Lessons 9 - Authoritarian Personality Flashcards
What is an authoritarian personality?
A dispositional trait whereby someone is more likely to obey authority figures.
What are the characteristics of the authoritarian personality?
They are hostile towards lower status people
Servile to higher status people
Inflexible in their beliefs
Conformist
Thinks of people as “us” and “them”
Does not like ambiguity
What causes the authoritarian personality?
Harsh upbringing, possible abuse. This leads to them directing their anger towards other (weaker) people who cannot fight back, as they cannot fight their parents out of fear. They act submissively to them instead, and this is extended to all authority figures.
Who developed the F Scale?
Adorno (1950)
Who did Adorno give the questionnaire to?
2000 middle class white Americans
What did Adorno test for?
Attitudes towards other racial groups and attitudes to society. Higher scores means a more authoritarian personality
Research support of the Authoritarian personality - Elms and Milgram
Elms and Milgram (1966) - tested 20 obedient participants of Milgram’s Shock experiment and 20 disobedient participants for the MMPI personality test and the F scale. Also asked questions about their relationship with parents and the experimenter and learner. Showed higher levels of authoritarian personality within obedient participants and they were less close to their fathers, and thought the experimenter was “admirable”
Research support of the authoritarian personality - Miller
Miller (1975) - found that those who scored higher on the F scale were more likely to obey a command to hold electrical wiring while taking a test. Shows that you will obey authority even at the risk of harming yourself.
Research support of the authoritarian personality - Altemeyer
Altemeyer (1981) - participants were asked to shock themselves every time they got a question wrong. Those who scored higher o the F scale were more likely to obey this command.
Weaknesses of the authoritarian personality
- Does not explain why so many German civilians obeyed the Nazi state, but not all of them could have had the authoritarian personality.
- Social Identity Theory is a more relevant theory
- The test was flawed. It was easy to get a high score on the test and they were all closed-ended questions, no room for explanation.
- When Adorno interviewed his participants about their childhood, he already knew their score and may have showed interviewer bias.
