Assessing Leaders' Personalitiesfrom having affiliative goals and a trusting, extraverted behavioral
style, along with cognitive complexity and self-esteem.
Personality Orientations and Multivariate StrategiesThe results summarized in table 2.2 suggest that predictions of
political behavior are likely to be better if they are made using com-
binations of variables, preferably drawn from different elements or
levels of analysis. However, personality is not a mere agglomeration
of discrete and isolated individual variables but rather a complex and
integrated whole. For example, extraversion may have very different
effects when combined with power goals and distrust, as opposed to
affiliation goals and trust (see Winter et al. 1998). While personality
research is still looking for the ideal research strategy to deal with
such complexity, Hermann has developed some methods for doing
integrated, multivariate profiles.
Toward an Integrative Model of Personality and Foreign PolicyFirst, Hermann (1987b) worked out a series of six personality orien-
tations, each consisting of different combinations of the eight
motives, cognitions, and traits that she had previously studied as
separate variables. Table 2.3 lists these orientations along with their
component variables. While these particular orientations were
derived from a specific political psychology literature—involving
conceptions of national role as related to foreign policy—they can
also be seen as metaphors for some common personality types in
political life generally.
TABLE 2.2. PERSONALITY VARIABLES ASSOCIATED WITH VARIOUS
FOREIGN POLICY OUTCOMES
Motives
Cognitive beliefs
Cognitive styleTemperament and
interpersonal traitsSource: Data from WinterWar Disposition
Power motive
Nationalism
Self-confidence
Low integrative complexity
Optimistic explanatory style
Dominance
Competitiveness
Distrust
1992b.Peace Disposition
Affiliation motive
Self-esteemHigh integrative complexityExtraversion
Trust