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# Introduction

In this free course, Social psychology and politics, you will look at how social psychology can help you to better understand politics. You will explore how and why people engage with politics, e.g. through social movements, protests and activism. You might be asking yourself: why would a social psychologist be interested in all of this, rather than a politician, a policy-maker, an economist, or a political theorist? The answer – as you will see in this course – is that many of the concepts that social psychologists are interested in, such as personality, identity and groups, are relevant to the ways in which people relate to political processes. During this course you will be introduced to some of the ways that social psychologists have considered the political. You will also be encouraged to think critically about the norms of ‘good citizenship’ and consider how psychologists themselves can be activists.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD317 Advancing social psychology.

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OpenLearn - Social psychology and politics
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