Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 302 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-302). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

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Political scientists concentrate on the concept of political activity as social cooperation motivated to meet two goals: biological survival and accumulation of extrinsic rewards such as power, wealth, or territory. Self-determination research in the field of human motivation reveals a different motivator in the form of innate psychological needs. This literature review and theoretical analysis offers an alternative cause for political activity in light of recent empirical work completed by psychologists in the study of Self-Determination Theory. The findings suggest that humans act politically to secure satisfaction of their psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. / Master of Arts

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis proposes the study of rumor as a guide to the battle for hearts and minds in Iraq. It reviews existing rumor theory to identify how rumors function and what we can learn from them. Rumors often serve as a window into a community, and can provide valuable information for developing a campaign to assess, monitor, and gain the support necessary to defeat insurgents. This thesis employs two distinct typologies to analyze over ten months of rumors in Baghdad, Iraq. The motivation typology provides indications of Iraqi sentiment, and suggests unrelieved anxiety and fear is likely contributing to widespread hostility towards the US-led Coalition. Indications of unrealistic expectations are also evident, potentially contributing to hostility levels as they go unrealized. The subject typology identifies overarching concerns of the Iraqi people, and suggests there are specific fears inhibiting cooperation with US counterinsurgency efforts. This thesis then examines rumor remedies. Because they rely on effective communication skills, American and Arab cultural communication styles are contrasted and integrated into tailored remedies for Iraq. The findings in this thesis could assist Coalition information campaigns by alerting them to existing Iraqi perceptions so they can tailor messages to address significant concerns and fears. / Captain, United States Air Force

In recent decades, the politics of recognition has become an important theme in political and social theorizing about justice and freedom. The desire for recognition, that is to say, the desire to have the approval, esteem, consideration or respect of those around us, whether as individuals or members of social groups, has in fact been described as a vital human need. The distribution of rights and obligations, wealth and resources, all turn on the theme of recognition; failures to recognize the humanity of others or their particular identities as worthy of respect or esteem often result in political and social outcomes that are deeply unjust. The central idea behind these debates is that an individual’s identity – her self-understanding of who she is – and her social and political standing in any organized community – the rights she has and the protections she possesses under the law – are all in part shaped by the recognition or misrecognition of others. As Charles Taylor describes it, a social and political world that reflects back to individuals a demeaning picture of themselves can lead to severe psychic damage and cause real harm; a political society that simply refuses to recognize the identities of certain groups of individuals as having any standing at all can result in radical denials of the basic rights individuals are entitled to as members of a political community. Indeed, many of the major cultural, ethnic, racial, gender and religious movements of the last decade are seen by scholars as organized around the principle of recognition – the struggle to have one’s identity be recognized by others as worthy of respect. In trying to make sense of the politics of recognition, scholars have, for the most part, turned to Hegel’s account of the struggle for recognition for guidance. His most prominent remarks on this subject occur in the Phenomenology of Spirit, where he discusses the struggle for recognition through what is famously known as the master-slave dialectic. While Hegel certainly offers an extremely sophisticated and important account of the subject, and although many have shifted the debate to other areas of Hegel’s corpus, the general neglect of philosophical treatments on this issue by other thinkers in the history of thought is regrettable. In this dissertation, I examine some of the most important precursors to Hegel on this subject, arguing that they did indeed take the struggle for recognition seriously. Moreover, I hope to show that their reflections on the subject are themselves important and worthy of consideration, not only historically, but also for how we might think about the struggle for recognition today. This dissertation focuses on the social and political thought of Bernard Mandeville, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. It has two main aims. First and most principally, I aim to throw new light on each of their political philosophies by examining their ideas through the lens of the struggle for recognition. Each of them, I will argue, in varying ways set the desire for recognition at the centre of their thought. Second, I attempt to account for the continuities and discontinuities of between their views on the subject.

This study explored the relationship between voters' political behavior regarding the issue of gay rights and the underlying psychological needs served by their attitudes on this issue. A telephone survey of 100 randomly selected local voters was conducted, during which Herek's (1987) Attitude Functions Inventory (AFI) was administered. Three of the four attitude function subscales (Experiential- Schematic, Social-Expressive and Ego-Defensive) were confirmed using a LISREL confirmatory factor analysis. The Value-Expressive subscale was not confirmed and showed poor reliability. Pro- and anti-gay rights behavior was measured using a Political Behavior Index (PBI) developed for this study. Regression analyses and MANOVAs were employed to test six hypotheses, all of which received some support. Pro-gay rights behavior was associated with ExperientialSchematic attitudes and a Value-Expressive item regarding civil liberties. Anti-gay rights behavior was associated with Ego-Defensive attitudes and a Value-Expressive item regarding moral beliefs. Men scored higher on the EgoDefensive function than did women. Those who knew more gay people were more likely to exhibit Experiential-Schematic attitudes and were less likely to hold Ego-Defensive attitudes. These findings imply that efforts to change anti-gay rights behavior need to address the underlying motivations of Ego-Defense and Value-Expression regarding the construct of moral beliefs. An additional implication is a potential for increasing support for the legal rights of gay people by increasing association with people one knows to be gay.

This study develops a new theoretical approach and empirical measure of American regional subcultures using public opinion survey data and building on previous research (Chinni and Gimpel 2011; Elazar 1962, 1966; Hero 2000; Lieske 1993; Putnam, Leonardi and Nanetti 1994). Instead of approaching classification of regions based on formal geography, border states, population demography, ethnic groups and migration patterns, or historical traditions, this study uses a vernacular geography approach to study culture in the 50 American states. Vernacular geography is the sense of place revealed in ordinary people’s language. The study uses original nationwide survey data to measure perceptions of place based on states that are most similar to a respondent’s home state. The measure is based on unique survey questions where respondents have the freedom to choose any of the 50 states. The surveys are conducted by the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) from 2012 to 2016. These data allow development of a new measure of state similarity or regional subcultures based on vernacular geography. The state similarity network based on people’s feelings shows that state contiguity is not the driving factor in people’s perceptions of regions of the United States. It also shows that people’s perceptions of state similarity are a better predictor of policy diffusion than contiguity. Finally, this study shows that wealth is the most important factor in people’s perceptions of state similarity, but that population size, racial diversity, rural/urban population density, and ideology/partisanship are all predictors of people’s perceptions of state similarity at low levels. This study argues that perceptions of place matter. They are a core building block of political culture and are important for understanding policy diffusion. This study is about how citizens conceptualize their home state and network of most similar states, and whether state similarity networks, or social networks of states, influence government policy adoption and innovation.

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The overarching question of this dissertation is do Latinos prefer co-ethnic candidates and if so, to what degree? I examine how Latinos evaluate co-ethnic candidates—both those who share one’s partisanship and who do not. In addressing the former, is the evaluation higher of a candidate who not only shares one’s partisanship but also ethnicity or is the double in-group status redundant? I then address a more complex question, how do Latinos evaluate Latino candidates who do not share their partisan identity. The dilemma of having contradictory social group identities places a voter at an electoral fork in the road. To understand which road the voter ultimately takes I consider individual ethnic social group identification and the substantive meanings of ethnic group categories. I look at how different dimensions of Latino group identity influence the ultimate evaluation of a coethnic candidate. More specifically, I consider how and when a Latino social group identity influences political choice. I begin addressing the questions of when and how a Latino ethnic group identity can influence a political choice through an analysis of extant survey data. I also make use of original survey experiments that allow me to determine if there is a causal relationship and to probe the dimensions of Latino group identity. The results indicate that there is an in-group candidate preference. In some instances, an ethnic in-group match by itself predicts political choice, but not for all Latinos and not all the time. More substantive measures of Latino group identity serve to differentiate who among Latinos are most likely to prefer an ethnic in-group candidate. I find that substantive measures moderate a preference and in some instances a distancing from the Latino candidate. In general, Latinos with higher levels of Latino group identification are those most likely to support a Latino candidate. However, the preference for a Latino candidate depends on whom that Latino candidate is—Republican or Democrat. In short, Latino preferences for co-ethnic candidates are variegated, but significantly and substantively influenced by the individual’s level of ethnic identification and the type of Latino candidate choice at hand. / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2002. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 175 p.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Kathleen M. McGraw, Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-175).