Adorno et al/Agentic State* Flashcards
What did Adorno et al want to study?
He wanted to understand anti-Semitism after WW2.
What did Adorno et al believe?
He believed that high levels of obedience was because of a psychological disorder linked to personality.
Which research methods did Adorno use?
Questionnaires, Likert Scale.
What was Adorno’s sample?
Over 2,000 American white middle-class males.
What did Adorno develop?
He developed the F-Scale - measuring the extent of a person’s authoritarian personality.
What is a person with Authoritarian personality likely to do?
A person with an authoritarian personality is likey to:
- Follow all orders given by an authority figure
- Become frustrated with those who do not respect/follow authority
- Enter the agentic state and take little personal responsibility for their actions.
Give a disadvantage of the authoritarian personality.
Disadvantages:
- Social desirability bias when completing the F - Scale.
- Low temporal validity of the F-Scale - zeitgeist.
- Individual differences, NAZI?
What is the autonomous state?
People act under their own free will and feel responsible for their actions and consequences.
What is the agentic state?
People carry out the instructions from an authority figure and feel no reposibility for these actions.
Name the process of changing from the autonomous state to the agentic state and vice versa.
Agentic shift.
Give a strength of the agentic state?
+ Milgram found that 65% of participants shocked to the full 450 volts, simply because they were asked to.
Describe Elms and Milgram’s procedure.
- 40 participants took part in Milgram’s experiment.
- Those who shocked to 450 volts scored higher on the F-scale than those who didn’t.
- Suggests correlation between authoritarian personality and obedience.
Who proposed that education levels were a more likely cause of authoritarian personality?
Middendorp and Meleon 🍉
