SI - The authoritarian personality Flashcards
What was the F scale?
A questionnaire used by Adorno et al. (1950) that was developed to measure whether you have an authoritarian personality.
What were individuals with an authoritarian personality like?
Rigid thinkers who obeyed authority, saw the world as black and white, and enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies.
What did Adorno et al. find about people who scored highly on the F scale?
They tended to have been raised by parents who used an authoritarian parenting style (including the use of physical punishment).
What did Adorno explain authoritarian personality as a result of?
Learning/imitation of strict parents.
Who came up with the F scale?
Adorno et al. (1950).
Who refined the concept of the authoritarian personality?
Robert Altemeyer (1981).
What did Robert Altemeyer (1981) do?
Refined the concept of the authoritarian personality by identifying a cluster of three of the original personality variables that he referred to as right-wing authoritarianism (RWA).
According to Altemeyer, high-RWA people posses what three important personality characteristics that predispose them to obedience?
- Conventionalism - an adherence to conventional norms and values (resist change).
- Authoritarian aggression - aggressive feelings toward people who violate these norms (punish differences).
- Authoritarian submission - uncritical submission to legitimate authorities (belief in authority).
What did Altemeyer test in his experiment?
The relationship between RWA and obedience.
What experiment did Altemeyer do?
He tested the relationship between RWA and obedience in an experiment where ppts were ordered to give themselves increasing levels of shock when they made mistakes on a learning task. There was a significant correlation between RWA scores and the level of shocks that ppts were willing to give themselves.
There was also a large red button saying ‘do not push this button unless you are instructed to do so’. When the experiment was over, the ppts were ordered by the experimenter to push the button to ‘administer an extra strong shock as a punishment for not trying’ (Altemeyer, 1981). Ppts level of RWA was irrelevant for this instruction as the vast majority did as they were told without question. (More than 80% obeyed.)
What was the procedure of Elms and Milgram’s 1966 experiment on the authoritarian personality?
- It was a follow up study using ppts from the previous Milgram’s experiment 2 months before.
- They selected 20 obedient ppts (those who had continued to the final shock level) and 20 ‘defiant’ ppts (those who had refused to continue at some point).
- Each ppt completed the MMPI scale (measuring a range of personality variables) and the F scale to specifically measure their levels of authoritarianism.
- Ppts were also asked a series of open-ended questions, including questions about their relationship with their parents during childhood and their attitude to the ‘experimenter’ (the authority figure) and the ‘learner’ during their participation in Milgram’s original study.
What were the findings of Elms and Milgram’s 1966 study?
- They found little difference between obedient and defiant ppts of MMPI variables however, they found higher levels of authoritarianism among those ppts classed as obedient compared with those classed as defiant.
- They also found significant differences between obedient and defiant ppts that were consistent with the idea of the authoritarian personality, such as obedient ppts reported being less close to their fathers during childhood, and were more likely to describe them in distinctly more negative terms.
- Obedient ppts saw the authority figure in Milgram’s study as clearly more admirable, and the learner as much less so. This wasn’t the case with the defiant ppts.
- These findings suggested to Elms and Milgram that the obedient group was higher on the trait of ‘authoritarianism’.
Give an example of a dispositional explanation of obedience:
The Authoritarian Personality explanation.
What type of explanation is the Authoritarian Personality explanation an example of?
A dispositional explanation of obedience.
Define Authoritarian Personality:
A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority.
