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A Political Psychology of Conflict: The Case of Northern Ireland

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The Palgrave Handbook of Global Political Psychology

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology Series ((PSPP))

Abstract

The zeitgeist influencing much contemporary psychology and wider scholarly thought is one that individualises political processes. This is particularly the case when we attempt to understand political violence and conflict. Those engaged in political violence, or even affected by it, are often represented by Western media at least, as terrorists, criminals or mentally unstable (Horgan, 2003; Pupavac, 2004). Drawing on theory and research from political psychology, here we set out to demonstrate that macro-social and collective processes are crucial to any analysis of political violence and conflict. Indeed the individualisation of the problem can and often is in itself a political act (Pupavac, 2004).

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Authors
  1. Neil Ferguson
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  2. Orla Muldoon
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  3. Shelley McKeown
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Huron University College, Canada

    Paul Nesbitt-Larking

  2. Department of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden

    Catarina Kinnvall

  3. Department of Politics, University of Surrey, UK

    Tereza Capelos

  4. Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands

    Henk Dekker

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© 2014 Neil Ferguson, Orla Muldoon and Shelley McKeown

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Ferguson, N., Muldoon, O., McKeown, S. (2014). A Political Psychology of Conflict: The Case of Northern Ireland. In: Nesbitt-Larking, P., Kinnvall, C., Capelos, T., Dekker, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Political Psychology. Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-29118-9_19

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