Authoritarian Personality Flashcards
who came up with authoritarian personality ?
Theodor Adorno
what does Adorno believe
he believes that harsh parenting styles leads children to develop certain personality traits.
what personality traits does Adorno simulate to authoritarianism ?
1) toughness
2) destructiveness
3) cynicism
when did Adorno believe that this harsh parenting style was rife and where?
he believed that is was rife at the beginning of the twentieth century in Germany, meaning that he thought that adults during nazi occupation were submissive to authority and harsh to those seen as subordinate.
what would a parenting style focussed around unconditional love cause if Adorno is correct ?
the children would more likely develop into adults who scored low on the f-scale and would be more likely to disobey orders they see as ‘destructive’.
what supporting evidence is there for this theory ?
Alan elms and milgram used the f-scale with ppts from one of milgram’s studies. they tested 20 who where obedient and 20 who weren’t, the obedient people scored higher on the f-scale. some of the obedient ppts also had other characteristics associated with authoritarianism, such as lack of closeness with their fathers.
what’s a competing argument to this theory ?
we cannot claim that the relationship between childhood experiences and authoritarianism/obedience is absolute (correlation not causation) these are simply correlations as other factors could be involved. for example, obedience and authoritarian personality may be due to a lower level of education, this was suggested by Hyam and Sheatsley)
