Dispositional A01

• Theador Adorno


  Wanted to understand the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust
• Psychological disorder

  Adorno's research led him to believe that obedience was a psychological disorder
• Participants

  Adorno investigated causes of obedient personality on more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
• F scale

  The questionnaire used by Adorno to measure personality characteristics
• Examples from F scale

  Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn. There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel great love, gratitude and respect for his parents.
• People with authoritarian leadings


  People who scored high on F scale identified with 'strong' people and were contemptuous of the weak. They were aware of their and other people's status
• Adorno et al findings


  Authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was a fixed and distinctive stereotype about other groups. Strong positive correlation with authoritarianism and prejudice
• People with Authoritarian personality

  People who were obedient and submissive to authority; they respect it. They have contempt towards people they find inferior and believed in conventional attitudes with race, sex and gender
• Origin of authoritarian personality


  -Strict discipline from parents -Expectation of Loyalty -Impossibly high standards -Severe criticisms of failings
• Consequences of harsh parenting

  Creates resentment and hostility that cannot be expressed towards the parents and so are displaced- scapegoating. This is a psychodynamic explanation