O predmetu političke psihologije
About the subject of Political Psychology

Summary/Abstract: Today it is still difficult to give a whole account of political psychology with worked out methodological approach and theoretical conception of including of that sphere into a wider political region. Political actions are always actions of people; studying of relations between bearers of actions and action itself is the region of psychology. Political psychology is determined by political phenomena. As politics becomes more wide-spread in a society, so larger is also the region of political psychology. Definition that »political psychology is an applicable sphere of psychology which studies psychological aspects of political phenomena« is general and universal but it does not show sufficiently clear the connection of psychological and political phenomena. According to our opinion the gravity centre in political psychology is to be in political action and to study these characteristics of persons which determine the sort and direction of an action. Fundamental supposition of this approach is included in the assertion that political action, as a specific form of social action, can be determined only by those characteristics of individuals which are socially conditioned. In interaction with his surrounding an individual forms his attitudes and achieves a definite structure of satisfaction of his needs. Attitudes and needs are those which determine the sort and direction of an action, the result of which is keeping back or changing the existing distribution of power. Accordingly, political psychology is firstly engaged in problems how to perceive politically relevant surroundings, needs of which are not satisfied, and what kind of behaviour comes out of that. Those are not strictly separated psychological processes, but they are to be observed as mutually connected processes which act upon one another and between man and his surroundings.

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