Social Influence-Authotarian Personality

Question 1

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 1

A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority

Question 2

What did Adorno et al. use in 1950 to measure different components that made up the authors rain personality?

Answer 2

The California F-scale

Question 3

What did the F-Scale contain?

Answer 3

Statements which if agreed with was indicative of the authoritarian personality

Question 4

An example of a statement in the F-scale?

Answer 4

“Rules are there for people to follow, not change”

Question 5

How would you describe people who had an authoritarian personality?
-💭

• ⚫️⚪️
• 📝
• 🔺

Answer 5

• Rigid thinkers who obeyed authority 💭
• saw world as black and white ⚫️⚪️
• strict adherence to social rules 📝
• strict adherence to hierarchy 🔺

Question 6

What did Adorno et al. Find out about people who scored highly on the F-Scale in regard to parenting style?

Answer 6

They tended to have been raised by parents who use an authoritarian parenting style

Question 7

How did growing up in an authoritarian system affect children?

Answer 7

This system is the expected norm and these people will acquire the same authoritarian attitudes through a process of learning and imitation

Question 8

How did Robert Altemeyer (1981) refine the concept of “Authoritarian personality”?

➡️🐦📝

Answer 8

He established “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” ➡️🐦📝

Question 9

What 3 personality characteristics did Robert say high RWA people possess that predispose them to obedience?

• C
• A A
• A S

Answer 9

• Conventionalism
• Authoritarian aggression
• Authoritarian submission

Question 10

What is Conventionalism?

Answer 10

Adherence to conventional norms and values

Question 11

What is authoritarian aggression?

Answer 11

Aggressive feeling towards people who violate these norms

Question 12

What is authoritarian submission?

Answer 12

Uncritical submission to legitimate authorities

Question 13

How did Almeyer test the relationship between RWA?

Answer 13

An experiment where participants would self-inflict pain in the form of increasing levels of electric shocks if they were to make a mistake on a learning task

Question 14

What do Almeyer discover in his experiment?

Answer 14

Significant correlation between RWA scores and level of shocks ppts were willing to give to themselves

Question 15

What did the red button that experimenter would order participants to push at the end of the experiment for not trying in Altemeyer’s (1981) study say?

Answer 15

“Do not push this button unless instructed to do so”

Question 16

What was found in regard to the red button 🚨?

Answer 16

Participants RWA score appeared to be irrelevant for this instruction as the bat majority did as they were told without question

Question 17

Key study- Elms and Milgram (1966)

(Carried out a follow-up study using ppts who had previosly taken part in one of Milgram’s experiments 2 months before)

Procedure-
How many participants were used in total and what type of participants were used?

Answer 17

• 40 in total:
• 20 “Obedient” participants (who had continued to final shock level)
• 20 “defiant” participants (who refused to continue at some point in the experiment)

Question 18

What 2 things would participants complete to specifically measure their levels of authoritarianism?

Answer 18

MMPI Scale (measures range of personality variables) and the California F-Scale

Question 19

What were the participants also asked?

What would these question’s ask about?

• 👪
• 🔬

❓❓❓

Answer 19

A series of open-ended questions

• Asked about relationships with parents during childhood
• attitude towards experimenter (authority figure) and learner during Milgram’s original study

Question 20

Elms and Milgram’s (1966)

findings

What did the results of the MMPI variables suggest?

Answer 20

Little difference between obedient and defiant participants

Question 21

What did the F-Scale result show?

Answer 21

Found higher levels of authoritarianism among participants classified as obedient

Question 22

What was found in regard to obedient participants and their relationship with their father during childhood?

Answer 22

Reported being less close with their father and would describe them with more negative terms

Question 23

How did obedient participants view the experimenter in Milgram’s original study? ✨🙌🏾

Answer 23

More admirable

Question 24

How did obedient participants view the learner in Milgram’s original study? 👎🏾

Answer 24

Less admirable in comparison to the experimenter

Question 25

What did Elms and Milgram’s findings suggest?

Answer 25

The obedient group was higher on the trait of “authoritarianism”

Question 26

Evaluation-

Research evidence for the Authoritarianism/obedience link?

What criticism did Elms and Milgram’s (1966g and Almeyer’s (1981) study’s receive?

⚡️⚡️⚡️

Answer 26

Suspicion concerning whether the shocks where real or fake

Question 27

How did Dambeun and Vatine (2010) overcome this?

🎭 🎥 📺

Answer 27

Used an “immersive virtual environment” where an actor taking the role of the learner was filmed and recorded and displayed on a computer screen

Question 28

What were the participant told about the experiment by Dambrun and Vatine (2010)?

Answer 28

The experiment was a stipulations and that shocks and victims reaction’s were not real but only stimulated

Question 29

How would ppts respond in D & V’s (2010) experiment?

Answer 29

As if the situation was real

Question 30

What correlation did D & V (2010) find?

Answer 30

Significant correlation between ppts RWA score and maximum voltage shock administered to victim

Higher RWA scores = obeyed the most

Question 31

Evaluation:

Social context is more important

What did Milgram believe was the primary cause of differences in participants levels of obedience and what was least important?

Answer 31

Variations in the social context of the study (e.g. Proximity of the victim) and that variations in personality was the least important

Question 32

What did Milgram feel cause ppts to obey or resist?

Answer 32

The specific social situations

Question 33

What did Milgram (1974) say relying on explanation of obedience based purely on authoritarianism means?

Answer 33

It lacks the flexibility to account for variations in the study

Question 34

Evaluation:
Differences between characteristics of authoritarian and obedient participants

What was found in regard to obedient participants and relationships with their parents which opposed stereotypical belief?

Answer 34

Many fully obedient participants reported having a very good relationship with their parents rather than having an overly strict family environment associated with the the authoritarian personality

Question 35

What was unlikely given the large amount of fully obedient participants in Milgram’s study (1966) ?

Answer 35

That the vast majority would have grown up in such a harsh environment with a punative father