Verbal Behavior and Personality Assessmentresearch team at the University of Michigan challenged me to create
personality profiles for two volunteers based entirely upon their ten-
minute free speech monologues. The speech samples were prepared
by the University of Michigan researchers in the manner previously
described, and only verbatim typed transcripts of the electronically
recorded monologues were sent. No other information about the
speakers was given to me.
After scoring the transcripts, I attempted written personality
evaluations of the two speakers and sent them to my University of
Michigan colleagues. After comparing my reports with independent
assessments of the speakers' personalities, the University of Michi-
gan group concluded that the method had the ability "to accurately
tap important personality dimensions" (Binder 1975).
Analyzing the Watergate Transcripts
Encouraged by the University of Michigan pilot study, I decided to
take advantage of the publication of the Watergate transcripts to
continue my analysis of individual speakers. The Watergate tran-
scripts presented students of verbal behavior with a unique opportu-
nity. To my knowledge, never before in history had spontaneous
conversations involving important political leaders been electroni-
cally recorded and made available to the public.
Since the Watergate participants could be assumed to have been
under considerable stress during most of the published conversa-
tions, the transcripts should contain pertinent data relative to the
adaptive patterns, as reflected in their styles of speaking, of the four
individuals whose remarks make up the bulk of the recorded mater-
ial. Using the verbal categories, samples of speech attributed to
Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and John Dean
were compared with those of a normal control group and of popula-
tions of delusional, impulsive, depressive, and compulsive psychi-
atric patients. The results indicated no abnormal verbal behavior for
either Dean or Ehrlichman. President Nixon could not be distin-
guished from the depressed patients in any of the verbal categories
and deviated from the impulsives in only one category. Haldeman's
style appeared to be abnormal but unlike any of the patient groups
previously studied (Weintraub 1981, 129-35).