Authoritarian Personality (Dispositional Factor)

• personality?

  characteristic patterns of thoughts, feeling & behaviours that make a person unique. arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.
• factors of authoritarian personality:

  • submissive to authority- blindly follow hierarchy (obedience to those in higher authority).
  • belief in aggression towards those who don't subscribe to conventional thinking, or who are diff.
  • prejudices shown towards those who are diff.
  • a need for strong leadership which displays uncomprimising power.
  • result of rigid & strict parenting (often) w/use of physical punishment.
  • growing up in this environment makes it the norm- they pick up authoritarian personality through learning and imitation.
• evaluating the F-scale:

  • no cause and effect between parenting & authoritarian personality.
  • some prejudiced people don't conform to an authoritarian personality.
  • only focused on one dimension of personality.
• what is the F-scale?

  • the F Scale, or Fascism Scale, is a psychological instrument developed by Theodor W. Adorno and his colleagues in the 1940s to measure the authoritarian personality. 
  • consists of a series of statements on which respondents rate their degree of agreement, w/higher scores indicating a stronger tendency toward authoritarianism and prejudice.
• alternative measures:

  • altmeyer (1981)- composed the right-wing authoritarianism (RWA).

  focused on 3 dimensions:

  1. conventionalism- norms & values
  2. authoritarian aggression- aggressive feelings towards those who don't follow norms.
  3. authoritarian submission- passive obedience to legitimate authorities.
• when and why was the authoritarian personality 1st proposed?

  • propose by fromm (1941) as an attempt to explain those holding right-wing, conservative views.
  • personality type characterised by a belief in absolute obedience, submission to authority & domination of minorities; 'might is right'.
• research into authoritarian personality & obedience:

  • zillmer et al (1995)- reported that 16 nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the f-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (was expected), giving only limited support for the concept.
  • elms & milgram (1966)- found that p's who were highly obedient, were sig. more authoritarian on the f-scale than disobedient p's, supporting idea of link between authoritarian personality type and obedience.
  • further support: altemeyer (1988)- reported that p's w/an authoritarian personality type who were ordered to give the shocks, gave higher shocks than those w/out the personality type.
• evaluation of research:

  • although f-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals don't always score highly on all the dimensions as the theory would predict.
  • f-scale suffers from response bias, scale is worked in a confirming direction. therefore if individuals agree w/items they are rated as authoritarian. altemeye (1981)- produced the less biased right wing authoritarian scale (RWA), which has an equal no. of pro- & anti-statements.
  • theory politically biased, as individuals w/an authoritarian personality are seen as only existing on the conservative right-wing of political viewpoints.
• the internal explanation:

  dispositional explanation is an internal explanation, as the focus is on the idea that certain personality characteristics are associated w/higher levels of obedience.
• adorno et al. (1950)- internal explanation:

  • saw people of this type having insecurities that lead to hostile to non-conventional people and having a belief in a need for power & toughness, which leads them to be highly obedient to authority figures.
  • adorno additonally saw the personality type as being shaped in early childhood by hierarchical, authoritarian parenting.
• to measure an individual's degree of authoritarian personality, adorno constructed?

  • the f-scale questionnaire which has 30 q's assessing 9 personality dimensions (the 'f' stands for fascist).
• more recently, what did joss et al. (2003) offer?

  • a more cognitive explanation by claiming that the authoritarian personality is motivated by thought processes which underpin a desire to reduce the fears & anxieties that social change brings.
  • strict obedience to authority is seen as helping to prevent disruptive social change.