Convergent Validity in Students' Perceptions of Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, and the Ideal President

Abstract

Recently Gelineau and Merenda (1980) reported that students saw an Ideal President of the United States as an effective leader who is forceful, confident, enthusiastic, independent, and aggressive. Students' ratings of President Carter did not match the Ideal President description, but their ratings of Senator Kennedy did. Using a completely different instrument (Bern Sex-role Inventory rather than Activity Vector Analysis) and 378 undergraduate business—rather than 114 junior college—students, the present study found nearly identical results. Both studies were validated by the 1980 U.S. presidential election.