Adorno's theory (dispositional)

• Authoritarian personality

  • A person who is easily influenced by authority
  • They follow people above them but are hostile to people below them
  • May have experienced harsh parenting as a child
• How do people with an authoritarian personality think?

  • In black and white
  • Something is either good or bad
  • Believe in rigid stereotypes that all men are bullies and all women are emotional
• Displacement / Scapegoating

  • The need to displace anger onto something else to relieve hostility
  • People with an authoritarian personality tend to displace their feelings onto people socially inferior to them
• Childhood of authoritarian people

  • Personality is developed when a child experiences strict parenting and high standards of achievement
  • Parents offer conditional love
  • Child internalises these values and expects everybody to behave like this
• Evaluation of authoritarian personality (1)

  • Weakness
  • Can give people who follow destructive orders an excuse for their behaviour
  • Allows people to think they aren't responsible for their actions
• Evaluation of authoritarian personality (2)

  • Weakness
  • Other researchers say that authoritarian personality is caused by a lack of education rather than strict parenting
  • Researchers who disagree with adorno