Psychological Approach

1
Psychological Approach

• Introduction and overview the appeal and
  drawbacks of psychological analysis. Do you
  think it is important to know a presidential
  candidates personality type? How should this be
  used in screening candidates?
• Early theorists Each have a different view on
  human nature and it influences their view of the
  proper form of government Aristotle
  democratic city states people create the good
  society through interactions with each other
  Plato masses not capable of ruling, they need
  Philosopher Kings Machiavelli and Hobbes
  people are self-interested and we need strong
  rulers (the Prince or

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Views of human nature

• Leviathan) Locke people are rational, but can
  build collective institutions Rousseau belief
  in peoples basic goodness, the general will and
  common good.
• Modern theorists Freud psychoanalytic.
  Unconscious motivation of human behavior. Adorno
  the authoritarian personality. Try to explain
  Hitler and the Holocaust. Stanley Milgram
  experiments (1961). Philip Zimbardo and the
  Stanford prison experiment (1971). More relevant
  for mass behavior than presidential.

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Harold Lasswell elite behavior

• Harold Lasswell Power and Personality (1948)
  involvement in politics as a compensation for low
  self esteem and compensation for previous
  deprivations. Examples of the type of
  deprivations for which politicians may be trying
  to compensate please parents, rise above
  background, blighted careers, physical
  limitations, early illness, an ambitious mother
  who married beneath her.

4
James David Barber

• The Presidential Character (1972). Adaptive
  approach that is applied specifically to U.S.
  presidents. Important thing for voters in
  selecting a president is not primarily positions
  on issues and the record of the candidate, but
  who the candidate is as a person. Nixon
  prediction. Quote on the need to screen
  candidates in the modern world costs are much
  higher of choosing wrong.
• Components of his theory personality (which is
  made up of style, world view, and character)
  interacts with the external climate of
  expectations to create the dynamics of a given
  presidency. Style is how the president behaves
  with regard to rhetoric, people, and work.
  Determined in early adulthood by the first
  independent political success.

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Barber, cont.

• World view fundamental philosophical and
  ideological premises that shape the presidents
  behavior. Oddly, doesnt pay much attention to
  this in his work,
• Character is central. Energy that president puts
  into the job (active/passive) and his affect
  toward the jobdoes he enjoy it (positive/
  negative). Creates the two by two typology.
  Active positives are the best, active negatives
  are the ones to avoid. Review in Nelson.
• How character shapes behavior.

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Barber, cont.

• Critiques of Barbers theory?
• Applying the psychological approach to Clinton
• Clintons personality
• Implications for leadership
• The Clinton Enigma the Lewinsky affair and the
  speech. What does it reveal about the Clinton
  presidency?