Evaluation Of The Authoritarion Personality

Question 1

Adorno attempted to increase the internal validity of the f-scale by asking some questions in reverse.

Answer 1

This builds a reliablity scale reverse of question answered 6 would be answered 1. Help disguise purpose of study.
Argued that it suffered from social desirability bias. No filler questions so purpose easy to find. Validity can be questioned.

Question 2

Elms and milgrams follow up research provided support for the authoritarian personality.

Answer 2

20 obedient and 20 disobedient ppts. Completed personality questionnaires with f scale. Asked open ended questions about family relationships and experimenter. Obedient ppts scored higher on f scale and admired experimenter. These obeyed more in milgram experiment.

Question 3

Although research by elms and milgram found evidence for the theory, there is also evidence which seems to limit the usefulness of this explanation in explaining all obedience.

Answer 3

Many ppts from milgram had good relationship with parents. Implausible that so many people would have harsh environment with punitive father.
Therefore other factors play a role in obedience.