Rand Paul

The Personality Profile of Prospective 2016 Presidential Candidate Rand Paul

April 24, 2015

Abstract

By Katherine Stelzner, Anh Doan, Natalie Gannon, and Katie Miller

Rand Paul’s primary personality pattern was found to be Ambitious / confident, complemented by secondary Dominant / asserting and Conscientious / respectful features, and a possible Contentious / resolute tendency. In summary, Paul’s personality composite can be characterized as “confident, resolute, individualistic.”

Rand Paul poster 2015-04
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Psychological profiles of declared and prospective Republican presidential candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were presented April 23, 2015, at “Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day,” an annual event to recognize students, faculty, and staff who have undertaken significant research, scholarship, or creative works during the past academic year at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict.

Undergraduate students in a Personality Psychology course at the colleges conducted the research under the auspices of the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics, directed by Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology.

Biographical and life history data concerning the candidates was collected from media reports and synthesized into personality profiles using the third edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM–5.