authoritarian personality

• Adorno et al ( 1950 ) - investigated " obedient personality " by using 2000 middle class white Americans
• Adorno ( 1950 ) developed the F scale used to identify unconscious attitudes towards hierarchy, power and groups of people in society
• Authoritarian personality - a person that has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient
• People that scored higher on the F scale were more authoritarian
• The authoritarian personality theory originates from Freud 's idea that personality is determined by childhood experiences
• The authoritarian personality is thought to be developed by a strict upbringing.
• AO3. There is research support for the authoritarian personality from Milgram and Elms ( 1966 ). They interviewed fully obedient participants from Milgram's studying found that they scored highly on the F scale. However, they only interviewed fully obedient participants, so there was no one to compare with. Also, they had already been debriefed, meaning they might have interviewer bias.
• AO3. Adorno's research has low population validity. Although the sample size was large, involving 2000 participants, only white, middle class Americans. This makes the research ethnocentric, and it cannot be applied to many other demographics