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Certain Personality Factors of State Legislators in South Carolina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

John B. Mcconaughy
John B. Mcconaughy
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina
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Extract

Some twenty years ago Harold D. Lasswell, in his Psychopathology and Politics, attempted to show by case histories some of the motivations and personality characteristics of certain political types. This book was a pioneer in its field because it applied the psychoanalytic “free fantasy” technique to the field of political science. The case histories were chosen from those in selected hospitals and from the official files of certain psychiatrists. From these case histories, Lasswell was able to obtain information which threw new light on the actions of such political types as the agitator and the administrator. He then developed the formula p}d}r = P; where p equals private motives, d equals displacement onto public objects, r equals rationalization in terms of public interest, } means “transformed into,” and P signifies the political man.

Lasswell's techniques are invaluable for the study of political personalities and motives. It is unfortunate that others have not utilized them more fully and thereby added to the store of knowledge concerning the personalities of politicians; but a partial explanation lies in the fact that the techniques themselves present obstacles to their ready use by political scientists. In the first place, the case histories are usually confidential and difficult to obtain.

Type
Research on Political Parties and Leadership
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 1950 , pp. 897 - 903
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1950

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References

1 (Chicago, 1930).

2 Ibid., pp. 261–262.

3 Especially with Dr. M. Kershaw Walsh, Head of the Psychology Department.

4 Marie Joyce Hayes, whose unpublished M.A. thesis, “The Personality Factors of Contemporary Political Leaders of South Carolina” (University of South Carolina, 1948)Google Scholar, deals with some of the findings of the tests.

5 For a fuller discussion of the statistical procedures involved, see Garrett, Henry E., Statistics in Psychology and Education (New York, 1926)Google Scholar.

6 Bernreuter, Robert G., Manual for the Personality Inventory (Stanford University, 1935), p. 1 Google Scholar.

7 Manual of Directions and Norms for the Guilford-Martin Inventory of Factors G-A-M-I-N, p. 1.

8 Edwards, Allen L., “Unlabelled Fascist Attitudes,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 36, p. 572 (1941)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Edwards Test was standardized on only 91 college students at the University of Akron in 1940, and may be a little hyper-sensitive. Its reliability has sometimes been questioned.

9 Ibid., p. 575.

10 Ibid., p. 576.

11 Lentz, Theodore F. and Colleagues, Manual for C. R. Opinionaire (St. Louis, 1935), p. 1 Google Scholar.

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