authoritarian personality Flashcards
who came up with this personality
adorno in 1954
how did he collect his research
case studies, psychometric testing (F-scale), clinical interviews and the F scale
what is the F scale
the Fascism scale - a higher score indicates someone has an authoritarian personality. answer based on strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree.
what is significant about an authoritarian’s childhood
strict parents who demand obedience, conditional love depending entirely on behaviour. the personality arises as a defence mechanism as they are not able to express hostility towards parents so they displace it towards lower power/minority groups.
describe someone who scores highly on the F Scale and their personality/traits
conventional (rigid beliefs, suspicious of people who are different) hostility towards outgroup (particularly low status, yes or no, right or wrong outlook. submissive (always do what they are told will no hesitation). believe that anyone who doesn’t obey should be handled/dealt with aggressively. obsessed with ranks and status.
research to support. how good
Elms interviewed ppts from Milgram study 2 months after the study. found obedients (who went to 450V) reported being less close to their fathers during childhood than defiants (who dropped out and refused to continue) did. Obedients described their fathers (but not their mothers) in distinctly more negative terms. As children, defiants usually had received either spankings or very little punishment, while obedients had often been punished either by severe beatings or by some kind of deprivation – of love or dinner.
what is the application
can screen for people who would be best suited in then army to blindly obey orders without question and hesitation. however risk of genocide repeating itself.
