Graduation Date

Spring 2019

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in Psychology, option Academic Research

Committee Chair Name

Amber M. Gaffney

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Justin D. Hackett

Second Committee Member Affiliation

Community Member or Outside Professional

Third Committee Member Name

Gregg Gold

Third Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Schism, Voice, Leadership, Uncertainty, Collective action, Secession

Subject Categories

Psychology

Abstract

The present work examined the conditions under which political partisans would desire to schism from their political party. Drawing on uncertainty-identity theory, the social identity theory of leadership, and the literature on schism, this thesis predicted that under conditions of high uncertainty, partisans would be less likely to schism from their party because they would be willing to accept limits to their voice from political leaders. A broad sample of California Republicans (N = 218) and Democrats (N = 249) were examined using the pretense of either support for or opposition to legislation on DACA enacted by the leader of their respective party. The results did not support the primary research hypotheses that people who experience elevated levels of self-uncertainty will have less of a desire to schism relative to people lower in self-uncertainty when they are denied voice from a political leader. However, the experimental design and exploratory analyses suggest a novel way to examine schism with respect to uncertainty.

Citation Style

APA

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