Abstract
Political Psychology provides a comprehensive review of approaches to the field and a strong case for the inclusion of a diverse range of psychological theories and methods. Tileagă argues for the repositioning of political psychology away from a reliance on North American political psychology, which he claims is overly reliant on cognition and positivistic methodology and instead highlights the need for a more critical European approach. He suggests that political psychologists utilise what he calls an ‘interpretive political psychology’, that is, ‘discursive, cultural and semiotic’ (p. 1). This could be seen to be a response to his previous call for a reinvigoration of discursive psychology (Augoustinos and Tileagă, 2012), while drawing upon its foundations which explored themes such as talk about memory in political discourse (Edwards and Potter, 1992). The book delivers a thorough review of a range of perspectives in political psychology that appeal to the reader while also considering its future directions.
One of the interesting aspects of this book is that Tileagă provides a compilation of varying theoretical perspectives from differing disciplines, although a robust critique of individual difference approaches is provided in Chapter 1. Tileagă challenges the underlying values in existing political psychological research in Chapter 2 and argues that ‘values should be treated as ideologically and culturally situated argumentative resources’ (p. 24) through exploring the presentation of communism and democracy in research. This is demonstrated in relation to Tileagă’s (2012) existing work regarding morality which unfortunately was not explored further. It is suggested that researchers need to focus on ‘intolerance’ (p. 61) as opposed to prejudice as this is more appropriate for a political psychology that is aware of the importance of context and discourse (Chapter 3). The need for a greater understanding of the utilisation of social representations is suggested (Chapter 4) and the advantages of exploring social identity are acknowledged (Chapter 5). In particular, it is emphasised that identity is a key feature that needs to be the focus of political psychological research.
As would be expected from him, Tileagă provides a strong argument for a discursive approach to political psychology (Chapter 7). This supports his argument regarding the focus on identity and the role of culture and discourse in its construction. While differing methodological stances are acknowledged in relation to the analysis of discourse, the positive evaluation of conversation analysis in regard to rhetoric (Chapter 8) is curious considering previous critiques regarding its lack of recognition for the context of talk (see, for example, Billig, 1999; Wetherell, 1998). Critical discourse analysis’ focus on power and inequality is highlighted as being of importance in this field of research. However, Tileagă’s review of critical discourse analysis is more effective as it considers how researchers are exploring its relationship with cognition and the weaknesses of an approach that ignores language as a form of social action. This critique is extended to some discourse analysts who attend to cognition in their research as a consequence of this placing a barrier on the depth of their analysis.
Tileagă places an emphasis on language in political psychological research and while as he acknowledges, this is not a new innovation, it is a welcome one. The issue of ‘naturally occurring’ data (Edwards and Potter, 1992: 28) is addressed by Tileagă reminding the researcher of its importance and of how it was initially conceived in response to the more dominant cognitive paradigm which was reliant upon data generated by the researcher. It is unfortunate that this issue was not addressed further considering the debate regarding how data are sourced (Speer, 2002). Chapter 9 provides the ‘main tenets of a discursive approach to political communication’ (p. 165) which further develops Tileagă’s argument for an approach to political psychology that places identity and language at its core. By considering visual methods in relation to advertising and satire, an aspect of the discursive approach that is often neglected is briefly explored for readers. In addition to this, Tileagă acknowledges the significance of technology in regard to enhancing individual agency and how this requires acknowledgement in research. The consideration of method is one of the advantages of this book as it examines how it is related to theory and its appropriateness.
Those familiar with Tileagă’s research to date will be encouraged by the inclusion of his work on memory (Chapter 6), particularly, as it challenges cognitive perspectives and highlights the importance of its construction in relation to the presentation of identity. This can be seen to position memory as a theme of importance in political psychological research, signifying its importance in regard to ideology and as a response to criticism regarding positions on historical context in psychological research (Parker, 2015).
The inclusion of contemporary issues such as extremism is advantageous, particularly, as Tileagă argues for a European political psychology that is reflective of its location. In particular, it acknowledges the importance of language and individual agency in response to the concerns present in the examination of other approaches: ‘right-wing ideologies do not always reproduce themselves through the inflexibility of the authoritarian mindset’ (p. 54). However, the absence of the impact of economic issues since the 2008 global financial crisis on European politics is noticeably absent, although this may be reflective of the research available. Nevertheless, the issues drawn upon are utilised well and provide the reader with a sufficient understanding for a renewed critical political psychology that is focused on the importance of identity and discourse.
Overall, Tileagă provides a well-supported challenge to political psychologists to be ‘dedicated more to the exploration of meaningful life worlds than to the pursuit of data’ (p. 189). By re-emphasising the importance of language and the need for a social constructionist approach, Tileagă provides an alternative way forward that places identity at the forefront of the research agenda. The book will be useful to researchers because, in addition to providing a new challenge in relation to the political psychological research agenda, it is well evidenced and considers both theoretical and methodological issues.