Assessing Leaders' Personalitiesof beliefs have been refined and elaborated: those concerned with the
leader's philosophical beliefs about the nature of the political uni-
verse and those concerned with the leader's choices and instrumental
tactics (George 1969).
As originally formulated, operational codes are like portraits: at
their best, they faithfully reflect the individual being portrayed, but
different portraits of different leaders cannot readily be compared.
Thus Walker (1986) reconstructed an operational code for Woodrow
Wilson, confirming some of Post's (1983a, 1983^ analyses based on
more traditional psychobiographical methods. More recently,
Walker and his colleagues (e.g., Walker, Schafer, and Young 1998)
have developed objective quantitative methods for assessing opera-
tional codes. These have been used in studies of several U. S. presi-
dents from the latter half of the twentieth century (Schafer 2000; see
also chapter 20 of this volume for a general discussion of operational
codes).
Cognitive Style
Cognitive Complexity
In personality theory and research, cognitive complexity is generally
associated with more sophisticated and better adaptive behavior,
especially in ambiguous or confusing situations. Hermann (198oa)
measured cognitive complexity at a distance by calculating the ratio
of certain words and phrases identified as high complexity to words
and phrases designated as low complexity. Among heads of govern-
ment, cognitive complexity defined in this way is associated with
expressing positive affect toward other nations and receiving positive
feedback from other nations.
Working with a two-stage theory of cognitive complexity that
involves first differentiation and then integration, Suedfeld and his
colleagues (e.g., Suedfeld and Tetlock 1977) have adapted a labora-
tory measure of integrative complexity for at-a-distance research.
(While this integrative complexity is conceptually related to Hermann's
measure, to date no research has explored the intercorrelation or dis-
criminant validity of the two measures.)
Several studies have demonstrated that integrative complexity is
related to peaceful resolution (versus escalation) of international