¿Qué hace diferente a un líder?: Un enfoque desde la psicología positiva

Abstract

This reserach draws on trait theory of leadership that assumes leaders have own characteristics that makes them different. In this study leaders were chosen by a sociometric test. This method allowed us to choose the leadership through the other members’ opinion about socio-emotional and task matters. These opinions were obtained through the informal group to whom leaders belong to. In all cases the informal groups were formed by 4-6 members. A leader was chosen from every group through his/her mark in the sociometric test. The obtained leaders (n=40) were compared to non-leaders (n=40) that also belong to the original informal groups in different variables. Using this method allowed us to be sure of non-leadership and at the same time to be sure that both samples could be compared in age, educational level and reference group. The compared variables were: happiness, psychological well-being and strengths. The results showed that leaders pointed to be more happy, with more self-control, more social intelligence and with more sense of humor.