The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadersthe first three types of material can be written or crafted for the
leader by others, some caution must be exercised in examining such
statements to ascertain what the leader is like. Care and thought
have often gone into what is said and how it is said. Interviews with
the media are generally a little more spontaneous. During the give-
and-take of a question-and-answer period, the leader must respond
quickly without props or aid; what he or she is like can influence the
nature of the response and how it is worded. Although there may be
some preparation of leaders prior to an interview with the press, dur-
ing the interview leaders are on their own to respond. For these rea-
sons, the following profile is based only on Hussein's responses to
media questions in an interview setting.
Leadership Profile in GeneralTable 17.1 reports the average trait scores for Hussein across sixty
interview responses. The scores represent the percentage of time that
Hussein used words that could have exhibited a particular trait
where the criteria for coding the trait were present. The percentages
can run from zero to one hundred. Table 17.1 also presents what
would be considered a low and high score on a specific characteristic
based on the scores of twelve Middle Eastern leaders from seven
countries, as well as on the scores of eighty-seven heads of state from
forty-six countries. The twelve Middle Eastern leaders are a more
culturally focused subset of the eighty-seven. Low and high scores
are one standard deviation below and above the average score for a
particular characteristic for the group of leaders with whom Hussein
is being compared and differentiate him from these others. Hussein
is considered moderate in the trait if his score is not one standard
deviation above or below the mean of the group; in other words, he
resembles the comparison group of leaders on that trait. As the
reader will note, when Hussein's scores are close to being low or
high, I have noted that he leans toward being one or the other.
Saddam Hussein is different from the two samples of leaders on
over half of the traits— nationalism, need for power, distrust of oth-
ers, and self-confidence. He is like other leaders with regard to his
belief that he can control events, conceptual complexity, and his focus
on accomplishing something versus focusing on the people involved