Aubrey Immelman

The political personalities of 1996 U.S. presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole

Abstract The personalities of President Bill Clinton and Senator Bob Dole were indirectly assessed from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon. Information pertaining to Bill Clinton and Bob Dole was collected from published biographical material and synthesized into personality profiles using Millons diagnostic criteria. President Clinton was found to be primarily Asserting/self-promoting and Outgoing/ gregarious, whereas Senator Dole emerged from the assessment as primarily Controlling/dominant and Conforming/dutiful. A dimensional reconceptualization of the results to examine convergences among the present Millon-based findings, Simontons dimensions of presidential style, and the five-factor model suggests that Clinton is predominantly charismatic/extraverted, whereas Dole is deliberative/conscientious and relatively low on interpersonality/agreeableness. The profile for Bill Clinton is consistent with a presidency troubled by ethical questions and lapses of judgment, and provides an explanatory framework for Clintons high achievement drive and his ability to retain a following and maintain his self-confidence in the face of adversity.

The Assessment of Political Personality : a Psychodiagnostically Relevant Conceptualization and Methodology

The purpose of this article is to narrow the conceptual and methodological gap between existing formulations in psychodiagnostic theory and current practice in political personality. It is suggested that accurate assessment of the personalities of high-level leaders can significantly improve the prediction of political outcomes but that this endeavor has been hampered by inadequate transposition from the source disciplines of personality theory and psychodiagnostics to the target discipline of contemporary political psychology. It is proposed that Theodore Millons personological model offers a viable integrative framework for the study of political personality. The present article explicates Millons model, specifies the relevance of this formulation to political psychology, and indicates how it may inform theoretical analysis and research in political psychology by accommodating a diverse range of approaches to the psychological examination of political leaders.