Posted November 24, 2014 by Tristan Colasito

Have you ever wondered what kinds of leaders we usually accept? For example, who we usually vote for during elections or who we nominate as the leader during group works. Well, a study has pinpointed one characteristic of a leader we tend to accept. The study is not pertaining to leaders with the ideal characteristics of a good leader, but rather an acceptable leader, hence the title “Ang Lider na Katanggap-tanggap”.

The participants of the study were students from De La Salle University – Dasmariñas who were then separated into groups to do different tasks. The first group was asked to read a story about a dominant and friendly male class president; the next group was asked to read a story about a dominant but non-friendly male class president; the next group was asked to read about a non-dominant but friendly male class president; and lastly, the next group was asked to read about a non-dominant and non-friendly male class president. Another set of groups were also asked to read the different stories, but this time with a female class president. After reading the stories, the participants were then asked if they would vote for the class president they read about, and if the stories assigned to them made them believe that the class president exhibited their respective traits.

Results showed that sex and being dominant did not have much difference in being an acceptable leader. However, friendliness showed to be an important factor. Therefore, a friendly class president would more likely win compared to an unfriendly class president. One of the explanations for this was that if the class president have a good relationship with his/her fellow students, then his/her fellow students would appreciate his/her leadership more. This goes to show that the relationship between a leader and his/her followers is very significant in the context of being an acceptable leader. And lastly, take note that the study only talked about a class president in the stories, and not about a senator, chief justice, president, or other leadership positions that could hold more responsibility than a class president.

Overall, three papers were presented during the 4th session of the second day of the PSSP Conference under the category “Mga Eksperimentong Sikolohikal”. The papers were entitled (1) “Ang Lider na Katanggap-tanggap”, (2) “Mga Bahagi ng Working Memory bilang Prediktor sa Mathematical Word Problem Solving Accuracy ng mga Bata sa Elementarya” and (3) “Epekto ng Aggression sa Hand-Eye Coordination”. These papers were presented by Mr. Darren Dumaop, Mr. Wawie Ruiz, and Ms. Enrilen Pascual respectively.

Photo taken from: hpe.com