Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T17:47:37.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lack of political diversity and the framing of findings in personality and clinical psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2015

Scott O. Lilienfeld*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. [email protected]://www.psychology.emory.edu/clinical/lilienfeld/

Abstract

I extend the arguments of Duarte et al. by examining the implications of political uniformity for the framing of findings in personality and clinical psychology. I argue that the one-sided framing of psychological research on political ideology has limited our understanding of the personality correlates of liberalism and conservatism.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carney, D. R., Jost, J. T., Gosling, S. D. & Potter, J. (2008) The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology 29:807–40.Google Scholar
Carraro, L., Castelli, L. & Macchiella, C. (2011) The automatic conservative: Ideology-based attentional asymmetries in the processing of valenced information. PLoS ONE 6(11):e26456.Google Scholar
Cullen, J. M., Wright, L. W. Jr. & Alessandri, M. (2002) The personality variable openness to experience as it relates to homophobia. Journal of Homosexuality 42:119–34.Google Scholar
Ferguson, A. (2012) The new phrenology: How liberal psychopundits understand the conservative brain. The Weekly Standard, May 12, 2012, Vol. 17(34). Available at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/new-phrenology_644420.html Google Scholar
Groeger, L. (2011) Political – or politicized? – psychology: Scientists combat the charge of ideological bias. Scienceline, March 8, 2011. Available at: http://scienceline.org/2011/03/political-%E2%80%94-or-politicized-%E2%80%94-psychology-2/ Google Scholar
Hibbing, J. R., Smith, K. B. & Alford, J. R. (2014) Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37(3):297350.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E. (1978) An introduction to population ecology. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W. & Sulloway, F. J. (2003) Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin 129(3):339–75. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.339.Google Scholar
Jost, J. T. & Hunyady, O. (2005) Antecedents and consequences of system-justifying ideologies. Current Directions in Psychological Science 14:260–65.Google Scholar
Kwapil, T. R., Barrantes-Vidal, N. & Silvia, P. J. (2008) The dimensional structure of the Wisconsin schizotypy scales: Factor identification and construct validity. Schizophrenia Bulletin 34(3):444–57.Google Scholar
Li, W., Li, X., Huang, L., Kong, X., Yang, W., Wei, D., Li, J., Cheng, H., Zhang, Q., Qiu, J. & Liu, J. (2015) Brain structure links trait creativity to openness to experience. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 10(2):191–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lilienfeld, S. O. & Latzman, R. D. (2014) Threat bias, not negativity bias, underpins differences in political ideology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37(3):318–19.Google Scholar
Mooney, C. (2012b) The Republican brain: The science of why they deny science – and reality. John Wiley.Google Scholar
Nelson, B. D., McGowan, S. K., Sarapas, C., Robison-Andrew, E. J., Altman, S. E., Campbell, M. L., Gorka, S. M., Katz, A. C. & Shankman, S. A. (2013) Biomarkers of threat and reward sensitivity demonstrate unique associations with risk for psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 122:662–71.Google Scholar
Nettle, D. (2006) The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals. American Psychologist 61(6):622–31.Google Scholar
Patrick, C. J., Fowles, D. C. & Krueger, R. F. (2009) Triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy: Developmental origins of disinhibition, boldness, and meanness. Development and Psychopathology 21(3):913–38.Google Scholar
Pronin, E., Lin, D. Y. & Ross, L. (2002) The bias blind spot: Perceptions of bias in self versus others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(3):369–81.Google Scholar
Smith, S. F., Lilienfeld, S. O., Coffey, K. & Dabbs, J. M. (2013) Are psychopaths and heroes twigs off the same branch? Evidence from college, community, and presidential samples. Journal of Research in Personality 47:634–46.Google Scholar
Thórisdóttir, H. & Jost, J. T. (2011) Motivated closed-mindedness mediates the effect of threat on political conservatism. Political Psychology 32:785811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar