Comparing the Personality Profiles of Barack Obama and Franklin D
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College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU Psychology Faculty Publications Psychology 7-2012 Presidential Decision Making: Comparing the Personality Profiles of Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt Andrew Obritsch St. John's University / College of St. Benedict Aubrey Immelman St. John's University / College of St. Benedict, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs Part of the American Politics Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Other Psychology Commons, and the Personality and Social Contexts Commons Recommended Citation Obritsch, A., & Immelman, A. (2012, July). Personality and presidential decision making: Comparing the personality profiles of Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Paper presented at the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of oliticalP Psychology, Chicago, July 6-9, 2012. Retrieved from Digital Commons website: http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/128/ Copyright © 2012 by Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics / Aubrey Immelman PERSONALITY AND PRESIDENTIAL DECISION MAKING COMPARING THE PERSONALITY PROFILES OF BARACK OBAMA AND FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Andrew Obritsch Clinical Psychology M.A. Program Eastern Illinois University and Aubrey Immelman Department of Psychology Saint John’s University Paper presented at the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology Chicago, Illinois July 6–9, 2012 Roosevelt and Obama 1 Abstract Personality and Presidential Decision Making: Comparing the Personality Profiles of Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt This paper presents the results of indirect assessments of the personalities of U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack H. Obama, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon. Information concerning Roosevelt and Obama was collected from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into personality profiles 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 profiles yielded by the MIDC were analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC manual. Roosevelt’s primary personality pattern was found to be Dominant/controlling, with secondary features of the Ambitious/self-serving and Conscientious/dutiful patterns. Obama’s primary personality pattern was found to be Ambitious/self- serving, with secondary features of the Conscientious/respectful and Retiring/reserved patterns. Roosevelt’s and Obama’s personalities are compared and contrasted and the influence of their personality patterns on presidential decision making discussed in the context of parallel political and economic challenges faced by these two presidents. Roosevelt and Obama 2 Introduction Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama are arguably two of the most charismatic and popular Democratic candidates elected to the office of President of the United States in a century. Although more than 70 years separates their inaugurations, both historical and personality parallels can be drawn between Roosevelt and Obama. The first of the two historical parallels between Roosevelt and Obama deals with the severe economic hardship that plagued the United States just prior to and during the presidency of both men. In 1933 the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in our nation’s history. At the time of Roosevelt’s election, the unemployment rate in the United States was 33 percent and manufacturing was roughly 40 percent of what it had been in the mid-1920s (Greenberg, 2010, p. 85). To fast forward 75 years, the economic collapse that occurred in 2008–2009 was by all accounts the worst since the Great Depression (Greenberg, 2010, p. 85). Between November 2008 and April 2009 approximately 645,000 Americans lost their jobs each month. One in three of the 10 percent of unemployed Americans had been without a job for more than 27 weeks, a record for the post-World War II United States (Greenberg, 2010, p. 86). The second historical parallel between the presidencies of Roosevelt and Obama is the similar political climate in which each was elected. In both 1932 and 2008, the United States signaled political change, electing two Democrats (Roosevelt and Obama) to succeed two unpopular Republicans (Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush). In comparing Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush, noted U.S. historian Douglas Brinkley wrote in the fall of 2006 that Bush “has joined Hoover as a case study on how not to be president” (Leuchtenburg, 2008). William E. Leuchtenburg, the author of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (1963) had the following to say about the similarities between Hoover and Bush: Indeed, Hoover does resemble Bush in a number of regrettable ways. He was stubborn and often myopic. He rejected counsel that did not accord with his misconceptions, and he deceived himself that conditions were far better than they were. He agreed to a massive federal program only after a long period of resistance, and he appointed men to administer it who had small sympathy for government intrusion into the private sector. He favored aid to financial institutions, but not to the victims of hard times. He was nonplused about how to stanch the hemorrhaging when the financial illness became an epidemic. Furthermore, he failed to inspirit the nation. (Leuchtenburg, 2008) The American people communicated that they desired a change in leadership in both 1932 and 2008. The present study analyzes and compares the personalities of the two presidents Americans voted into office in these two landmark elections — Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama. One issue that arose in the study was how to approach the disparity between Roosevelt and Obama in time served as president. Because Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented four terms and Obama at the time of the study was just halfway through his first term, we decided to analyze and compare Roosevelt and Obama only up until the time each was elected president. Roosevelt and Obama 3 However, when gathering data for the personality profiles of each president, data from the entire adult life of both presidents were used. The study was conducted using Theodore Millon’s model of personality (1969, 1986a, 1986b, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2003; Millon & Davis, 2000; Millon & Everly, 1985) as adapted (Immelman, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2003) as the tool for the assessment of personality in politics. Following Immelman, the terms personality and politics are used in accordance with Fred Greenstein’s (1992) definition. Politics, by this definition, “refers to the politics most often studied by political scientists — that of civil government and of the extra-governmental processes that more or less directly impinge upon government, such as political parties” and campaigns. Personality, as narrowly construed in political psychology, “excludes political attitudes and opinions … and applies only to nonpolitical personal differences” (p. 107). Immelman (2002, 2003, 2005), following Millon defines personality as a complex pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics that are largely nonconscious and not easily altered, expressing themselves automatically in almost every facet of functioning. Intrinsic and pervasive, these traits emerge from a complicated matrix of biological dispositions and experiential learnings, and ultimately comprise the individual’s distinctive pattern of perceiving, feeling, thinking, coping, and behaving. (Millon, 1996, p. 4) As noted by Immelman, Greenstein (1992) makes an important point about the importance of studying personality in government and politics: “Political institutions and processes operate through human agency. It would be remarkable if they were not influenced by the properties that distinguish one individual from another” (p. 124). This perspective provides the context for the current paper, which presents an analysis of the personalities of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama and examines the political implications of their respective personality profiles — especially the question of how prominent traits in their profiles influenced their decision making. The methodology employed in the study involves the construction of theoretically grounded personality profiles derived from empirical analysis of biographical source materials (see Immelman, 2003, 2004, 2005). Immelman (2003, 2005) provides a comprehensive review of Millon’s personological model, which encompasses eight attribute domains: expressive behavior, interpersonal conduct, cognitive style, mood/temperament, self-image, regulatory mechanisms, object representations, and morphologic organization (see Table 1). Roosevelt and Obama 4 Table 1 Millon’s Eight Attribute Domains Attribute Description Expressive behavior The individual’s characteristic behavior; how the individual typically appears to others; what the individual knowingly or unknowingly reveals about him- or herself; what the individual wishes others to think or to know about him or her. Interpersonal conduct How the individual typically interacts with others; the attitudes that underlie, prompt, and give shape to these actions; the methods by which the individual engages others to meet his or her needs; how the individual copes with social tensions and conflicts. Cognitive style How the individual focuses