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Psychological Engagement (psychological + engagement)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

The Role of an African-American Candidate on Psychological Engagement and Political Discussion in a Local Election

POLITICS & POLICY, Issue 2 2009
JAS M. SULLIVAN
There have been numerous studies of African-American political participation, but little research investigating the effect of African-American candidates on political discussion. This is surprising, given the importance of political discussion in democratic theory and the increased attention it has received in the literature. We address this gap by examining the effect of a successful African-American Democratic candidate on psychological engagement and political discussion in a majority white, majority Republican local election in the Deep South. Our findings reveal a paradox,African-American voters paid more attention to the election and reported being more informed and more satisfied with the candidates, but were less likely to have discussed the election. The negative effect of race was less than in other concurrent races, indicating that the presence of an African-American candidate may limit but not erase participation differentials in political discussion. [source]

The Political Activity of Evangelical Clergy in the Election of 2000: A Case Study of Five Denominations

JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 4 2003
James L. Guth
This article focuses on the political participation of ministers from five evangelical Protestant denominations that differ in theology, polity, and history. Despite such differences, these clergy respond to political influences in much the same fashion. We find that the standard theories of political participation have varying success in accounting for their political involvement. Sociodemographic explanations provide little help, but psychological engagement with politics has more explanatory power. Professional role orientations are the best predictors of actual participation. And the clergy who see moral reform issues as the most important confronting the country,and who hold conservative views on such issues,are most likely to become engaged. Finally, membership in Christian Right organizations serves to elicit more activity than might occur if ministers were left to internally motivated participation. Despite the emphasis on other contextual variables in some work on clerical politics, we find that communications exposures, congregational influences, and even the support of clerical colleagues have very limited independent effects on political involvement. [source]

The Role of an African-American Candidate on Psychological Engagement and Political Discussion in a Local Election

POLITICS & POLICY, Issue 2 2009
JAS M. SULLIVAN
There have been numerous studies of African-American political participation, but little research investigating the effect of African-American candidates on political discussion. This is surprising, given the importance of political discussion in democratic theory and the increased attention it has received in the literature. We address this gap by examining the effect of a successful African-American Democratic candidate on psychological engagement and political discussion in a majority white, majority Republican local election in the Deep South. Our findings reveal a paradox,African-American voters paid more attention to the election and reported being more informed and more satisfied with the candidates, but were less likely to have discussed the election. The negative effect of race was less than in other concurrent races, indicating that the presence of an African-American candidate may limit but not erase participation differentials in political discussion. [source]

Leading by Example: Female Members of Parliament as Political Role Models

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2007
Christina Wolbrecht
One argument advanced in favor of descriptive representation is that female politicians serve as role models, inspiring other women to political activity. While previous research finds female role models affect women's psychological engagement, few studies report an impact on women's active participation, and none have done so in cross-national research. Our work also is the first to consider whether the impact of female role models is, as the term implies, greater among the young. Using three cross-national datasets, we find that where there are more female members of parliament (MPs), adolescent girls are more likely to discuss politics with friends and to intend to participate in politics as adults, and adult women are more likely to discuss and participate in politics. The presence of female MPs registers the same effect on political discussion regardless of age, but the impact on women's political activity is far greater among the young than the old. [source]