Personality Characteristics and Informal Leadership Among Young People With Mild and Moderate Degree of Intellectual Disability

Abstract

This article presents the results of qualitative and quantitative studies conducted among young people with mild to moderate intellectual disability, aged 18-40 who attended a Daycare center for working skills. The aim of the study was to identify the informal leaders among the participants and to describe some leadership features in this group. The used methods were a sociomertic study, the Lüscher color-test and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The summarized results showed that the degree of intellectual disability did not affect the choice of an informal leader. The important determinants were the motivation for self-improvement and imposing authority among others (found by means of Lüscher color test), and the low scores on scale "Neuroticism" from Eysenck Personality Inventory.