Assessing Leadership Style: Trait Analysis

Assessing Leaders' Personalities

Developing Objective at-a-Distance Measures

of Single Personality Variables

Some psychologists would argue that a sophisticated and vivid case
study is a work of art that could only be degraded by the "improve-
ments" of psychological science. On the other hand, the controversy
about the dynamics of Woodrow Wilson's personality previously
described suggests the importance of well-defined variables arid
objective measures. If only we could measure Wilson's self-esteem or
superego strength and determine whether he did indeed score below
and above average, respectively. If only we had well-validated mea-
sures of the "psychological effects of stroke" (whatever they may be),
so that we could calculate Wilson's scores over time and see whether
they follow the pattern demanded by the claims of Weinstein et al.
In an effort to resolve controversies of this kind about evidence arid
inference, and to introduce objective standards of scientific measure-
ment into the process of doing psychobiography and personality
assessments of leaders, political psychologists have in recent years
developed several methods of measuring personality variables at a
distance. As with any scientific measurement, the methodological
credentials of these at-a-distance measures are established by two of
their characteristics—the objectivity with which they can be applied
and the validity that has been established through previous replica-
ble research.

Objective Measurement at a Distance

Most personality variables are operationally defined in terms of tests

or other procedures that cannot be used with political leaders,

because researchers lack direct access. That is, most prominent con-

temporary leaders^4 usually cannot be tested, and even when they can,

ethical considerations would usually make it difficult to disclose the

results. Leaders of the past present an even greater problem: they are

dead and (to adapt a quotation from Glad 1973) by their deaths have

taken their personality characteristics—their Oedipus complexes,

authoritarianism, or power motivation—with them. Hence the need

for personality measures that can be used at a distance, without

direct access or contact. Because words are a resource that generally

exists in great abundance, both for living and dead leaders, many at-