Political Leadership for the New Century: Personality and Behavior Among American Leaders

274 Pages·2006·2.35 MB·English

by  Claire J. Creutzfeldt

POLITICAL
LEADERSHIP FOR
THE NEW CENTURY
Personality and Behavior
Among American Leaders
EDITED BY Linda O. Valenty
AND Ofer Feldman
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Political leadership for the new century : personality and behavior among American
leaders / edited by Linda O. Valenty and Ofer Feldman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–275–97037–X (alk. paper)
1. Personality and politics—United States. 2. Personality and occupation—United
States. 3. Political leadership—United States—Psychological aspects. 4. Political
psychology. I. Valenty, Linda O. II. Feldman, Ofer, 1954–
BF698.9.P6P65 2002
352.23'6'0973—dc21 2001036411
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright 䉷 2002 by Linda O. Valenty and Ofer Feldman
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without
the express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001036411
ISBN: 0–275–97037–X
First published in 2002
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
TM
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Tables, Figures, and Appendixes vii
Preface xi
Introduction xiii
Linda O. Valenty and Ofer Feldman
I. Overview: Assessing Personality and Behavior Among
American Leaders 1
1. The Qualitative Study of Presidential Personality 3
Fred I. Greenstein
2. Political Leadership: Some Methodological Considerations 9
Betty Glad
3. Motivation and Political Leadership 25
David G. Winter
II. Quantitative Analysis: Contributions to the Study of
Personality and Behavior 49
4. U.S. Presidents as Conflict Managers: The Operational
Codes of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton 51
Mark Schafer, Michael D. Young, and Stephen G. Walker
5. Motive Imagery and Integrative Complexity: Bill Clinton,
George Mitchell, and the Northern Ireland Peace Talks 65
Linda O. Valenty and Mary E. Carroll
vi Contents
6. The Political Personality of U.S. President George W. Bush 81
Aubrey Immelman
7. Assessments of America’s Chief Executives: Insights from
Biographers and Objective Personality Measures 105
Steven J. Rubenzer, Thomas R. Faschingbauer, and
Deniz S. Ones
III. Qualitative Analysis: Contributions to the Study of
Personality and Behavior 135
8. Studying Images and Their Impact on Behavior: The Case
of the Carter Administration 137
Jerel Rosati
9. John F. Kennedy as Dramatic Leader 161
Robert E. Gilbert
10. Cloak and Swagger: Personality and Leadership in the
Vice Presidency of Spiro T. Agnew 179
Scott W. Webster
11. Governing a Divided America in the New Millennium:
Heroic versus Reflective Leadership 201
Stanley A. Renshon
References 233
Index 259
About the Editors and Contributors 267
Tables, Figures, and Appendixes
TABLES
3.1 Behavior Correlates of the Achievement, Affiliation, and
Power Motives 27
3.2 Motives of the Presidential First Inaugural Addresses,
1789–2001 28
3.3 Motives and Leadership Performance Among U.S.
Presidents 30
3.4 Motives and Leadership Outcomes Among U.S.
Presidents: Political Style 32
3.5 Motives and Leadership Outcomes Among U.S.
Presidents: Peace and Scandals 33
3.6 Motive Imagery Differences Between “Threat” and
“Nonthreat” Presidential Speeches by John F. Kennedy 37
3.7 Relationships Between Presidential Motive Imagery in
Press Conferences and Schedule of Presidential Time on
Adjacent Days 38
3.8 Motive Profile of Richard Nixon Based on His Inaugural
Addresses 39
3.9 Actual versus Hypothesized Motive-Related Behaviors of
Richard Nixon 40
4.1 The General Operational Codes of Presidents Bush and
Clinton 56
4.2 Operational Codes of Presidents Bush and Clinton by
International and Domestic Domains 59
viii Tables, Figures and Appendixes
5.1 Motive Imagery Comparison Across Leaders 73
5.2 Power Imagery Minus Achievement Imagery
Comparison Across Leaders 75
5.3 Power Imagery Minus Affiliation Imagery Comparison
Across Leaders 76
6.1 Millon’s Eight Attribute Domains 84
6.2 Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria: Scales and
Gradations 87
6.3 MIDC Item Endorsement Rate by Attribute Domain 89
6.4 MIDC Scale Scores for George W. Bush 90
7.1 NEO PI-R Factor and Facet Scales 108
7.2 Average Percentile Scores of Presidential Types on the
Big Five Personality Factors 114
7.3 Correlations of the NEO Big Five Dimensions of
Personality with Historian Ratings of Greatness 117
7.4 Scores of Ronald Reagan on the NEO PI-R Facet Scales 123
8.1 Number of Major Statements by Officials 144
8.2 Illustration of Major Statements by President Carter 145
8.3 Thematic Statements by Officials 146
8.4 Summary of the Carter Administration’s Images of the
International System 149
8.5 Illustration of Carter Administration Foreign Policy
Behaviors, 1977 152
8.6 Comparison of Carter Administration Rank Orderings of
Beliefs and Behavior for Issues and Actors per Year 154
8.7 Summary of Major Findings and Relationships 157
FIGURES
3.1 Bill Clinton’s Achievement and Power Motives over Time 42
6.1 Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria: Profile for
George W. Bush 91
7.1 Average Scores of U.S. Presidents on the NEO Big Five
Factors 112
7.2 Ronald Reagan’s Scores on the Big Five Personality
Factors Relative to Average Americans and Other
Presidents 124
7.3 Ronald Reagan’s Personality Strengths and Liabilities as
President (Presidential Norms) 125
Tables, Figures and Appendixes ix
8.1 Summary of an Actor’s Image of the International System 140
8.2 Beliefs and Their Relationship for Behavior 142
11.1 Electoral Vote Map 211
APPENDIXES
5.1 Data Coded for Leaders Involved in Peace Agreement
Negotiations 79
7.1 Producing Objective Personality Portraits: Selecting Items
for Use in the Portraits 131
Preface
This volume follows our previous project titled Profiling Political Leaders:
Cross-Cultural Studies of Personality and Behavior (edited by Ofer Feldman
and Linda O. Valenty), published recently by Praeger (2001). While the
first volume focused on the examination and application of a variety of
methods designed to profile political leaders from divergent societies,
the present volume is dedicated to American case studies. This volume
represents a unique scholarly endeavor in that it examines the utility of
these methods in the analysis of linkages between personality, political
motivation, and behavior among American political leaders.
In the broad sense, both the present and the previous volume should
be read together, as they combine contributions from international schol-
ars concerned with cross-cultural perspectives on political leadership and
communicate across national and disciplinary boundaries with contrib-
uting authors from a variety of societies and disciplines, including
history, political science, psychology, social psychology, and communi-
cation. The two volumes aim to stimulate broad general appeal and pro-
fessional interest in the linkages between personality and political
behavior. Taken as a whole, the two-volume set addresses the role of a
nation’s culture and politics in framing the association between psycho-
logical profile and leadership performance. Several chapters call atten-
tion to the fact that cross-cultural comparative research on leadership
should be applied within the broader study of cultural and national dif-
ferences and characteristics, with acknowledgment and understanding
that the behavior and function of leaders within societies can shed light
on the (accepted) behavior and norms of the societies themselves.
While working on this project and preparing these two volumes, we
xii Preface
have attempted to keep several audiences in mind. The volumes are
aimed primarily at scholars of political science, psychology, political psy-
chology, sociology, contemporary history, and cross-cultural studies who
are interested in an interdisciplinary approach to the study of political
leadership and the research methods that support those studies. How-
ever, each or both of the edited books can serve as textbooks for courses
in the above fields or for courses specifically dealing with political be-
havior and psychology, political sociology, personality, political leader-
ship, cultural studies, or social psychology. In addition, the volumes are
also accessible to the general reader who is interested in analyses of some
of the most highly visible political figures of recent years. It has been
our goal to provide depth and breadth in the collected research, and we
are delighted that what has resulted is a survey of the state of the art
with contributions from a truly distinguished group of political scientists,
psychologists, and political psychologists with seasoned backgrounds
and experience in understanding the interaction between leadership and
personality, on the one hand, and political behavior, attitudes, and cul-
ture, on the other. We hope these two books will provide a stimulus for
additional cross-cultural research on political leadership, personality,
and behavior.
We would like to thank Dr. James T. Sabin, Director of Academic Re-
search and Development at Greenwood Publishing Group, for support-
ing our project as a whole. We also offer our sincere appreciation to the
contributors for their chapters and for their consistently rapid responses
to our requests for further information and revisions. To both of us, the
editors, it has been a pleasure to work with all of these researchers; the
project benefited much from their intellectual stimulation, ideas, sugges-
tions, and criticism. Linda Valenty would also like to thank her children,
Bethany and Luke, for their ongoing love and understanding during the
completion of this second volume. Finally, Ofer Feldman owes the big-
gest debt to his wife, Rie, and sons, Utai and Iri, who were a constant
source of support and encouragement throughout the whole project.
Introduction
Linda O. Valenty and Ofer Feldman
Political Leadership for the New Century: Personality and Behavior Among
American Leaders is specifically designed to analyze and deal with the
complexities of evaluating those political leaders who have become
prominent within the United States. It includes case studies examining
political figures such as presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon,
Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and
George W. Bush. It also contains a study of Vice President Spiro Agnew
and data for other prominent leaders including all elected U.S. presi-
dents. The impetus for the creation of this volume and our earlier vol-
ume, Profiling Political Leaders, was the need for texts that described both
theory and implementation in the analysis of political personality and
behavior. These chapters taken together provide an overview of current
methods used in understanding and predicting political behavior
Political leaders, by virtue of the tremendous responsibility that they
both undertake and are given, have been of critical interest to analysts
of politics and political psychology. However, the attributes of their per-
sonalities and the interaction between personality and behavior are not
readily accessible and so necessitate the use of techniques which seek to
enhance understanding without the advantage of direct access to the
political subject. Both qualitative and quantitative versions of these tech-
niques generally employ the use of what is often described as “at-a-
distance” methodology. Whether quantitative or qualitative, these
approaches present difficulties for the researcher. Choice of material, de-
termination of the method of analysis, and interpretation of results all
present theoretical, if not logistical, hurdles that are overcome only with
reliance upon the rigor of systematic analysis.