Adorno & Authoritarian Personality

• Authoritarian personality traits

  • aggression towards those seen as inferior
  • blind obedience
  • conformist
  • rigid moral standards
• Adorno developed the F-scale to measure the expression of authoritarian traits
• The authoritarian personality theory does not explain why or how whole societies can become obedient
• authoritarian personality theory is a dispositional theory of obedience
• Elms and Milgram found that participants who scored higher on the F-scale are more willing to administer bigger shocks
• Adorno's theory suggested that overly-strict parenting can lead to blind obedience (a trait of authoritarian personality)

  • as a result, children feel constrained, which can result in aggression
  • they may be afraid to be disciplined for aggression towards parents and will instead take it out on someone they see as inferior
  • other factors such as education could link to this