Journals devoted to political psychology have been created both in the United States and in Europe. To meet the needs of a growing number of students, graduate programs have been established. In 1985, there were no organized political psychology graduate programs in the United States. Currently twenty universities offer graduate programs in this area. The graduate concentration at UC Irvine is part of this development, but enjoys a rather distinctive place.
Interdisciplinary programs are difficult to design.
Crossing intellectual boundaries creates unusual demands both with regard to the theoretical definition of the subject matter and the empirical methods which may be used to examine it. Typically graduate programs adopt the perspective of either political science or psychology. Within this context they then tend to emphasize either theoretical issues or empirical ones. The explicit aim of the UCI program is to provide training which offers both greater breadth and integration than can be found in any graduate program in the United States. This is evident in a number of the program objectives.