The Requirement for a Non-individualistic Psychology of Individual Differences: Evidence from Studies of Tyranny and Oppression

To flesh out the principles of dynamic interactionism presented by Reynolds et al. (2010), we discuss traditional approaches to the psychology of tyranny and oppression. We argue that models which place personality and situational factors in opposition, together with those which combine these elements mechanically, signally fail to capture the dynamism that is characteristic of tyrannical systems. We identify four aspects of this dynamism. These suggest that individual differences (a) draw people towards particular contexts, (b) are given meaning by salient social identities, (c) are transformed by intense group experiences and (d) become most potent when representative of group identity. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.