Cards (4)

    • The F Scale as developed by Adorno (1950) in California as a measure of authoritarian traits or tendencies.  
    • He claimed a particular personality type is more likely to obey an authority, and a high level of obedience is basically a psychological disorder.  
    • Adorno et al. (1950) investigated the causes of an obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. They developed an ‘F Scale’ (F = Fascism) scale to measure the relationship between a person's personality type and prejudiced beliefs
    • Used by Adorno et al. (1950) to measure the different components that made up the Authoritarian Personality. They found that individuals with an Authoritarian Personality were: 
    • Rigid thinkers 
    • Saw the world as black and white 
    • Enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies  
    • Adorno et al. also found that people who scored high on the F Scale tended to be raised by parents who used authoritarian parenting style à therefore the child assumes it is the norm. The Authoritarian Personality develops from harsh parenting – strict discipline, expectations to be completely loyal, high standards. These experiences create hostility and despair in the child – who displaces these feelings onto the ‘weak’ people in society.