Primarily, psychology is focused on better understanding the human mind and human behavior. Political science focuses on institutions and systems of governance, while political psychology relies on understanding individuals' behavior and motivations. Many of the theories of international relations rely on implicit psychological foundations. Political psychology in international relations looks very different than it did two decades ago because it as a whole looks very different.
Political psychological theories can be applied in many contexts, like leadership roles, domestic and foreign decision-making, war and genocide, racist behavior, voting attitudes and motivation, the role of the media, nationalism, and political extremism.
There has been a major shift in the way international relations scholars perceive the world. Social scientists are beginning to understand the relationship between psychology and rationality. Individuals' emotions are always validated in any psychological analysis. In the early stages of theory formulation, emotions were considered an obstacle to reasoning.
The amount of psychological lensing included in understanding the world around us has evolved over a period of time. Although old habits die hard, psychology is less likely to be portrayed as a null hypothesis in IR today than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
Critiques of political psychology say that psychology and rational choice are not as far apart as earlier research often suggested. Doing new research to explore the intersection of psychology and rationality by rediscovering rational choice's psychological roots might be something we can start, and it would possibly lead to different conclusions.
Psychology has greatly influenced international relations, and IR has become less sectarian and more theoretically pluralist.
Political psychology is not only important for government officials or diplomats but also for the politics of international commerce and multinational corporations. Having a good understanding of the psychological aspects of humans helps them build and maintain positive relationships with leaders and improve international relations.
Diplomacy professionals can apply their acquired knowledge of psychology to get a better understanding of the leaders and authority figures they interact with. According to a study in the British Journal of Political Science, a political leader¡¯s prior attitudes and beliefs, just like those of the average citizen, impact the perception and interpretation of information and, therefore, may affect policy decisions.
An individual¡¯s moral foundation plays a major role in the way they see the world. Psychological principles can help diplomats understand a political leader¡¯s emotions, biases, and motivations when engaged in negotiation.
Psychological understanding can be applied to counterterrorism too. Understanding how a terrorist organization operates, their motivations, how terrorists become radicalized, and how they can become deradicalized.?
When it seems people are as divided as ever, political psychology offers a path towards greater understanding and cooperation.
Initially, research has focused mostly on the ways in which individual leaders matter in international politics. They studied leaders by creating psychological profiles and cognitive maps. All the traditional ways are still continuous, but much of the new work on understanding leaders in international relations is less explicitly psychological, focusing on how leaders matter in IR more generally. It focuses less on cognitive properties, as having access to the sources to analyze a political leader is tough to find.
Leaders are studied based on the situations they are put in. Whether leaders face various problems in different institutional or political environments It can be studied on the basis of leaders military or political experiences that shape their behavior.