Authoritarian personality

Created by

klau

Cards (12)

What is an authoritarian personality?
A dispositional explanation for obedience. These personalities are extremely obedient and submissive to authority and those of a perceived higher status but hostile to those who are Perceived as lower status
what did Adorno develop?
the F-scale that measured the levels of authoritarian personality
what is the F-scale?
the potential for fascism
what is fascism?
a far right form of government in which most of the power is held by one ruler or a small group.
how does one develop the personality?
harsh parenting, strict discipline and conditional love.
this causes resentment and hostility in the child.
the child feels as though they cannot express these feelings against their parents because of fear of reprisals.
so, the fear is displaced onto others who are perceives as weaker. this is known as scapegoating
what is conditional love?
affection depending on how the child behaves
what did elms and milgram do?
20 obedient participants and 20 disobedient participants.
given several personality questionnaires including adornos f-scale.
what did elms and milgram found about the obedient participants?
scored higher on the f-scale compared to disobedient participants.
these were less close to their fathers in childhood.
admired the experimenter in the milgrams study.
what was elms and milgram conclusion?
obedient participants in the milgram study displayed higher levels of authoritarian personality, in comparison to disobedient participants
why may it be difficult to draw conclusions about the exact cause of obedience.
many other situational factors contribute and perhaps affect the level of authoritarian personality
what did middendolp and melech find?
less-educated people are more likely to display authoritarian personality characteristics than well-educated people.
possible to conclude that levels of education lead to obedience
why is the F-scale an issue?
can suffer from response bias and social desirability bias