The Five-Year-Old Mind Analysis

When I enrolled in this class, I had no idea what the essential features were that a modern world leader needs to reach the masses and to become a successful leader. In all branches of our modern and historical societies charismatic leaders influenced and shaped decisively progresses and developments that ultimately lead to the society we are living in today. My assumption was that the most concise feature of a leader is always his or her charisma. It is, without a doubt, an important feature, but also the distinctive categories of leaders and their leading styles are crucial. We were introduced to this by the American developmental psychologist Howard Earl Gardner and New York Psychiatrist Emma Laskin in their book Leading minds: an anatomy …show more content…
The psychologic/psychiatric approach of the authors stresses the significance of early socialization and development of human children and, furthermore, its primate heritage. Following the introduction into the basic development of a human’s brain, the thesis regarding the “five-year-old mind” is advanced. It is pointed out that five-year-olds have all of the ingredients to enter a leader-follower-relationship. Due to early socialization, one at this age can already appreciate simple stories and can develop own patterned narratives. Children at this age also have already assumed positions with dominance hierarchies and know how to relate their own position in a leader-follower-relationship and as equals in peer-to-peer interactions. Moreover, individuals at this age have already developed their own powerful and robust theories about different realms of existence. Therefore, it must be assumed that these individuals also have already developed their own stereotypes and scenarios for different …show more content…
For example, it is always easier for a leader to stress the commonalities of a society’s majority for getting their support than trying to address all groups including minorities and their individual demands on a society. For instance, for Mao Zedong it was not difficult to win the support of the masses for his communist movement during the civil war in China. 90% of the population at this time were poor peasants, exploited by their landowners, and without education. He stressed the exploitation and promised land reforms and education. The Nationalist movement on the other hand, aimed on a democratization and modernization of industry. The vast majority of the population, the poor peasants, was not interested on fixing the Nationalist’s mentioned issues, they could more rely to the proposed social justice and equality by the communists. The Nationalist’s approach relied on the educated population in urban centers what made at its best 10% and consequently