Cognitive Social Learning Variables and the Characteristics of Leaders1

This study explored the potential of a person × situation approach to identifying the characteristics of leaders in a voluntary community organization. A set of variables based on Mischel's “cognitive social learning variables” was operationalized to provide variables which assess the characteristics of individuals in relation to the specific context in which some emerge as leaders. This set of variables was compared with a larger set of traditional demographic and personality variables. Analyses indicated the approximate statistical comparability of the two sets. Advantages of the cognitive social learning approach for understanding and intervening in leader emergence and development in voluntary community organizations are discussed.     

Small Unit Leader Perceptions of Managing Soldier Behavioral Health and Associated Factors

This investigation explored squad leaders’ perceptions of their roles managing subordinate soldiers’ behavioral health (BH) needs. The data were obtained through an anonymous survey of 458 squad leaders (i.e., small unit leaders who oversee 4–10 soldiers). More than 80% of squad leaders perceived management of soldier BH needs before, during, and after treatment as their responsibility, and felt comfortable and capable of executing these roles. Latent class analysis was used to determine groups of “most active,” “moderately active,” and “least active” leaders. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the least and most active classes. The most active leaders were more likely to report high BH knowledge, dedication to a common purpose, and low levels of “associative” stigma. These results should inform leader management of soldier BH. Future research should examine active leader characteristics and whether evidence-based training can increase support for preventing and managing BH issues.     

Second‐Generation Leader Categorization Research: How Subordinates' Self‐ and Typical Leader Perceptions Moderate Leader Categorization Effects

Leader categorization theory proposes that the more leaders match their subordinates' cognitive image (prototype) of an ideal leader the easier it is for subordinates to “categorize” them as leaders and consequently follow their leadership. Based on self‐concept research, we extend this perspective and argue that the relationship assumed in leader categorization theory should be stronger when subordinates perceive themselves to represent the ideal leader prototype. Further, this moderating effect should be stronger when subordinates perceive the ideal leader prototype to not only be an abstract ideal category, but one that is generally also met in reality; i.e., when it is met by typical leaders. Findings of a cross‐sectional study with employees in Germany (N = 297) support both predictions.     

Identity Mediators: Leadership and Identity Construction in Campaign Speeches of American Presidential Candidates' Spouses

We explore the nature and evolution of the role of candidates' spouses in U.S. presidential election campaigns through a lens of social psychological theorizing that sees leadership as emerging from activities of identity construction of leaders and followers. Our discursive analysis examines how aspiring First Lady speeches at party national conventions construct both their husbands and the particular national identity construction most presently politically relevant in a way that strategically aligns the two. Building on previous social identity work on leadership, we show how it is not only the leader or their followers who are active participants in leadership construction but that there may also be a role for “third parties” who link prospective leaders with followers. We propose that, as “entrepreneurs” of identity, leaders may use others as “identity mediators” to co‐construct and mediate both the leader's identity and the identity of those they seek to lead.     

Investigating a process model for leader affective presence,interpersonal emotion regulation,and interpersonal behaviour in teams

Leader affective presence is the tendency of leaders to elicit feelings that are consistent among other individuals, and has been supported as a relevant personality trait for understanding teamwork. Drawing on a model that integrates personality and emotion regulation, this study aimed to expand research on affective presence by proposing team members’ perceptions of leader interpersonal emotion regulation as a process that explains how leader affective presence is related to team member behaviour. In the model, teamness—the perception that interdependence and reflexivity are required in the team—is presented as a boundary condition to the effects of affective presence via emotion regulation. Results of a study conducted with 99 teams showed that team member ratings of leader positive affective presence were linked to their perceptions that leaders had used affect-improving emotion regulation which in turn was associated with greater team citizenship behaviour. Contrariwise, team member ratings of leader negative affective presence were associated with perceived use of affect-worsening emotion regulation by leaders which in turn was associated with lower levels of team citizenship, but only when teams were low in teamness. These findings contribute to understanding how leaders’ individual differences are related to teamwork through affective processes.     

Validating a new method for quantifying traits: The computer-administered visual analog

This article introduces a new method for assessing personality traits that uses graphic rather than written items to facilitate the convergent validation of personality traits. A computer-administered visual analog procedure is presented that samples 40 equally spaced positions along a trait continuum five times. Examinees initiate each trial by pressing the space bar and end it by pressing either a “True” or “False” key indicating if that location describes them or not. Response time is measured in milliseconds. The majority answer determines the aggregate response and the median response time determines the latency for the aggregate response to each location on the trait continuum. This procedure enables an empirical measure of trait variability. Results indicated theoretically meaningful responses in 94 college students on each of two personality dimensions; extraversion and trait anxiety. The predicted inverted-U function was obtained for both personality dimensions such that the fastest response times were associated with 0 and 5 “True” responses, somewhat longer response times were associated with 1 and 4 “True” responses, and the longest times were associated with 2 or 3 “True” responses. Statistically significant and substantial validity coefficients were obtained with the Eysenck personality inventory extraversion scale, and the state-trait anxiety inventory, form Y-2.     

Candidate Evaluations Through the Lens of Adaptive Followership Psychology: How and Why Voters Prefer Leaders Based on Character Traits

An extensive literature in political science shows how citizens' evaluations of politicians—as well as their electoral behavior—are affected by trait impressions of these politicians. However, deeper, interdisciplinary theory building that seeks to address when and for whom specific trait impressions come to guide candidate evaluations remains absent. In this article, I outline the theory of adaptive followership that seeks to address this shortcoming. Grounded in evolutionary psychology, I argue that leadership evolved as a solution to problems of intragroup coordination in ancestral small-scale societies. In order to understand the traits that drive followers' and voters' evaluations of leaders and politicians, one should therefore focus on problems related to group coordination and ask how these problems might regulate followers' prioritizations of various traits in leaders. On this basis, I outline an analytical framework consisting of three predictions that simultaneously formulate how (1) contexts and (2) individual differences of relevance to a given group-coordination problem regulate trait preferences, and (3) how such preferences differ between leaders and nonleaders (i.e., other social categories). The analytical framework is applied for structuring two reviews (including new empirical studies) of the ways through which intergroup conflict and disease threat, respectively, affect followers' trait preferences in leaders. Finally, directions and suggestions for future research on trait-based candidates and leader evaluations are discussed.     

Black Mega Churches: attitudes towards corporal punishment and perceived guilt or innocence

The allegation of child abuse against mega-church leader Creflo Dollar on 8 June 2012 has led many to evaluate the guilt or innocence of this religious leader. This case is especially interesting in that, in contrast to studies that have examined the sexual discretions of church leaders, this study examines the presumed innocence or guilt of Dollar's 15-year-old daughter (who he alleged choked) and the man at the centre of this debate. This study will examine over 3000 comments made by anonymous contributors on CNN's public website and analysed using a qualitative methodology. The following six themes were identified: (1) Condemnation of Mega-Churches and Mega-Church Leaders: “The love of money is the root of all evil”; (2) Condemnation of Creflo Dollar's Actions Against His Daughter: “He is a child beater”; (3) Condemnation of Religious Leaders: “Most priests are crooks”; (4) Condemnation of God and Religion: “God is not great and religion poisons everything”; (5) Support for Corporal Punishment: “Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child”; (6) Support for Creflo Dollar's Actions: “It sounds like the man of the house handled business!” Narratives will be offered to support and illustrate each of these themes, and the implications for the mental health of African Americans will be discussed.     

Personality and leader effectiveness: a moderated mediation model of leadership self-efficacy, job demands, and job autonomy

The trait theory of leadership is advanced by a joint investigation of the mediating role of (a) leadership self-efficacy (LSE = leader's perceived capabilities to perform leader roles) in linking neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with leader effectiveness and (b) the moderating role of job demands and job autonomy in influencing the mediation. Using K. J. Preacher, D. D. Rucker, and A. F. Hayes' (2007) moderated mediation framework, the authors tested the model (over a 2-year period) with matched data from 394 military leaders and their supervisors. Results showed that LSE mediated the relationships for neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with leader effectiveness. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that LSE mediated the relationships for (a) all 3 personality variables for only those leaders with low job demands; (b) neuroticism and conscientiousness for only those leaders with high job autonomy; and (c) extraversion, regardless of a leader's level of job autonomy. Results underscore the importance of accounting for leaders' situational contexts when examining the relationships between personality, LSE, and effectiveness.     

Personality,Childhood Experience,and Political Ideology

This article studies the relationship between the “big five” personality traits and political ideology in a large U.S. representative sample (N = 14,672). In line with research in political psychology, “openness to experience” is found to predict liberal ideology, and “conscientiousness” predicts conservative ideology. The availability of family clusters in the data is leveraged to show that these results are robust to a sibling fixed‐effects specification. The way that personality might interact with environmental influences in the development of ideology is also explored. A variety of childhood experiences are studied that may have a differential effect on political ideology based on a respondent's personality profile. Childhood trauma is found to interact with “openness” in predicting ideology, and this complex relationship is investigated using mediation analysis. These findings provide new evidence for the idea that differences in political ideology are deeply intertwined with variation in the nature and nurture of individual personalities.     

Leader Inquisitiveness,Political Skill,and Follower Attributions of Leader Charisma and Effectiveness: Test of a moderated mediation model

Given the variability in personality's relationship with leadership and the use of personality measures in leader selection and assessment, we examine the joint influence of leader trait inquisitiveness and leader political skill on subordinate perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness. Findings indicate a positive main effect of political skill on charisma, the positive relationship between inquisitiveness and charisma is moderated by heightened political skill, and charisma mediates the relationship between the inquisitiveness by political skill interaction and perceived effectiveness. The moderated mediation results of our study suggest that organizations should not only select creative and imaginative leaders, but also select those who are politically skilled or provide political skill training.     

Invasion of Ukraine: Observations on Leader-Followers Relationships

This paper illustrates how and when the personality characteristics of a political leader can initiate and/or become intertwined with societal and political processes. We are not suggesting that “real world” issues and secondary process calculations are not important or should be discarded in favor of psychological considerations. Instead, we suggest that psychoanalysts and psychodynamically informed mental health professionals can contribute to a more complete analysis of political or societal processes and the personalities of leaders who play major roles in them. Only through such interdisciplinary work can we fully understand the complex and intertwined nature of the crucial events that shape political leaders’ internal and external worlds.

     

Ch-Ch-Ch-changes: How Action Phase Functional Leadership,Team Human Capital,and Interim vs. Permanent Leader Status Impact Post-transition Team Performance

This study addresses the following: (1) does a team leader change along with the quality of the team’s human capital affect post-change team performance?; (2) is functional leadership of the team’s human capital a driver of post-change team performance?; and (3) should interim vs. permanent leaders manage the team’s human capital differently? We analyzed archival data from Major League Baseball teams who had undergone an in-season manager change (N = 129). Team performance improved after a leader change, and the quality of the team’s strategic and non-strategic core human capital were positively related to post-change performance. New leaders who engaged in more active functional leadership of the strategic core human capital enhanced the positive effects of human capital quality. Additionally, active functional leadership enhanced the positive effects of strategic core human capital for interim replacement leaders, but not for permanent replacement leaders. This study extends theory and practice on the importance of functional team leadership and human capital following a leader transition. As such, our results provide actionable knowledge for organizations and managers who are part of leadership transitions. This empirical study leverages a unique sample to provide insights into the implications of team leader transitions. The results of this study shed light on the impact that leader transitions which involve “interim” and “permanent” replacements may have on post-transition team performance and how these different types of leaders should leverage the inherent human capital that exists within the team.     

The subjective–agentic personality sector (SAPS): Introduction to the special issue on self,identity, and psychopathology

This special issue is predicated upon the premise that there exists a subjective–agentic personality sector (SAPS) that is crucially relevant to the understanding and treatment of psychopathology. SAPS is often overlooked by “trait” models in personality psychology. It is comprised of “hot” cognitions about one's self and identity as they unfold throughout the life span and are brought to bear on interpersonal relationships. There are four ways in which SAPS may be involved in psychopathology: (a) inherently, as a component of psychiatric disorders, (b) as a passive vulnerability dimension, namely by interacting with life stress, (c) as an active vulnerability dimension, that is, by propelling external situations that culminate in psychopathology, and (d) by constituting a central consequent of psychopathology (i.e., the scarring pattern, see below). In this Journal of Personality special issue, experts in personality and psychopathology demonstrate the centrality of SAPS in unipolar depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar spectrum disorder, eating disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, complex trauma and borderline personality disorder, social anxiety disorder, suicidality in the context of mood disorders, and recovery from schizophrenia. A commentary by Dan McAdams, a leader in the study of self and identity, concludes this special issue.