The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadersand crisis and strategic decision making. In chapter 5, Stanley A.
Renshon, a political scientist trained in psychoanalysis, presents his
method with a model emphasizing three key aspects of character:
ambition, integrity, and relatedness.
Studies of personality traits also combine strategies of manifest
and latent content analysis. Analyses of overt motivational imagery
in the prepared speeches of leaders can identify needs that indicate a
leader's propensity for strategies of cooperation or conflict and risk-
taking orientation. Classification of the grammar and syntax of
more spontaneous utterances in interviews illustrates the use of
latent content analysis to detect politically relevant personality
traits. In chapter 6, the research psychiatrist Walter Weintraub pre-
sents his method for assessing key personality traits, drawing on
grammatical and syntactical analysis, a method originally drawn
from a psychiatric patient population and subsequently modified for
application to political leaders. The social psychologists David D.
Winter and Margaret G. Hermann both have developed methods
for the analysis of motivational imagery. In chapter 7, Winter dis-
cusses his method for analyzing the need for power, the need for
achievement, and the need for affiliation. In chapter 8, Hermann
presents her methods for analyzing these needs, as well as a complex
of other traits she has determined to be of importance in influencing
political behavior.
Studies of cognitive content—belief systems and cognitive
maps—employ manifest content analysis to identify the leader's
beliefs about political life. From these overt surface features in pub-
lic or private statements inferences are made about the likely impact
of leaders' beliefs on their behavior in the world. In chapter 9,
Stephen G. Walker, Mark Schafer, and Michael D. Young present a
discussion of the method of the Operational Code, which analyzes
both the leader's beliefs about the nature of the political universe and
the rules for the conduct of political life. Other studies of cognitive
style—integrative complexity and causal attribution—employ
latent content analysis to identify the structure of a leader's thought
patterns. From these more covert features inferences are drawn about
a leader's underlying optimism and pessimism and a competitive
versus cooperative approach to problem solving in different situa-
tions. In chapter 10, Peter Suedfeld, Karen Guttieri, and Phillip E.