Authoritarian Personality- Adorno1950

Question 1

Authoritarian Personality: Description

Answer 1

individuals who are intolerant of ambiguity
overly respectful of authority
likely to be prejudiced, conformist, obedient
hostile towards lower class
uphold traditional values

Question 2

How does parenting come into the authoritarian personality?

Answer 2

parents who were strict disciplinarians adopted a harsh manner towards their children
using conditional love - e.g. ill love you IF

Question 3

What does Adorno believe?

Answer 3

some people are more receptive of supremacy

they are more likely to have prejudice attitudes towards groups

Question 4

What is the F-Scale?

Answer 4

Aimed to measure “fascist” tendencies (aggressive racism/intolerance)
List of statements: e.g. “people can be divided into 2 groups: strong and weak”
Participants given choice of responses from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”

Question 5

Problems with F-Scale

Answer 5

Statements used were of authoritative nature

Suggest only thing shown by results is people agree with authoritative statements

Question 6

Cross-Cultural Studies

Answer 6

Whites in USA and South Africa were more racist than Northern USA
No difference in how authoritarian personalities were
PETTIGREW 1958

Question 7

Contact Theory

Answer 7

Attitudes among children were determined by how much CONTACT they had with other races
Rather than their upbringing

Question 8

Significant Events

Answer 8

Major social change can affect prejudice other than personality
E.g attitudes toward Japanese after Pearl Harbour
Prejudice developed as a consequence of social events

Question 9

Evaluation

Answer 9

All of ‘agree’ options led to higher F score

Hard to distinguish between people who agree with statements and people who agree with anything