Measuring the Motives of Political Actors at a DistanceSelection of Specific Documents
Once the political actor(s) of interest and appropriate comparison
groups have been identified, the next step is to select specific docu-
ments. (Document as used here means any verbal material that is
scored for motive imagery.) The use of comparable documents is just
as important as the use of comparable people and for the same reason:
any motive imagery scores or differences are always vulnerable to an
alternative interpretation or explanation that they are the result of
the nature of (i.e., differences in) the material scored rather than true
differences between persons.
The need for having similar documents can put constraints on
research. For example, suppose a researcher wanted to compare
U.S. presidents Jefferson, Lincoln, and Kennedy. American presi-
dents have only given live press conferences since Hoover; only
since Kennedy have these been broadcast live. Thus we cannot
compare the press conference transcripts of these three presidents.
American presidents have only delivered their annual State of the
Union message to Congress in person since Wilson; before that
time, the message was transmitted in writing. Thus State of the
Union messages are not comparable. While inaugural addresses do
go back to George Washington, they have certainly changed over
two centuries: in literary style, in the nature and size of the audi-
ence, and—most important—in the mass media. (Harding's inau-
gural, for example, was the first to be broadcast on the radio.) And
over the years, other modes of presidential communication have
changed radically. Letter writing (often done by Jefferson and Lin-
coln) has given way to telegrams, telephone calls (common in the
Kennedy era), and now email. For a Jefferson-Lincoln-Kennedy
comparison, then, inaugural addresses may be one of the few even
partly comparable sources of data, despite their obvious situa-
tional, political, and rhetorical differences.
In international relations research, diplomatic messages, speeches,
interviews, diaries, and memoirs may not be comparable with each
other on formal or structural grounds or even with themselves across
different eras. Again, careful comparisons and selections must be
made and advantages and disadvantages balanced.