Measuring the Motives of Political Actors at a Distanceand consequent vulnerability to cardiovascular problems and infec-
tious diseases.
Political Psychology Research on MotivesThis section reviews several political psychology studies that have
assessed the motive imagery of political leaders and groups, often as
part of a broader psychological profiling.
Research on Strategic Groups of Political Actors
U.S. Presidents
Extending the original work of Donley (Donley 1968; Donley and
Winter 1970), Winter (i^Sya) published motive scores of the first
inaugural addresses of American presidents from Washington
through Reagan, subsequently (Winter, in press) adding scores for
Bush and Clinton. Table 7.3 presents these scores.
Winter's (1991) review and extension of these studies, illustrated
in table 7.4, suggest that presidential motive imagery scores corre-
late with presidential behaviors and outcomes in predictable ways.
These results can be summarized as follows. Power-motivated presi-
dents are rated as "great" by historians. (Along these same lines,
House, Spangler, and Woycke {1991} found a relationship between
presidential power motivation and objective measures of presidential
charisma.) On the other hand, presidential power motivation is also
associated with involving the country in war—though, of course, the
causal linkage between an individual president's motive imagery and
U.S. war entry is complex and tenuous. Affiliation-motivated presi-
dents seek peace but are vulnerable to the influence of self-seeking
subordinates and, hence, scandal. Finally, the idealistic restlessness
of achievement-motivated presidents often leads them to frustration
in the amorphous mire of political intrigue and bargaining.
Since achievement-motivated leaders do well in business as entre-
preneurs, it is interesting to consider why this same motive creates
problems in politics. American corporate culture is a "command and
compliance" culture, in which a chief executive can insist on the "one
best solution" to any problem. Once there is a single best solution,
further discussion is often preempted. After all (in the words of
Jimmy Carter's 1975 presidential campaign autobiography), "Why