authoritarian personality

• 2000 americans asked to agree/disagree with statements on a 6 point likeheart scale (F-scale)
• 100 interviewed in depth, including ones from different upbringings, most and least prejudiced based on the F-scale results

  however, the interviewer knew the results so biased
• Dispositional explanation - explanation of behaviour highlights an individuals personality
• Adorno: interested in finding out why Nazi soldiers were so willing to persecute members of minority groups in ww2
• Adorno claimed a specific personality type is more likely to obey authority
• 2000 middle-class, white american participants
• findings: people who scored highly on the 'f' scale identified with 'strong' people and were generally contemptuous of the 'weak'

  they were very conscious of their own and others' status

  high scorers had a particular cognitive style: no grey areas, fixed stereotypes.
• strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
• authoritarian personality: a distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority
• development of the authoritarian personality:

  • disciplined upbringing
  • unsncious hostility
  • displacement
  • prejudice
• freuds idea beign that it's from upbringing

  A) little love, much punishment

  B) parents

  C) hatred

  D) excessively respectful of authority figures

  E) displaced

  
• eval:

  • Results can't be generalised
  • doesnt explain prejudice to some groups and not others
  • adorno found there was correlation, not cause and effect
  • closed questions that were leading
• Research support:

  Milgram found that those who were fully obedient and went all the way to 450v scored higher on the tests
• Political bias:

  The 'F' scale measures the tendency towards an extreme right-wing ideology, his theory is limited as it cannot account for obedience to authority across the whole spectrum
• Authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience:

  • Dispositional explanation
  • harsh upbringing - harsh parenting
  • leads to rigid stereotypes and black and white thinking
  • harsh to people weaker than them, submissive and completely obedient to those above them
  • adorno studied it using the F-scale