I&G the authoritarian personality Flashcards
Context- what was happening during this time?
Rise of fascism (far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology & movement, dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition)
1930s- Germany
Extreme right wing/ authoritarian views.
Millions of Jewish individuals murdered- genocide- Deliberate extermination of a race, nation, etc.”
Jewish academic migration.
What did Marx predict?
What did the global crisis result in?
capitalism would lead to financial crisis and “pauperization”(process of making people very poor)
which in turn would lead to proletarian revolt (where the working class attempt to overthrow the political system.)
Result- The Wall Street Crash- which instead lead to increased subservience (obeying others) & alignment to power.
What does ideology mean?
An ideology is “an organization of opinions, attitudes, and values – a way of thinking about man and society” (p. 2)
What are cultural ideologies?
They are represented and reproduced in culture (e.g., news, entertainment, propaganda, etc.), “ideologies have an existence independent of any single individual” (p. 2)
Ideological attractiveness- When will be find certain ideologies attractive?
ideologies have for different individuals, different degrees of appeal, a matter that depends upon the individual’s needs and the degree to which these needs are being satisfied or frustrated” (p. 2)
They may be temporal- change as we get older.
Individual ideologies-
what do we like them to match up with?
What is TAPs major hypothesis?
We like things to match up to our template of the world- there are pressures for consistency.
What are “needs”?
“The forces of personality are primarily needs (drives, wishes, emotional impulses) which vary from one individual to another in their quality, their intensity, their mode of gratification, and the objects of their attachment…
There are primitive emotional needs, there are needs to avoid punishment and to keep the good will of the social group, there are needs to maintain harmony and integration within the self” (p. 5)
What is personality largely?
Largely latent, becoming manifest in particular ways in particular contexts
Latent characteristics- things we claim are within us that lead to the manifest characteristics in certain situations.
Manifest characteristics- things you show.
Depending on our situations/ circumstances- depends on the latent characteristics
What affects our personality?
Experience
Personality evolves under the impact of the social environment
Impressionable youths- what did Freud say about this?
Freud- we have certain formative years- more influenced at younger ages- impressionable- teenage years/ toddler years- personality is moulded.
Most of the time we are resistant to change if the environment stays the same- however if things change dramatically- your personality may change.
What else affects personality?
Society-
Families- have different values/ parenting styles / political views/ economic status/ - which can influence our personalities/ how they change
Social psychological ideology?
“When the opinions, attitudes, and values of numerous individuals are examined, common patterns will be discovered” that additionally bear similarities to cultural ideologies, e.g., fascism.
A psychological (individual) approach
What approach is this?
The “general approach” was “to consider personality as an agency through which sociological influences upon ideology are mediated.
If the role of personality can be made clear, it should be possible better to understand which sociological factors are the most crucial ones and in what ways they achieve their effects” (p. 6)
If we control ideologies and influence them= we can make people less fascist/ authoritarian- liberal etc….
When does the authoritarian personality appeal?
Is appealing when people’s psychological needs feel met by ‘bowing up while kicking down’, i.e., obeying ‘father figures’ and dealing firmly with perceived threats to the status quo
Bicyclist idea- paying deference to your superiors- those who are powerful etc- authority figures- not rebelling. Instead pedalling furiously- and kicking those who are further down than you. How many of us are willing to do this?
What was The Authoritarian Personality (TAP) sample?
Over 2000 white, non-Jewish, native-born non-fascist Americans; predominantly middle-class, relatively well educated, and youngish
Deliberate exclusion of minority groups (Didn’t include Jewish people- as were interested in who might persecute Jews)
Recruited via formal organisations
What are the different scales used?
Anti-Semitic (AS) scale
Ethnocentrism (E) scale
Political and Economic Conservatism (PEC) scale
Potential for Fascism (F) scale
They claimed to use masked concept capture
What is this?
“care was taken to allow the subject ‘a way out,’ that is to say, to make it possible for him to agree with such a statement while maintaining that he was not ‘prejudiced’ or ‘undemocratic.’”
The Anti-Semitic personality
What is this?
Readiness to support or oppose Anti-Semitic ideology, a “broad system of ideas including”:
Measured Negative opinions regarding Jews,
Hostile attitudes toward them, and
‘Moral’ values which permeate the opinions and justify the attitudes
Anti-Semitic sub scales
What did they reveal?
These are the sorts of things that the scales revealed about anti-semitic people.
Offensive- happy to say anti-semitic jokes/ insults- portray jews in derogatory (showing a disrespectful attitude) ways.
Felt threatened by the Jews/ their practises.
Held attitudes- what should be done to Jews.
Seclusion- believe jewish people stick to themselves/ isolate themselves- don’t integrate with society.
Intrusive- view they stick their nose into everything/ take the best jobs/ take the best homes etc.
What is the Ethnocentric personality?
Readiness to support or oppose ideologies incorporating in-group/out-group hostility (glorification of ones own group & discrimination of other group)
Anti-black
Anti-minorities-
‘Patriotic’
Ingroup favouring and out-group derogatory
Political & Economic Conservatism scale
What did this measure?
An attachment to “things as they are”; a resistance to social change
Also elements of individual liberty and personal responsibility (and opposition to state ‘interference’ with such things)
Recursive triangulation
What method is this & what was it used to do?
Triangulation- have more than one source of information.
Recursive- do things again and again
Methodological triangulation- have interviews/ surveys/ questionnaires/ experiments/ observations- lots of methods and then try to get them to point towards the same thing.
They got people with high scores & low scores & middle- and interviewed them broadly about childhood/ things they like etc.
Looking for subtle discriminators.
Idea if you are high in authoritarianism/ fascism- are they other areas that you are high in that discriminate you from other people with lower scores that are further away than saying do you hate jews/ black people
What is the F scale?
Potential for “Fascism”
Target-neutral items
Ideologically-neutral items
Based on Ethnocentrism differentiators
All pro-trait
Nine (or 10) clusters
It’s about broader attitudes that we can use to predict peoples anti semitism/ racism/ exclusionism/ ethnocentrism attitudes. It was supposed to be ideologically neutral- neither left or right wing
What are the F scale clusters?
Conventionalism- Conservatism- liking the way things are for them at the present time. Don’t like change/ challenge/ threatens present.
Authoritarian submission- Bowing to the authorities- whether religious/ political/ educational authorities.
Authoritarian aggression- Being willing to be aggressive to those you are told to be aggressive towards.
Others! The other characteristics they thought were associated with the authoritarianism personality.
