POL SCI 164A Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Theories Of Political Behavior, Mass Media
27 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PS 164A Reading
Children & Politics, Greenstein
CH1: The Study of Early Political Leaning
- Focus on years between nine and thirteen, the latency years
- Undramatic but crucial period of socio-psychological and political
development
- Move from near ignorance of adult polities to awareness of most
conspicuous features of the adult political area
- Education is highly efficient instrument of politics
- Political behavior partially determined by the (1) objective circumstances
that surround humans like the political institutions of society (2) learned
predispositions
- Citizenship training!
- Political thinkers and philosophers emphasized the importance of
education
- Plato, Aristotle etc.
- Procedures for civic initiation important in Western democracies like U.S.
- Patriotic rituals: instruction on Constitution
- Citing the pledge of allegiance
- Learning the national anthem
- Most of American civic education is informal
- Conversations of adults and peers
- Mass media reporting
- Study of Political socialization
- Term since 1950s, means the process of initiation into politics
- Desirable to directly study political participants individually, including
children
- Study not only childhood training but constant reinforcement and lifelong
learning
- Lack of research in adolescence and post-adolescence levels
- Later growing reports of adults’ retrospections about their own political
socialization
- Widely accepted idea that individuals’ early experiences affect his later
political behavior
- How to study Political Socialization
- Look at agents of socialization and the socialized
- Consider how nonconformity and conformity is learned
- Discontinuities and continuities in political learning
Document Summary
Focus on years between nine and thirteen, the latency years. Undramatic but crucial period of socio-psychological and political development. Move from near ignorance of adult polities to awareness of most conspicuous features of the adult political area. Education is highly efficient instrument of politics. Political behavior partially determined by the (1) objective circumstances that surround humans like the political institutions of society (2) learned predispositions. Political thinkers and philosophers emphasized the importance of education. Procedures for civic initiation important in western democracies like u. s. Most of american civic education is informal. Term since 1950s, means the process of initiation into politics. Desirable to directly study political participants individually, including children. Study not only childhood training but constant reinforcement and lifelong learning. Lack of research in adolescence and post-adolescence levels. Later growing reports of adults" retrospections about their own political socialization. Widely accepted idea that individuals" early experiences affect his later political behavior. Look at agents of socialization and the socialized.
