, because different emotions produce different cognitive effects.

5) Avoid moralizing about voters. This is not an essay about why people are irrational or emotionally manipulated. Emotions are functional psychological systems. Your job is to analyze how they work, not condemn people for having them.

6) Specify conditions. Emotional effects are not universal. Anxiety sometimes promotes learning, but not always. Anger sometimes clarifies values, but not always. Your analysis should explain when and why effects occur, not make sweeping generalizations.

So far in this course, we have introduced several theoretical approaches psychologists use for understanding SSPD and discussed how they apply to politics. For the remainder of the course, we would like for you to use these theories for understanding SSPD to address a political issue you are particularly interested in that is influenced by stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination. Our goal is that, by the end of this course, you will not only have a theoretical understanding of prejudice in politics, you will also have templates to follow when trying to address any situation where prejudice plays a role in politics.

Instructions

Choose a real-world problem involving prejudice in politics you would like to solve. For example, if youre working on a particular political campaign, you might want to reduce the effects of prejudices against your candidate on peoples voting behavior. Or perhaps you want to pass a specific piece of legislation and you want Democrats and Republicans to work together toward that aim. Pick a specific political challenge affected by stereotypes, stereotyping, prejudices, or discrimination that you want to address.

First, describe the challenge, including what the challenge is, the people or groups involved, and why and for whom it is a challenge. In your explanation of why and for whom it is a challenge, identify the specific outcome you would like to target for change. This will likely take some creativity and careful thinking about what is a meaningful but feasible change. For example, it is not feasible for an intervention to fix racism, but it may be feasible to get Democrats and Republicans to work together on a particular piece of legislation or to make voters less likely to use racism in a specific election.

Second, define your problem using each of the primary theories of SSPD discussed in this class (i.e., threat management, mental efficiency, self-enhancement). For example, list the parts of the threat-prejudice, mental efficiency, or self-enhancement templates that may be relevant to your challenge.

Third, analyze and discuss the relative strengths and limitations of using each of these approaches/templates to understand your selected challenge.

Please address all parts of the prompt in your response.

I am providing an example of how she wants it and I am providing 3 sources as well as the lectures that need to be in this essay

Make sure your not using hard unknown words, don’t use any other languages other than English, make sure it sounds like a writing for political science student so a beginner not a perfassional.

Read excerpts from , From the French Revolution to the 2020 Presidential Race by Madeleine Carlisle, Sept. 14, 2019

Full article from

First – You will write a summary paper based on the readings and researching terms. After reading the Time article, you will build on the idea of left and right in terms of political jargon by researching the types of government and political parties below. For each form of government provide a definition as it relates to government, and give an example of a country that uses that form of government. Include in the brief summary of each term, how the people of each society either benefits from that form of government and/or how it oppresses that society.

• Democracy
• Socialism
• Communism
• Oligarchy
• Aristocracy
• Monarchy
• Theocracy
• Totalitarianism

Next – Review each parties official websites and give a brief overview of their platform. Include two people who would be considered leaders in that party in your overview.

Finally – You will take a survey/quiz titled, Where do you fit in the political typology. Your instructor will provide you with a link to the quiz. Your responses will not be shared with the class.

Conclusion – Which of the four political spectrums do your beliefs most align with, and are you surprised at the results? Which type of government would you prefer to live under, and why? Complete your paper with a summary of the idea of left and right.

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For this writing assignment, you will draw on information from the text and other materials from the Ch. 18 Module to analyze the experiences of immigrants arriving and settling in America during the Progressive Era. The time frame is important: confine your analysis to 1900 to 1916. Focus on the lives and work experiences of new immigrants living in the city and discuss the institutions and activities important to immigrants as part of the adjustment process.

The essay should be a minimum of five paragraphs, each containing a minimum of four complete sentences. (This will be about 500 words.) Your description and analysis of the immigrant experience should include as much detail and specific examples as possible.

Do not use any direct quotations in your essay!

RULE ON SOURCES – Use the Foner textbook and any material accessible through the Canvas site. The use of any outside sources is prohibited and will result in a grade of zero for the assignment.

Citations

Citations for the author videos should include the last name of the author, (Foner) video title, and time code:

1 Foner Video, American Consumerism, 1.15-1.30.

First citation for the textbook:

2Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, vol. 2, 7th Seagull edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2023), 91.

Second and subsequent citations for the textbook:

3Foner, Give Me Liberty, 105.

Essay Checklist:

_______Focus on urban life of immigrants

_______Include discussion of important institutions and activities in the adjustment process

_______At least 5 paragraphs (each with no fewer than 4 sentences)

_______Clear Introduction and Conclusion

_______Clear topic sentence for each paragraph

_______Smooth transitions between paragraphs

_______Sources are textbook and materials in Ch. 18 Module only

_______No Direct Quotations

_______Use of Chicago-style footnotes to cite the sources of specific information from the Foner

text or other resources from the Canvas module.

_______Use of formal language and tone: no contractions, jargon, or colloquial expressions

_______No use of the first person (I, me, my)

_______No personalization (do not refer to the U.S. as our country)

_______Name of student and date at the top of page 1

_______Paper has a centered title

_______Paper is double-spaced with one-inch margins all around

_______No extra space between paragraphs (indent the first line of each new paragraph)

_______12-point Times New Roman or Times font

_______Basic spelling and grammar check completed

_______Proofreading is complete

should be the link to the book:::: https://nerd.wwnorton.com/nerd/239854/r/goto/cfi/66!/4?control=control-toc&prev_lms_platform=willolabs

Chapter 18