Personality and Social Contexts Commons^™

Political Psychology And Personality, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Following a brief overview of historical approaches to personality-in-politics inquiry, this book chapter reviews the current state of the field – specifically, psychodynamic approaches, trait/motivational perspectives, and cognitive models – and argues that Theodore Millon’s personological model offers an integrative framework for assessing personality in politics and building a conceptual bridge between personality patterns and political leadership styles.

Millon’s model accounts for structural and functional personality attributes at the behavioral, phenomenological, intrapsychic, and biophysical levels of analysis and provides a theoretically coherent framework for studying personality in politics consonant with established principles in the adjacent sciences and integrative with respect …

The Personality Of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Aubrey Immelman, Jamie Thielman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Clarence Thomas, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Justice Thomas was collected from biographical sources, speeches, and published reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Justice …

Lewdness, Sex, And Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the idea of punishing supervisory personnel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for sexual behavior.

Yesterday's Lei Feng And Today's Young People's Liberation Army Soldiers, Che Po Chan

CAPS Working Paper Series

Lei Feng has been propagandized as a model of emulation for the People's Liberation Army soldiers since the 1960s. This paper uses Lei Feng as a yardstick to measure contemporary young soldiers' general behaviors and orientations. We are interested to find out to what extent contemporary young soldiers have accepted the Chinese Communist Party's political education and have followed the norm set by the Party. It is found that the widely publicized Chinese role model has exerted little influence on contemporary young soldiers. Young soldiers today are utilitarian and materialistic, sharing the same youth culture with most Chinese youths of …

Terrorism, Hostages, And Stockholm Syndrome, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article critiques the construct of Stockholm syndrome as a viable explanation of hostage psychology in the context of a terrorist operation.

Identifying Terrorist Motivation And Psychopolitical Impediments To The War On Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article illustrates how the psychopolitics of public discourse on motives of terrorists can impede successful antiterrorism programs.

Counteracting Anti-United States Government Images In The Muslim World, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The Muslim World is both a social construct and a phenomenological concept—without geographical boundaries. But United States Government (USG) efforts to counteract USG negative images perceived by denizens of the Muslim World seem to be addressing the space-time of geography but not the social and phenomenological elements from which these images spring.

Trends. Suicidal Terrorism And The Death Penalty, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses why an established death penalty for terrorists who would, by their own actions, suicide might be appropriate.

Beyond The Downside Of War And Stress: A Commentary On Danieli, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes areas of psychological functioning that are often ignored or discounted by authors commenting on the psychological effects of war.

Special Article. Creation Of Delusions, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

At the age of 15 Dr. Karl Ericson was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After electroshock and high doses of thorazine, he recovered enough to gain some insight into his condition and developed self-help methods for himself which were published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Since then he has created a web site that combines his thoughts on politics, self-help, religion and philosophy and has written a preliminary online computer aided self-help program (3). Having suffered from delusions and paranoia, Dr. Ericson is acutely aware of delusions and paranoia in society and in political thinking. He published "Creation of Paranoia" …

Personnel Security: The Challenge Of Personality, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the construct of personality and identifies problems of the construct for application to viable personnel security programs on land, on and under the seas, in the sky, and in space.

Trends. The Political Psychology Of Deviance Regulation, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses deviation regulation in social context, commenting on the idea that deviance is intrinsic to us all.

A History Of Space Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a conceptual infrastructure for thinking about the history of space security.

Trends. Attachment Theory And Intelligence Case Officers, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses attachment theory as it is applied to intelligence case officers.

The Political Personality Of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Aubrey Immelman, Adam Beatty

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant information regarding President Mugabe was extracted from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals.

Mugabe’s primary personality …

“Bin Laden’S Brain”: The Abrasively Negativistic Personality Of Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Aubrey Immelman, Kathryn Kuhlmann

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States and allegedly chief strategist for al-Qaida operations and personal physician to Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri’s primary personality patterns were found to be Contentious/oppositional and Dominant/controlling, with secondary features of the Dauntless/dissenting and Ambitious/self-serving patterns.

The amalgam of Contentious (negativistic, or passive-aggressive) and Dominant (aggressive, or sadistic) patterns in al-Zawahiri’s profile suggests the presence of the “abrasive negativist” syndrome. For these personalities, minor frictions easily …

Is Learned Helplessness Helpless? Political Language Of The Bush Administration, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article critiques the notion that the Bush administration has effectively pursued its policy prescriptions through public language that induces learned helplessness among United States citizens.

The Psychopolitics Of Sexual Scandal: Can Gorgias Of Leontini Help?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the political implications of sexual scandal, considering the advice of Georgias of Leontini in his “Ecomium of Helen” that was written sometime after 427 B.C.E.

National Security And Multiple Selves, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the positive and negative consequences for national security of the ontology and phenomenology of multiple selves.

Trends. Intelligence, Iraqi Weapons Of Mass Destruction, And Anchoring Effects, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The anchoring effect involves the biasing of estimates based on previous beliefs. The author discusses the presence or absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) given this anchoring effect.

A Research Agenda For Political Personality And Leadership Studies: An Evolutionary Proposal, Aubrey Immelman, Theodore Millon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Despite major neuroscientific advances in the past two decades and parallel conceptual refinement in evolutionary theory, personality-in-politics inquiry remains adrift, divorced from these broader spheres of scientific knowledge. This paper reviews the neurobiological substrates of three major domains of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology relevant to political personality assessment and the psychological examination of political leaders; furnishes a context and set of guiding ideas to revitalize the study of the person as biopsychosocial entity in politics; advances a generative theory of personality and political leadership performance; and proposes an agenda for advancing personality-in-politics and leadership inquiry, informed by insights derived …

The Psychological Training Of Intelligence Analysts: Self-Change And Changes In The World, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author considers the prospects of self-change of analysts in the context of intelligence analysis, and the possibility of the analysts’ gaining better insights into the actual state of global affairs in the process.

The Life And Death Of Saddam And Osama, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

A version of this article appears in the May 5, 2003 issue of the United States publication, Newsday.

The author compares the impacts and legacies of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Trends. Where’S The Person In Personality? The Personality Of Politicians., Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses whether personality assessments of politicians can be practically relevant for members of the body politic.

Trends. Espionage And Sex: A Commentary On Personnel Security Criteria, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses one aspect of sexual orientation – homosexuality - in a security and intelligence context.

National Security, Child Development, And Intelligence On Intelligence, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a perspective on child development as a national security Issue, efforts to facilitate optimal child development, and the construct of intelligence as an indicator of child development.

Trends. After The Deluge: Psychology And Post-Totalitarianism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the psychological impacts – both positive and negative - of the transition from totalitarian rule in Iraq following the US-led military intervention against Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The Psychology Of Behavioral Prediction And War, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes recent social cognition research bearing on the psychology of behavioral prediction that may have implications for wartime decision making.

Trends. Social Cognition And The Legal Adjudication Of Terrorism Cases, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the impact of terrorism on the justice system and security.

Ideology Watch: Television As A Source Of Violence, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a commentary on a commonly accepted belief about the causal relationship between viewing televised violence and the viewer’s violent behavior.