Authoritarianism

• Who conducted the study on authoritarian personalities?

  Adorno
• What was Adorno's initial focus in his research?

  Understanding anti-semitism and the holocaust
• What does Adorno believe causes high obedience in individuals?

  Disorders from individual personalities
• How many middle-class white Americans participated in Adorno's study?


  2000
• How does Adorno describe the development of authoritarianism?

  Developed in childhood from hard parenting and conditional love
• What is a psychodynamic approach in the context of Adorno's theory?

  It focuses on how childhood experiences shape personality
• What did participants who scored highly on the F-scale exhibit?

  Contempt for weak people and a preference for stronger people
• What is a characteristic of authoritarian individuals regarding their worldview?

  They believe in right or wrong with no grey area
• What behavior do authoritarian individuals typically exhibit towards smaller cultures?

  They look for strong power and support to target smaller cultures
• What did Milgram and Elms find regarding obedient participants and the F-scale?

  20 of the most obedient participants scored higher on the F-scale
• What are the criticisms of the F-scale according to Christie and Jahoda?

  • Measures attitudes only towards right-wing beliefs
  • Fails to account for similar attitudes in far-left extremists
  • Cannot determine if someone is a far-left extremist
• How does Milgram's obedience study relate to authoritarianism?

  It links obedience and the search for power to authoritarianism
• What are the counterarguments to the authoritarian theory regarding participant characteristics from Milgrams research?

  • Not all participants exhibited authoritarian characteristics
  • Some didn't glorify their fathers, adverse to expections
  • The link between obedience and authoritarianism is not straightforward