The Authoritarian Personality

• The Authoritarian Personality

  Adorno, like Milgram, wanted to understand the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust; but his conclusions differed as he believed that high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder (pathological). Claiming that such disorder lies in the personality of the individual- not the situation. Making it a dispositional explanation.
• The Authoritarian Personality and Obedience

  Adorno argued that people with AP show an extreme respect and submissiveness to authority. They see society now as 'weaker' than in the past, so believe we need more powerful leaders to enforce traditional values (love of family and country). Making them more likely to obey. They show contempt for those of inferior social status, fuelled by their inflexible outlook on life- no 'grey areas', making them uncomfortable with uncertainty.
• Origins of the Authoritarian Personality

  Adorno believes it forms at childhood, due to harsh parenting- strict discipline, expectation of absolute loyalty, high standards, and severe criticism from perceived failings. Gave conditional love- their love and affection was dependent on how the child behaved. Arguing this creates hostility and resentment in a child as they cannot express their feelings directly to parents, so they are displaced onto those seen as weaker (scapegoating). This is a Psychodynamic Explanation.
• Adorno et al's Research: Procedure

  Studied over 2000 middle class, White Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups. Researchers developed several measurement scales, including the potential-for-fascism scale (The F Scale). This is used to measure AP. Examples of a statement are: 'Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn'.
• Adorno et al's Research: Findings

  People with Authoritarian learnings (a high score on the F-Scale) identified with strong people and were generally contemptuous of the weak. They were very conscious of status- showing extreme respect, defence and servility to those of higher status- the basis of obedience. Adorno found that AP's had a certain cognitive style (a way of perceiving others) in which there was no grey areas- they had fixed and distinct features of other groups. There was a strong correlation between AP and prejudice.
• AO3: Research Support

  Elms and Milgram interviewed a small sample of p's who volunteered in the original obedience studies, and had been fully obedient. They all completed the F-Scale test and scored significantly higher than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants. The 2 groups clearly differed in terms of authoritarianism.
• AO3: Counterpoint to Research Support

  When Elms and Milgram reviewed the individual subscales of the F-Scale, they found that obedient p's had several characteristics that were unusual for AP's- for example, they generally didn't glorify their fathers, they didn't experience unusual levels of punishment, and they didn't have a hostile attitude towards their mothers. Meaning the link between AP and obedience is complex- it is an unlikely predictor of obedience.
• AO3: Limited Explanation

  It cannot fully explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a countries population. For example, pre-War Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour. Despite the fact they must have differed in personalities in various ways. It seems unlikely they would all possess an AP. IDA- Deterministic

  An alternative approach is that the majority of Germans identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the 'outgroup' of Jews- a Social Identity Theory Approach.
• AO3: Political Bias

  The F-Scale only measures the tendency towards right-wing ideology. Christie and Jahoda argue the F-Scale is a politically-biased interpretation of Authoritarian Personality; it only measures an extreme right-wing political interpretation of obedience. This suggests its not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.
• AO3: Flawed Evidence

  The research from the F-Scale has provided the basis of an explanation of obedience based on the AP. But, Greenstein argues that the F-Scale has many methodological errors and is a flawed scale. For instance, it is possible to get a high score by selecting 'agree' answers. This means that everyone with this response bias (tendencies for p's to score falsely or inaccurately to questions when self-reporting) is assessed as having AP.