Journal of Politics and Law; Vol. 13, No. 3; 2020 ISSN 1913-9047 E-ISSN 1913-9055 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 74 Understanding Political Psychology and Its Importance to the Malaysian Politics Khairul Azmi Mohamad 1 , Nooraini Othman 1 & Mazlan Ali 1 1 Perdana Centre, Razak Faculty of Technology & Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia Correspondence: Nooraini Othman, Perdana Centre, Razak Faculty of Technology & Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel: 60-3-2180-5157. E-mail: p- noraini@utm.my Received: April 26, 2020 Accepted: July 27, 2020 Online Published: August 17, 2020 doi:10.5539/jpl.v13n3p74 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v13n3p74 Abstract This paper intends to describe political psychology and the importance of the subject matter to the Malaysian politics. Political studies in Malaysia are largely based on political science, political sociology and socio-political analysis. It is a high time that political environment and issues in Malaysia to be looked upon from a psychological perspective. It is important because the discipline will allow the understanding of why political leaders think and behave in a certain manner. It will also allow the appreciation of voters’ behaviour. These perspectives will enrich our ability to understand politics from different roots. In the context of Malaysia, studying political psychology will help to enhance the understanding of many variables related to the practice of politics in this country. The interactions between politics and psychology particularly the impact of psychology to politics would be an interesting study. As far as Malaysia is concerned, a deeper understanding on political psychology will help leaders to appreciate the nerves and needs of the people and they should put every effort to fulfil their aspirations. Political psychology should help to unfold the minds of the political actors as well as the voters. Keywords: political psychology, Malaysian politics, political leadership, political behaviour 1. Introduction Political psychology is regarded as a young field of studies in Malaysia. Students of the higher learning institutions only recently came to know and introduced to this discipline. Not many research specifically tackled issues of politics in Malaysia from the perspective of political psychology. Certainly, research and writings in this area would need to be enhanced to clearly reflect the strong presence of political psychology in Malaysia. Political psychology gained prominence in the West. Theories and concepts are quite well developed. Empirical studies are done encompassing many perspectives in politics. Malaysia will need the same approach. The study has to be developed in order to understand contextually the Malaysian politics from this angle. This paper serves as humble attempt towards that direction. 2. Methodology This paper came as a result of thematic literature review. The historical context as well as the more recent literature defining and conceptualising political psychology elucidate the subject of this work. The linkage between politics and psychology is equally established. It reflects the relevance of human behaviour to various political contexts. It further explicates polical psychology as a systematic field of study. Some of the areas of studies within the framework of political psychology are also clarified. The importance of political psychology to the analysis of politics in Malaysia is explained by way of analysing some of the relevant literature. A psychological analysis to politics is hoped to give a fresh perspective to political studies. This work highlights some of the important areas where Malaysians in particular is hoped to build interest on the subject matters. 3. Overview of Political Psychology Concept The American Political Science Review in the year 1924 reported the Round table 1: Psychology and Political Science. The report was written by non-other than Charles Merriam himself. It was a summary of the Proceedings of the Round table on Psychology and Politics. The first meeting was devoted to a general discussion and definition of the problem of the round