authoritarian personality

• The authoritarian personality provided a possible explanation for why some individuals require very little pressure in order to obey. Adorno 1950 used the F scale to measure the different components that make up this personality. It contained statements ‘rules are there for people to obey, not change’ agreeing with this is an indicative of this personality. They are rigid thinkers who see the world in black and white. It was also found people of this personality type tended to have been raised by parents who used an authoritarian personality style (including physical punishment).
• Altemeyer refined the concept of the authoritarian personality by identifying a cluster of 3 of the og personality variables he had referred to as the right-wing authoritarian. These 3 were conventionalism, authoritarian aggression and authoritarian submission. This was tested where pt instructed to shock themselves on a learning task. There was a sig correlation between RWA scores and level of shock they gave themselves
• . Elms and Milgram also do research into authoritarianism. They did a follow up study on pt in Milgram’s shock study and picked 20 obedient and 20 defiant pt. Each pt completed the MMPI scale and the F scale to measure personality and authoritarianism. Also asked open ended questions about their childhood. Which found higher levels of authoritarianism in those classed as obedient.

   
• Although Milgram accepted that there might be a dispositional basis to obedience and disobedience, he did not believe the evidence for this was particularly strong.

  Milgram had shown that variations of the context of the study (location) were the primary cause for the levels of obedience that the pt demonstrated. He believed that the specific social situation participants found themselves in caused them to obey or resist, regardless of their personalities. This suggests that research into the explanation of obedience needs to include social contexts, not just the personality types.
• Elms and Milgram’s research also presented some important differences in the characteristics of the different participants.

  For example, when asked about their upbringing, many of the fully obedient participants reported having a very good relationship with their parents, rather than having grown up in the overly strict family environment associated with the Authoritarian personality.

  It seems implausible however, that given the large number of pt who were fully obedient that the vast majority would have grown up in harsh conditions.
• An issue with this research is that it is deterministic.

  This research suggests that if you have a specific personality type, you will have the authoritarian personality and therefore said to always obey commands. However, this is not always the case. Some people may be brought up in overly strict conditions, seem to display characteristics of the authoritarian personality, but not always fully obey.

  Maslow would disagree with this as he believes humans have free will and pick how they want to behave rather than being determined to act in a certain way.
• Research has found that less-educated people are consistently more authoritarian than the well educated.

  Milgram also found that pt with lower levels of education tended to be more obedient than those with higher education.

  This suggests that it may not be authoritarian personality that led to pt obeying, but a lack of education could be responsible for the rates of obedience. Therefore, the cause has not been proven as to why some people obey, and some resist.