Students' Perception of Jimmy Carter and the Ideal Self

Abstract

The Activity Vector Analysis was administered to 97 junior college students, with instructions to check those words which they felt were descriptive of Jimmy Carter. These same students were again asked to check those words which they felt were descriptive of the Ideal Self or Perfect Person. The data yielded two distinct clusters: (1) around AVA Pattern 6617 for Carter, which correlates .69 with the “Business Executive” profile, and (2) around AVA Pattern 2972 for the Ideal Self, which correlates .80 with the “Perfect Person” profile. The correlation between the Carter profile and the Ideal Self profile is — .45, suggesting lack of congruence between the two perceptions.