AO1

• What is the authoritarian personality?

  Adorno: Type of personality susceptible to obeying authority (submissive to high status, dismissive of inferiors)
• What was the procedure for Adorno's authoritarian personality study?

  • Studied 2000+ Middle Class white Americans' unconscious attitudes to other racial groups
  • Developed several scales to investigate (F-scale to measure authoritarian personality)
  • Items from F-scale include 'obedience and respect for authority are the most important values children should learn'
• What were the findings for Adorno's authoritarian personality study?

  • People with AP identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptuous of the weak
  • They were conscious of status (their own and others)
  • They showed extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status (Basis of obedience)
  • They have a certain cognitive style (way of perceiving others) in which there is no grey area between categories of people.
  • They had fixed stereotypes about other groups
  • Adorno found a strong Positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
• What are the characteristics of an authoritarian personality?

  • Prone to obey authority
  • Show extreme respect/submission to authority.
  • Desire strong leaders to enforce traditional values
  • Disdain for lower social status individuals
  • Exhibit black-and-white thinking
  • Discomfort with uncertainty
  • Blame different ethnic background for the world's problems.
• What is the origin of the authoritarian personality?

  • Forms in childhood
  • The product of harsh parenting (strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards, severe criticism of perceived failings - conditions for love)
  • Breed resentment and hostility - feelings cannot be expressed due to fear of punishment. 
  • Scapegoating: Feelings are displaced on others they perceive as weak (parents standards, which become their own) 
  • Psychodynamic Explanation: Explains the AP’s hatred towards people considered as socially inferior.