The Personality Profile of China’s President Xi Jinping
习近平
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President Xi Jinping’s primary personality patterns are Ambitious/confident and Dominant/asserting, complemented by secondary Outgoing/congenial and Accommodating/cooperative features. In summary, Xi may be characterized as a confident, high-dominance extravert.
Mariah Ogden-Kellington, Nate Lutmer, and Anna Faerber present their poster, “The Personality Profile of China’s President Xi Jinping,” at Scholarship Day, College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN, April 25, 2019. (Click on photo for full-size image)
Update: November 1, 2020
Preliminary analysis in a more intensive follow-up study by Yunyiyi Chen, incorporating Chinese-language sources, indicates that Xi Jinping’s primary personality patterns are Ambitious/self-serving (a measure of narcissism), Conscientious/dutiful, and Dominant/controlling (a measure of aggressiveness). Provisionally, Xi may be characterized as an ambitious, high-dominance conformist.
Ambitious individuals are bold, competitive, and self-assured; they easily assume leadership roles, expect others to recognize their special qualities, and sometimes act as though entitled. Conscientious leaders are dutiful and diligent, have a strong work ethic with careful attention to detail, and often excel in crafting public policy — though they tend to be more technocratic than visionary. Dominant individuals enjoy the power to direct others and to evoke obedience and respect; they are tough and unsentimental and potentially make effective leaders.
A final research report is scheduled for completion in 2022.
Update: July 12, 2021
Preliminary personality analysis reveals Xi Jinping is an aggressive enforcer personality type with a high-dominance introvert leadership style and an expansionist foreign policy orientation.
Immelman, A., & Chen, Y. (2021, July). The personality profile and leadership style of China’s President Xi Jinping. Paper presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, July 11–13, 2021. Full-text paper will be available for download from the College of St. Benedict and Saint John’s University institutional repository at Digital Commons in 2023, pending validity checks: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/
PowerPoint presentation: Xi Jinping Personality and Leadership Profile
Research presentation — April 30, 2022
Yunyiyi Chen presents her research poster on “The Personality Profile of Chinese President Xi Jinping” at the Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, April 30, 2022. View the poster at personality-politics.org/china.
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Political Psychology Profile of China’s
Xi Jinping
Kenneth Dekleva, M.D., University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, presents his research on “The child is father to the man: A political psychology profile of China’s Xi Jinping” at the 41st Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, San Antonio, Texas, July 4-7, 2018.
View related presentation: “The Child is Father to the Man: A Political Psychology Profile of China’s Xi Jinping” (Presentation by Kenneth B. Dekleva, M.D., McKenzie Foundation Chair in Psychiatry I and Associate Professor, Peter J. O’Donnell Brain Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, given at the Headliners Club in Austin, TX, hosted by Geopolitical Futures and the China Public Policy Center, UT Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs, Oct. 9, 2018).
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