Lifespan Development of Bill Clinton - Essay Example

? Life Span Development and Personality Paper on President William Bill Clinton Heredity andenvironment influence on a person On the basis of many works and studies it is evident that the activities and achievements of different Presidents are compared to their psychological development. Environment influence and family relations play another important role in development and further establishment of the President's policies. William Jefferson Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946. Arkansas State is a homeland for 5 generations of Clintons (Stone and Scheffner, 1988). This personality is rather controversial but there is no doubt that Bill Clinton is a popular President of the American nation. It is evident that a boy from an ordinary family, who lived an ordinary life managed to succeed in his political career. He was not subjected to degrading practices of the streets. He was interested in doing his best and studying. His life is a challenging puzzle, but it is evident that this man was not subjected to the negative influence, but, as a matter of fact he succeeded and became a strong and a successful President. Family influence Bill's father died and his stepfather was rather cruel person. In childhood Bill experienced domestic violence and cruel behavior of his stepfather. Nevertheless, Bill Clinton took a surname of his stepfather and he respected this man in spite of all negative scenes he saw. When President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) met Bill Clinton, it was a remarkable event in the life of a boy, who wanted to have a career in politics. At college Clinton was an active participant in the movement against the Vietnam War. In October 11, 1975, Clinton married Hillary Rodham. In 1978 Clinton became the youngest governor of the state. At first he did not succeed in his practice as the governor. He tried to introduce unpopular practices. Nevertheless, Clinton was much concerned about social reforms, health care programs etc. He cared about national politics. He showed his openness to people and wanted to be helpful to every person on the Earth. Clinton wrote his autobiography "My Life" and there are a lot of examples illustrating empathy and it is the central concept in his political career. There is the following claim about political relation between family life of Clinton and his career: " his parents who took Family and Medical Leave to care for sick children to the countless people he met on his infamous jogs, Clinton's own account of his presidency focused heavily on the empathetic relationships he fostered with the nation's citizen. Early in his presidential tenure, Clinton enlarged the White House's casework operation because the personal nature of his 1992 campaign drastically increased the number of citizens who reached out to him for help" (Shogan, 2009). Therefore, we can see that there is a stable relation between the American society and Bill Clinton. Theories of personality The first theory to be applied to analysis of Clinton's personality is Extraversion. He loves attention very much and he wanted to be presented to the audience as a gorgeous personality. Clinton has always been focused on his final goal of achievement (Fick, 1998). He knew that it was necessary to become a dutiful person, cautious and a deliberate one. Nevertheless, Clinton can easily lose control, but it does not characterize more than his impatient nature. Clinton can experience negative emotions, but he manages to direct these emotions to creations of political practices and theories. He is also much considered about openness of his practices and activities. Theoretical approach Basically Clinton can be described as an ambitious person. This claim can be proven in the following way: he shows a high degree of competitiveness, charm and cleverness. Some other common features relevant to Clinton can be found in peculiar characteristics of extraverted individuals. From this perspective a personality of Clinton is rather sociable, warm and he practices his own personal style. Of course such type of persons like being confident about their own social skills and they can influence other people. Daily routine easily depresses these people(Immelman, 1993). Bill Clinton belongs to Ambitious and Extraverted type of persons. This type of persons requires a constant excitement and challenge. Therefore, Bill Clinton has always needed public recognition and he was much pleased by social cleverness, charming and many other skills. From this point of view it is possible to explain Clinton's involvement into scandals: "neglect of the role demands of political office, low resistance to corrupting influences, and impulsiveness. . . . [as well as] favoring loyalty and friendship over competence-for-the-position in making appointments to high-level public office" (Immelman, 1993a, p. 736). Personality profile of Bill Clinton has always been acknowledged as that of a person, who is in need for a public recognition, approval, and validation. He has always been in need for practicing his social skills and ability to influence on other people. Extraverted features can be associated with a lacking of attention to details, a huge amount of routine activities, a lacking of patience etc. Clinton can reach his highest achievement drive and his ability to practice his self-confidence improvement in the face of adversity. Thus, Bill Clinton has brought ambition and confidence to his presidency. He can gain enough power and occupy the highest positions in the society, while he can manage emotions of the audience.  If to make analysis of Clinton's behavior it is possible to make the following suggestions: Bill Clinton has failed to deal with social restrictions and he could not withstand a tough questioning of prosecutors. This type of persons can easily lose their temper and in case their confidence is shaken they cannot put up themselves. There are many different facts illustrating that Bill Clinton has experienced some difficulties and challenges of bad situation in his life, such as his experimentation with marijuana, his vague activities in his movement participation in the name of Vietnam's liberation, his ill-natured relationship with Gennifer Flowers. Conclusion As a conclusion we can claim that environment or family of a person can exert influence on further person's development. In case of favorable conditions and inability to comply with temporal challenges, it should be mentioned that individuals are affected by behaviors and attitudes of other people. Personal features can be considered in a compelling context. On the one hand, it is difficult to solve this problem and consider behaviors of Bill Clinton with respect to situational constraints, and a contextual character flaw. It is possible to claim about the nation's empathy to the personality of Bill Clinton. This President showed a great ability to understand the situation of other people.  He could perfectly master empathy. At the same time there is an evident misbalance between the President's ability to find empathy in the nation and the perception of decisive leadership. It is really difficult to find a balance between these two issues. Nevertheless, taking into account a psychological portrait of President Clinton it is evident that he suffered much from situational constraints, and his behavior of past years has exerted a great negative influence on his further development.  Obama tries to practice empathy as an influential and effective means of relations development with the nation, but he has not succeeded in winning over Clinton's mastery of empathy. References Immelman, A. (1993). Millon inventory of diagnostic criteria. Unpublished research scale, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Fick, P. M. (1998). The dysfunctional president: Understanding the compulsions of Bill Clinton. New York: Citadel Press. Shogan, C. J. (2009). The Contemporary Presidency: The Political Utility of Empathy in Presidential Leadership. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 39(4), 859+. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com Stone, W. F., & Schaffner, P. E. (1988). The psychology of politics (2nd ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. Read More