Handbook of Psychology, Volume 5, Personality and Social Psychology

Conclusion 621

but do serve as a means of classifying the parts or constructs

of personality” (p. 183). There is heuristic value in employ-

ing a parallel organizational scheme to classify the constructs

of political performance (leadership and decision making).

At a minimum, such a heuristic model establishes explicit

links between the source domain of personality and the target

domain of political performance.

Biophysical Level

Fundamentally, Barber’s (1972/1992) dimensions ofactivity–

passivity and positive affect/negative affect constitute a

temperamental (i.e., having a predisposition to activity and

emotionality) construct. Thus, Barber’s construal of “presi-

dential character” offers a congenial framework for deducing

biophysical (temperamental and affective) modalities of

presidential performance.

The biophysical modality also is capable of accommodat-

ing the notion of emotional intelligence,one of the six key

qualities in Greenstein’s (2000) schema for describing presi-

dential leadership style and job performance. The flawed

presidencies of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy

Carter, and Bill Clinton all serve as stark reminders of the

pernicious effects that failed emotional management can

have on presidential performance. More significant, however,

is that this modality offers a congenial framework for accom-

modating the emerging biopolitical perspective (e.g.,

Marcus, 2001; Masters, 1989) on the psychology of politics.

Behavioral Level

The ubiquitoustask–relationshipdimension, prevalent in con-

temporary theories of leadership (including that of Hermann,

1986), presents a clear-cut instance of a personality-based

leadership orientation observed at the behavioral level. The

behavioral modality also represents the appropriate data level

for assessing Renshon’s (1996b) “three distinct aspects of

presidential and political leadership: mobilization, orchestra-

tion, and consolidation” (p. 226). Three of Greenstein’s (2000)

six stylistic and performance qualities can be assembled at the

behavioral level of analysis:organizational capacity, effec-

tiveness as a public communicator,andpolitical skill.

Phenomenological Level

Numerous personality-based leadership traits and qualities

converge on the phenomenological data level, including con-

ceptual complexity(Hermann, 1974, 1987), integrative com-

plexity(Suedfeld, 1994), cognitive style(George & Stern,

1998),sense of efficacy and competence(George & Stern,

1998), and judgment/decision making (Renshon, 1996b).

Two of Greenstein’s (2000) presidential leadership and per-

formance qualities, namely vision(which subsumes both the

power to inspire and consistency of viewpoint) and cognitive

style,assemble at this data level.

Intrapsychic Level

Both Hermann’s (1987) trust–distrustdimension (a compo-

nent of interpersonal style) and George and Stern’s (1998)

orientation toward political conflict (which influences a

leader’s choice of policy-making system) lend themselves to

analysis at the intrapsychic data level. Indeed, numerous per-

sonological and social-psychological perspectives relevant to

political leadership, judgment, and decision making converge

at the intrapsychic level, including the ego-defensive notion

of scapegoating as a form of displaced aggression(Adorno

et al., 1950; Hovland & Sears, 1940); the belief in a just

world and blaming the victim (Lerner, 1970) as a form of de-

fensive attribution;and the problem of defensive avoidance

in political decision making (Janis & Mann, 1977). The in-

trapsychic modality also offers a heuristic frame of reference

for examining psychodynamic aspects of xenophobia, ethnic

hatred, and the so-called roots of evil (Staub, 1989) as ex-

pressed in political leadership.

CONCLUSION

Political psychologists recognize that political outcomes are

governed by a multitude of factors, many of them indetermi-

nate. Nonetheless, the study of personality in politics has

advanced sufficiently to permit broad personality-based per-

formance predictions and to pinpoint a political candidate’s

specific strengths and limitations.

A coherent psychodiagnostic framework capable of cap-

turing the critical personological determinants of political

performance, embedded in a broad range of attribute domains

across the entire matrix of the person—not just the individ-

ual’s motives, operational code, integrative complexity, or

personality traits—is the one indispensable tool without

which the assessment of personality in politics can neither

prevail nor prosper.

Although this chapter has but scratched the surface in

breaking new ground for the construction of a generative,

evolutionary foundation for personality-in-politics inquiry, I

join Theodore Millon (coeditor of this volume) in reflecting

as he did upon concluding his epoch-making Toward a New

Personology: An Evolutionary Model(1990):

Some may very well argue they just struggled through an au-

thor’s need not only to impose an unnecessary order but to frame

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