This course explores the sources of political beliefs and actions through the application of psychological theories about personality, learning, cognition, and group dynamics. The course begins by briefly considering a number of alternative analytic approaches to linking human nature and politics and then considers such problems as political ideology, persuasion, compliance, protest, violence, and leadership in terms of these approaches. The course considers both mass and elite political behavior. The readings include both quantitative materials drawn from survey research and experiments and more impressionistic and clinical studies.