CHILDHOOD PUNISHMENT, DENIAL, AND POLITICAL-ATTITUDES

Political attitudes are widely regarded as the product of rational pro cesses, despite a long-standing tradition in political psychology argu ing that negative affect from childhood can be displaced onto adult po litical opinions (Lasswell, 1930/1960). Studies failing to demonstrate a relationship between childhood experience and adult political attit udes have neglected to take into account two important interacting var iables, gender and therapy (e.g., Altemeyer, 1988). We conducted both a questionnaire study of undergraduates and a telephone survey of the general population and found that males with high punishment backgroun ds without therapy were significantly more conservative than high puni shment males with therapy. High punishment males were also more conser vative than low punishment males, Results from an experiment embedded in the survey are consistent with the hypothesis that childhood affect can be displaced onto adult political attitudes.