Assessing Leadership Style: Trait Analysis

The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders

Fig. 4.1. Variables relevant to the study of personality and

politics. (Also see Brewster-Smith 1968.)

Fig. 4.2. Stone and Schaffner: Field model

The Life Course of Political Leaders: The Psychobiography

In developing the psychobiographic section of the political personal-
ity profile, the primary focus is on shaping events. It may be that sev-
eral years can be captured in one sentence, while the details of a key
afternoon may require several pages to depict and analyze. Thus the
psychobiographic profile is envisaged as collapsing and expanding,
by no means a merely linear and chronological depiction of life
events. Early leadership successes and failures are particularly impor-
tant to identify and analyze in detail, as they are often endowed with

Larger Social

and

Political System

Input from

Current

Situation

Cultural,

Socio-political

and Familial

Environment

Role

Personality

Political Actor

I. Historical Milieu

II. The Social Environment

IV.The Immediate Situation

V.

Political

Behavior

III.

The Person

Character

Id-Ego-Superego

Attitudes

Skills

Group Identities

Mood

(here and now)

(neighborhood, church, school, family, peers)