ABSTRACT
To employ personality variables for explaining or predicting a President's political behavior requires situational analysis–or, more specifically, some way of analyzing or anticipating the complex, two-way interplay between personality and situational factors. A President's cognitive style influences the way in which he attempts to provide for his cognitive and emotional needs as a decisionmaker. In sum, both belief system and cognitive style are aspects of personality that play an important role in determining performance in the Presidency. Quite obviously, the inductive procedure depends, among other things, on the correctness of the diagnosis of each President's character. The inductive strategy employed in the study is also sensitive, of course, to James David Barber's efforts to explain various facets of a President's actions in terms of personality or character variables. Barber's study emerges as the first systematic effort to apply personality theory to the task of assessing candidates for the Presidency.
