authoritarian personality Flashcards
authoritarian personality
type of personality especially susceptible to obeying authority - submissive of higher authority and dismissive of inferiors
f scale
used by adorno et al to measure components that made up authoritarian personality - high score = rigid thinkers who obeyed authority, saw world as black and white, enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies
adorno et al
interviewed 2000 m/c white, american men about unconscious attitudes regarding authority - used F-scale to measure likeliness of having authoritarian personality
those who classified as having authoritarian personality had hostile attitudes to those they deem inferior. they had controversial and traditional views about race, sex, and gender, also had very binary cognitive style - everything was in black and white to them with no grey areas of uncertainty
evaluation - limited explanation
hard to explain obedience in terms of individual personality in majority of country’s population e.g. not all obedient, racist and anti-Semitic Germans in WW2 could have had authoritarian personality
social identity theory clearly a more realistic alternative explanation; majority of German people identified with anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated ‘outgroup’ of Jews
evaluation - cause and effect
adorno found significant correlations but we can’t say one variable causes another - adorno can’t claim that harsh parenting style caused development of Authoritarian personality - must consider other explanations like legitimacy of authority
one limitation of the authoritarian personality is that the data is correlational and correlation does not always always mean one variable causes the other. adorno found significant correlations between obedient pps and high scores on the f scale but it is not possible to say one variable causes another. adorno cannot claim that harsh parenting style causes the development of the authoritarian personality as other factors such as legitimacy of authority must be considered when attempting to explain obedience.
evaluation - research support
elms and milgram - follow up study using PPs from milgram’s study - 20 ‘obedient’ PPs and 20 ‘defiant’ PPs.
each PP completed MMPI scale and california F scale to measure levels of authoritarianism. PPs were also asked open ended questions, including Qs about relationship with parents during childhood and attitude to experimenter and learner during milgram’s study
found little difference between PPs on MMPI variables, but found higher levels of authoritarianism in obedient participants.
found significant differences between obedient and defiant participants consistent with idea of authoritarian personality - obedient participants reported being less close to fathers during childhood and were more likely to describe them in distinctly negative terms. obedient PPs saw authority figure as more admirable than learner
evaluation - validity
f scale uses questionnaires which are a self report technique - susceptible to social desirability bias - impacts validity
