Life with Dr. Craig Wiener

Backyard Politics: A Psychological Understanding of Today’s Political and Social Divide focuses on currently contentious societal topics. Rather than characterize political difference in pejorative terms, the book conceptualizes each view as proposing an effective way to develop a flourishing society. The text proposes that people differ in their tendencies to want to change external sources as compared to making personal changes to address their concerns. The intriguing part is that this difference in psychological patterning often coincides with political affinity. Currently, there seems to be three main areas of concern where our political debate is most heated. The first controversy pertains to the causes of poverty. Namely, is our economic system inherently unfair to some, but not others? The second concern is the extent to which minority identities struggle because majority identities inundate them with harmful rules and behaviors. The third debate is the degree to which males behave in ways that prevent females from obtaining happiness and success. Also unique to this book is a chapter on families and parenting, which explores ways to enable the persistence of a liberal and civil society. He thinks we can produce an interesting podcast discussing society’s salient social and political controversies, which are raised in "Backyard Politics." He can send you a digital copy of the book, if you are interested.