Mike Pence Personality Profile

The Personality Profile of 2024 Republican Presidential Contender Mike Pence

The Political Personality of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics, St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict, May 2017. Abstract and link for full-text (19 pages; PDF) download at Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/118/

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of former U.S. vice president Mike Pence, conducted in 2017 from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon. Information concerning Pence was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-5.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Pence’s primary personality pattern was found to be Conscientious/dutiful, complemented by secondary Dominant/asserting, Ambitious/confident, and Accommodating/cooperative features and a minor Outgoing/congenial tendency.

With the exception of the outgoing tendency, Pence’s profile is nearly identical to that of the more introverted 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has a minor Retiring/reserved tendency.

In the absence of concurrent primary personality patterns serving to moderate or offset high conscientiousness, Pence may be described as a dutiful conformist personality type with a conscientious deliberator leadership style. Leaders with this personality profile are characteristically prudent, proper, dignified, dependable, and more principled than most personality types. They are highly organized, with a strong work ethic and careful attention to detail. Dutiful and diligent, conscientious leaders excel in crafting public policy, though they are not typically regarded as visionary or transformational leaders.

The major implication of the study is that it offers an empirically based personological framework for identifying psychological attributes on the part of Pence that might serve to complement, amplify, or attenuate personality traits [at the time of the study, in 2017] that drive President Donald Trump’s leadership behavior as chief executive.

Presidential Electability Index (political impact) score

Mike Pence scores very low on the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria-based Presidential Electability Index (PEI), which employs publicly perceived candidate personality traits as the predictor variable and has accurately predicted — before Super Tuesday — the outcome of every presidential election from 1996 to 2016.
Mike Pence
Presidential Electability Index
Range: 5–5

PEI = 5–5

Scale:	1A	1B	2	3	4	5A	5B	6	7	8
Lower limit:	5	1	4	3	4	2	1	11	2	0
Upper limit:	11	2	9	4	9	4	3	21	2	2

Lower limit PEI: [Extraversion (scale 3) = 3] + [Narcissism (scale 2) = 4] + [Dominance (scale 1A) = 5] – [Introversion (scale 8) = 0] – [Conscientiousness (scale 6) = (11 – 4) = 7] = 12 – 7 = 5

Upper limit PEI: [Extraversion (scale 3) = 4] + [Narcissism (scale 2) = 9] + [Dominance (scale 1A) = 11] – [Introversion (scale 8) = 2] – [Conscientiousness (scale 6) = (21 – 4) = 17] = 24 – 19 = 5

Related page

Mike Pence (2016) » http://personality-politics.org/mike-pence

Earlier report

The Personality Profile of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence

April 28, 2017

A preliminary psychological analysis of U.S. vice president Mike Pence by Greta Schleif, Claudia Luther, Lauren Lingenfelter, Kristie Vang, Andrew Weiler, Olivia Musser, and Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics, revealed that Vice President Pence’s primary personality pattern is Conscientious/dutiful, complemented by secondary Dominant/asserting, Ambitious/confident, and Accommodating/cooperative features and a minor Outgoing/congenial tendency. In summary, Pence’s personality composite can be characterized as a conscientious deliberator.

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