A debate on the instrumentality of candidate personality evaluation has been slowly brewing. This research views evaluations of candidate personality as rational instruments for vote decisions. Rationality is defined as goal directedness. / A goal oriented voter has multiple concerns: candidate trustworthiness, competence, and policy directions. Policy concerns must be accompanied by an assumption of trustworthiness and competence because the candidate who cannot be relied upon to fulfill his promises or who lacks the ability to direct government cannot achieve his policy ends. / Analysis of the two ICPSR panels (1956-1960 and 1972-1976) provides a unique opportunity for exploring the influence and instrumentality of candidate evaluations. The panels feature the re-election of an incumbent, the presence of a former vice-president (and his defeat), and the return of the majority party to power. / This research provides six pieces of evidence of the instrumentality of candidate personality evaluation: (1) the separation of affective from instrumental responses; (2) the frequency of instrumental responses; (3) the consistency of instrumental responses between elections; (4) the association of instrumental evaluations with issue and ideological responses; (5) the use of instrumental personality evaluations by political sophisticates; and (6) the importance of instrumental personality evaluations in predicting vote. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-06, Section: A, page: 2079. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74833 |
| Contributors | DAVIDSON, DOROTHY KAREN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 200 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.0042 seconds