Political Psychology and Political Education

Code:

OP123

Acronym:

PPEP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Adult Education and Training / Professional Guidance

Instance: 2025/2026 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Institution Responsible:	Faculty of Psychology and Education Science

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MCED	23	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	49	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students
Obs.: Português e Inglês

Objectives

This course aims to provide students with an understanding of research in political psychology and political education, and with the skills to analyze political situations from a psychological perspective and to design educational interventions on this field.

Learning outcomes and competences

- knowledge of some theoretical models on political conceptions, attitudes and behaviours; 

- identify research tendencies in political psychology/education in Portugal;

- problematize the role of formal, informal and non-formal education experience in individual and collective political empowerment;

- perfom small case studies within a political psychology/education perspective.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

None.

Program

1. Education, psychology and politics: the state of the art of research in Portugal. 
2. The meaning of politics in societies of uncertainty. 
3. Citizenship and democracy. The psychological foundations of democracy. Challenges to contemporary democracies: personalization, performativity and populism.
4. The impact of political knowledge and conceptions in the relationship with politics. 
5. Emotions and politics.
6. Personality and political attitudes. Values, ideology, civic culture and social capital. 
7. Civic and political participation. Conventional and unconventional forms of participation. Developmental quality of participation experiences. 
8. Political influence and electoral behavior. 
9. “New” social movements and digital citizenship. 
10. Political education in formal, non-formal and informal educational contexts.

Mandatory literature

Eisenstadt ; Os regimes democráticos: Fragilidade, continuidade e transformabilidade, Celta, 2000
Haste, H. ; Constructing the citizen, Political Psychology, 25 (3), 413‐439, 2004
Jost John T. 340; Political psychology. ISBN: 1-84169-070-8
Menezes Isabel 340; Agência e participação cívica e política. ISBN: 978-989-730-000-4
Menezes Isabel 340; Educação para a cidadania participatória em sociedades em transição. ISBN: 978-989-8471-07-9
Monteiro, Hugo, & Ferreira, Pedro D. ; Unpolite citizenship: The non-place of conflict in political education., Journal of Social Science Education, 10(4), 5-11., 2011
Sullivan, J. & Transue, J. ; The psychological underpinnings of democracy: A selective review of research on political tolerance, interpersonal trust, and social capital., Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 625‐650.
Theiss-Morse, E. & Hibbing, J. R. ; Citizenship and civic engagement. , Annual Review of Political Science, 8, 227-249., 2005

Teaching methods and learning activities

Interactive exposition and discussion. The discursive technique will use projectable and non-projectable audiovisual resources, i.e. boards, overhead projector, thematic maps, etc. The final project involves field work that consists on a biographical interview with a social/political activist, and the analysis of the interview, based on the course content; this task is performed by dyads; and an individual essay based on a research/intervention project in the field.

keywords

Social sciences > Educational sciences
Social sciences > Psychological sciences
Social sciences > Political sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Defesa pública de dissertação, de relatório de projeto ou estágio, ou de tese	40,00
Trabalho de campo	20,00
Trabalho escrito	40,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de relatório/dissertação/tese	40,00
Estudo autónomo	67,00
Frequência das aulas	49,00
Trabalho de campo	6,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

According to the faculty's regulations.

Calculation formula of final grade

The final grade depends on the assessment of an original research report conducted in dyads based on (i) an interview with someone with civic and political experiences, or (ii) a survey/secondary analysis of political attitudes and behaviors; and one individual assignment: a review of a paper/chapter or a reflective portfolio.

Examinations or Special Assignments

The final project (in dyads, 20 pages) involves the analysis, based on the course content, of an interview focused on the political biography of a person with some level of political involvement/intervention OR of a survey on political attitudes or behaviors. There is one additional and mandatory individual assignments: a porfolio of political news with comments or a summary (2-3 pages) of a chapter or paper on a topic of political psychology/education or a series of written commentaries on class topics. The final project will be object of oral discussion unless the preminary assessment is below 40% (8 in 20 points).

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to existing regulations.
If there is no possibility for attending classes, tehere will be a final exam.

Classification improvement

By improving the reports.