Prejudice: Authoritarian (Dispositional)

Question 1

How can the Authoritarian personality be applied to prejudice?

Answer 1

People with this personality type are often hostile to minority groups and those who don’t conform to authority - causing prejudice towards them.

Question 2

How does the childhood of those with an Authoritarian personality correlate with prejudice?

Answer 2

Individuals with a strict upbringing were unable to express their hostility towards their parents for fear of punishment and so it was differed to minority groups (a safer target).

Question 3

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate 2 ‘evidence’ points.

Answer 3

P - Adorno (1950) supports
E - He found that those who scored highly on the F-scale shared traits of hostility towards minorities
E - And so supports the idea of an authoritarian personality leading to prejudice
P - Cohrs (2012) supports
E - Found a positive correlation between RWA (a modern version of authoritarianism) and prejudice
E - Therefore supporting Adorno and so the idea of a certain personality cause prejudice

Question 4

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate 2 ‘how’ points.

Answer 4

P - Adorno (1950) has low reliability
E - The information on ppts’ childhood was drawn from their own recollections (retrospective data) and was self-report
E - And so the authenticity of the results cannot be certain as people’s memories can be inconsistent so harder to compare and open to social desirability bias
P - Cohrs (2012) has low validity
E - Used correlational data on the link between RWA and prejudice
E - Therefore cannot establish cause and effect and so has lower credibility

Question 5

Are there any applications?

Answer 5

P - Yes
E - States that prejudice occurs due to having trait of hostility towards minorities due to childhood
E - Therefore is useful at identifying an explanation for prejudice can help to find a solution targeting changing personality or authoritarian people’s attitudes towards minorities

Question 6

Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate 2 ‘criticisms’ points.

Answer 6

P - Low validity due to researcher bias
E - Adorno was looking for certain traits in those who had a high F-score in follow-up interviews
E - And so this would cause researcher bias due to subjectivity of interpreting something that isn’t standardised
P - Attitudes could be described as old-fashioned
E - Adorno’s study took place in the 1950s and societal values have changed since then
E - Won’t be as applicable to modern day prejudi and so less credible of an explanation for obedience now