INDIVIDUAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS

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INDIVIDUAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS

• A. GROUPS
• organizational role vs personality
• groupthink
• B. INDIVIDUALS
• cognition
• perception
• personality
• abnormal
• C. INNATE DRIVES
• aggression
• gender
• sociobiology natural selection

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• GENERAL PROBLEM
• ROLE vs PERSONALITY
• Bureaucracy theory
• role is primary
• What is good for my organization?
• Example
• Cuban missile crisis studies

3

• GROUP THINK
• i. ignore information
• ii. pressure dissidents
• iii. subordinates reluctant to question superiors

4

• COGNITION
• how we acquire knowledge
• PERCEPTION
• how we recognize things
• 1. historical analogy
• 2. framing and queuing
• 3. wishful thinking
• 4. common misperceptions

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INNATE DRIVES ? FOREIGN POLICY?

• 1. ARE HUMANS INNATELY AGGRESSIVE?
• 2. GENDER AGGRESSIVE MALE SYNDROME
• 3. NATURAL SELECTION

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PROBLEMS WITH INDIVIDUAL LEVEL EXPLANATIONS

• 1. COUNTERFACTUAL ASSERTION
• 2. CIRCULAR REASONING
• 3. HOW SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL FROM
• i. demands of situation
• ii. organizational roles
• iii. culture/national goals/history
• iv. political structure