The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaderscompulsive personality—are frequently encountered among politi-
cal and military leaders. The third type, the paranoid personality,
while rarer, can have major political consequences. These three per-
sonality types will be described in greater depth, and special aspects
of their associated styles with implications for political functioning
will be explored.
Personality and Political Behavior: Linkages among Cognitive
Beliefs, Information Processing Styles, Organizational
Propensities, and Political Preferences
In this section, each of the three personality types—narcissistic per-
sonality, obsessive-compulsive personality, and paranoid personal-
ity—will be discussed in relationship to two groups of factors
important to political functioning. First, certain cognitive factors asso-
ciated with each general personality type will be identified. Two dif-
ferent cognitive factors will be examined: cognitive beliefs and cog-
nitive processes. Second, this section will look at certain
organizational propensities and policy preferences, which would tend to
flow from each of the personality types. Examination of the belief
system in relationship to personality types will include the image of
the adversary (e.g., George 1969, 1979), the beliefs about the role of
conflict and the image of the international system (George 1979;
Holsti 1977), and the beliefs about the manner in which war might
start in a crisis. In some cases, associations between a particular per-
sonality type and an operational code belief system (Holsti 1977;
Walker 1990) will also be made.
Cognitive beliefs are closely tied to other personality elements;
affective needs and emotional drives can constrain the particular
form of cognitive belief system that develops. Moreover, the pre-
sumption is that the stronger and more rigid the personality charac-
teristics, the more frequently one would see systematic distortions
that affect information processing associated with particular leader
personality types. For illustrative purposes, crisis behavior will be
the particular form of policy preference examined here. Crisis behav-
ior would include such matters as the types of general approach to
international crisis bargaining, the inclination toward the use of
force in a crisis, and the negotiating style of that personality type in
that crisis.