Personality Affecting Prejudice

Question 1

Authoritarian Personality

Answer 1

Adorno (1950) believed harsh parenting style resulted in an authoritarian personality (toughness obedience and prejudice).

Measured this using the F-Scale

Said this style of parenting was rife during the early 20th century in Germany.
Have to displace their anger of conditional love at something other than parents due to fear of punishment, so project it to others ‘inferior’ to them

Question 2

Allport’s Authoritarian Personality

Answer 2

Allport (1954) Said authoritarians see things in ‘black and white’, requiring ‘cognitive closure’ meaning they prefer to find solutions than more questions

Question 3

Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Answer 3

Altmeyer (1988) said RWA is not a result of parenting, but social learning. Says it develops as a response to fear and uncertainty, thus are hostile to those who may defy social norms.

Question 4

Social Dominance Orientation

Answer 4

Pratto (1994) said SDO is those motivated to seek ingroup power and dominance. They see the world as a competitive jungle, but this is projected through role models, like RWA. More common in men

Question 5

Eval of Personality Factors

Answer 5

Strength
Cohrs (2012) found that RWA & SDO correlated with prejudice. SDO negatively correlated with agreeableness

Both altmeyer and allport say prejudice can rise from exposure to specific worldviews. Thus regulation of media sources may be beneficial inr reducing prejudice.

Weaknesses
Individual differences approach to prejudice ignores social norms & situational factors. Louis (2003) found that 72% of Australian ppts. disagreed w the statement ‘the white race is the best race’, but agreed with the exclusion of asylum seekers

SDO scores change over time and are not consistent. This means they are often not reliable