Developing a Measure of Generative Historical Consciousness From Political Leaders' Speeches.

The desire for power causes wars, oppression, and destruction, yet power is a necessary dimension of all human enterprises. Therefore, taming power is a central moral and political problem in the social sciences and humanities, as well as politics and religion. This article reports development of a content analysis measure that differentiates expressions of "tamed" and "untamed" power, based on the theoretical concept of (GHC).

Taming power: Generative historical consciousness.

Power is a necessary dimension of all human enterprises. It can inspire and illuminate, but it can also corrupt, oppress, and destroy. Therefore, taming power has been a central moral and political question for most of human history.

Why achievement motivation predicts success in business but failure in politics: the importance of personal control.

Several decades of research have established that implicit achievement motivation (n Achievement) is associated with success in business, particularly in entrepreneurial or sales roles. However, several political psychology studies have shown that achievement motivation is not associated with success in politics; rather, implicit power motivation often predicts political success. Having versus lacking control may be a key difference between business and politics.

The role of motivation, responsibility, and integrative complexity in crisis escalation: comparative studies of war and peace crises.

Drawing on D. G. Winter's (1993) comparison of 1914 and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the author identified 8 paired crises (1 escalating to war, 1 peacefully resolved).

Things I've learned about personality from studying political leaders at a distance.

Studying the personalities of political leaders requires methods of measuring personality at a distance. One such method is content analysis of speeches, interviews, and other texts. This article reviews the author's research on achievement, affiliation, and power motives of U.

Gender, social class, and the subjective experience of aging: self-perceived personality change from early adulthood to late midlife.

This study explored the applicability of previous research (obtained with groups of college-educated women) about the subjective experience of aging in midlife to men and less-educated people. Two-hundred fifty-nine men and women who graduated from a public high school in 1955-1957 retrospectively assessed their feelings of identity certainty, confident power, generativity, and concern about aging for their 60s, 40s, and 20s. Participants reported higher levels of identity certainty, confident power, and concern about aging at each age, and a leveling off of generativity in their 60s.