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Presidents on the Couch - their personalities

Now to Robert Watson on the First Ladies:
  • Active-Positive: Dolley Madison, Ellen Wilson, Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford
  • Active-Negative: Abigail Adams, Helen Taft, Edith Wilson, Florence Harding, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton
  • Passive-Positive: Martha Jefferson, Elizabeth Monroe, Grace Coolidge, Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush
  • Passive-Negative: Martha Washington, Bess Truman, Jackie Kennedy, Pat Nixon
Looking at the two most recent ones, I'd rate Michelle Obama as active-positive and Melania Trump as passive-negative.

RW then rated the First Ladies by the various roles of their position.
  • Public Figure and Symbol of the Presidency
    • Active-Positive: Dolley Madison, Julia Tyler, Mary Todd Lincoln, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes, Frances Cleveland, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson
    • Active-Negative: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Helen Taft, Florence Harding, Edith Wilson, Lou Hoover, Bess Truman, Jackie Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton
    • Passive-Positive: Elizabeth Monroe, Sarah Polk, Caroline Harrison, Ida McKinley, Ellen Wilson, Grace Coolidge
    • Passive-Negative: Louisa Adams, Anna Harrison, Abigail Fillmore, Margaret Taylor, Letitia Tyler, Jane Pierce, Eliza Johnson, Lucretia Garfield, Edith Roosevelt
  • White House Hostess and Manager
    • Active-Positive: Dolley Madison, Julia Tyler, Mary Todd Lincoln, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes, Frances Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, Helen Taft, Grace Coolidge, Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton
    • Active-Negative: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Sarah Polk, Lucretia Garfield, Edith Roosevelt, Florence Harding, Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan
    • Passive-Positive: Ida McKinley, Ellen Wilson, Barbara Bush
    • Passive-Negative: Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Adams, Anna Harrison, Abigail Fillmore, Margaret Taylor, Letitia Tyler, Jane Pierce, Eliza Johnson, Edith Wilson, Bess Truman
  • Social Advocate
    • Active-Positive: Lucy Hayes, Caroline Harrison, Ellen Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton
    • Active-Negative: Abigail Adams, Louisa Adams, Helen Taft, Florence Harding, Nancy Reagan
    • Passive-Positive: Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Monroe, Abigail Fillmore, Sarah Polk, Julia Tyler, Mary Todd Lincoln, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes, Frances Cleveland, Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush
    • Passive-Negative: Anna Harrison, Margaret Taylor, Letitia Tyler, Jane Pierce, Eliza Johnson, Lucretia Garfield, Ida McKinley, Edith Roosevelt, Edith Wilson, Bess Truman, Jackie Kennedy, Pat Nixon
  • Political and Policy Adviser/Actor
    • Active-Positive: Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, Abigail Fillmore, Sarah Polk, Ellen Wilson, Florence Harding, Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton
    • Active-Negative: Louisa Adams, Helen Taft, Edith Wilson, Bess Truman
    • Passive-Positive: Martha Washington, Anna Harrison, Margaret Taylor, Julia Tyler, Mary Todd Lincoln, Eliza Johnson, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes, Lucretia Garfield, Frances Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, Ida McKinley, Edith Roosevelt, Grace Coolidge, Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush
    • Passive-Negative: Elizabeth Monroe, Letitia Tyler, Jane Pierce, Jackie Kennedy, Pat Nixon
 
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For First Ladies:
  • ACTIVE-POSITIVE -- Participates willingly; enjoys office and its challenge; works hard; flexible; high self-esteem; successful in interacting with environment and others.
  • ACTIVE-NEGATIVE -- Participates but often reluctantly; works hard but either did not improvise or do more than is necessary in office; receives low emotional reward from activity; anxiety over office and politics; difficulty interacting with environment; uncomfortable or aggressive use of power.
  • PASSIVE-POSITIVE -- Enjoys public but does little; not trailblazer; often traditional in approach to office; compliant with public and president; not eager to undertake new challenges.
  • PASSIVE-NEGATIVE -- Avoids office and most duties thereof; often uses surrogate hostess; does little; often overwhelmed by public and challenges and thus withdraws; upset by criticism and politics.
(OCRed from Google Books)
 
Is Hillary dishonest and Donald narcissistic? A HEXACO analysis of the presidential candidates' public personas - ScienceDirect
Also at ResearchGate: Is Hillary dishonest and Donald narcissistic? A HEXACO analysis of the presidential candidates' public personas - Visser20et20al.202016.pdf

The HEXACO model:
  • Honesty-Humility (H) -- sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty
  • Emotionality (E) -- fearfulness, anxiety, sentimentality, and dependence
  • eXtraversion (X) -- social self-esteem, social boldness, sociability, and liveliness
  • Agreeableness (A) -- forgiveness, gentleness, flexibility, and patience
  • Conscientiousness (C) -- organization, diligence, perfectionism, and prudence
  • Openness to Experience (O) -- aesthetic appreciation, inquisitiveness, creativity, and unconventionality
"There is also an interstitial scale directly measuring Altruism. People who score low on this scale are hard-hearted and less likely to engage in helping others."

Much like the Big Five, but with H-H added on, and with Neuroticism ~ Emotionality.

HEXACO is good at predicting some very negative personality types: psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism. "More specifically, all of these personalities were predicted by low Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness."

Estimates for the two politicians (% of population less than their scores):
  • Hillary Clinton: H 11% E 21% X 69% A 29% C 75% O 76% Alt 14%
  • Donald Trump: H 0.21% E 5.48% X 88% A 0.78% C 24% O 14%
Looking at the four facets of H: Sincerity, Fairness, Greed avoidance, Modesty, we find
  • Hillary Clinton: S 13% F 36% A 13% M 6.1%
  • Donald Trump: S 3.5% F 2.8% A 3.5% M 0.06%
"Unlike Trump supporters who claim he is very honest while Clinton is very dishonest, and vice versa for Clinton supporters, our experts resembled Independents in that they rated both candidates as being very low in sincerity."

With Trump being worse than Clinton. "Crooked Hillary"? Maybe. "Crooked Donald" it definitely is.
 
I don't think traits are locked in.

They are dependent on circumstance.

You give somebody like Trump total power and he starts shooting at people protesting in the streets.
 
PsyArXiv Preprints | Average Joe, Crooked Hillary and the unStable Narcissist: Expert Impressions of 2016 and 2020

Comparison of the two major 2020 Presidential candidates, by percentage of population with lower scores:
  • Joe Biden: H 43% E 52% X 80% A 63% C 65% O 51% Alt 50%
  • Donald Trump: H 0.40% E 35% X 70% A 0.25% C 0.07% O 8% Alt 4.5%
Joe Biden seems like a rather average sort of person. Subtracting 50% from his scores: H -7% E 2% X 30% A 13% C 15% O 1%

He is more extroverted than average, and somewhat more agreeable and conscientious, but a bit less honest/humble.

Looking at H-H for both of them,
  • Joe Biden: S 10% F 65% A 59% M 47%
  • Donald Trump: S 7.5% F 3.0% A 6.2% M 0.14%
Joe Biden is rather insincere, but is otherwise average or more than average. Trump, however, was way down there in all facets, especially Modesty.
 
lpetrich said:
I looked for Big Five assessments of Hillary Clinton, and I also found some of Donald Trump.

What Trump and Clinton's personality traits tell us about how they might govern as president. | USAPP
A Psychobiography of Hillary Clinton | Publish your master's thesis, bachelor's thesis, essay or term paper
Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice - A Comparative psychobiography.doc
(PDF) Personality Profiles of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump: Fooled by Your Own Politics
Perceived personality ratings of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.... | Download Table

For Hillary Clinton,
  • Extraversion: medium - high
  • Openness: medium - high
  • Conscientiousness: high
  • Agreeableness: low - medium
  • Neuroticism: low - high

For Donald Trump,
  • Extraversion: medium - high
  • Openness: medium
  • Conscientiousness: low
  • Agreeableness: low
  • Neuroticism: medium - high

What is startling here is Donald Trump's very low conscientiousness. That seems at odds with him having been a successful businessman. But he hasn't been all that successful, with several bankruptcies, and he got a big head start from his father. Instead, he has projected the image of being a successful businessman while being dependent on his top level of assistants.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are high in conscientiousness, much like most presidents, and they are low to medium in agreeableness, another common feature of presidents.

I'll compare a rising star in the American political firmament, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, someone with a remarkable personal history and someone who can be remarkably thoughtful and insightful.
  • Extraversion: high
  • Openness: high
  • Conscientiousness: high
  • Agreeableness: high
  • Neuroticism: low
Her agreeableness is not high enough to make her a doormat, though it is atypically high by president standards. Her conscientiousness is typical of presidents, and her other factors are also in range.
Click to expand...

I think you are wrong about Agreeableness for AOC--medium, at best; and Neuroticism--also medium.
 
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