Social Influence: The Authoritarian Personality Flashcards
Define the Authoritarian Personality?
A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and belief in absolute or submission to authority.
What are dispositional explanations of behaviour?
Explanations of behaviours such as obedience/ the authoritarain personality - emphasise them being caused by an individual’s own personal characteristics rather than situational influences within the environment.
What is the F-scale
A measure of authoritarian traits and tendencies
Who used the F scale + why?
Adorno - to measure the different components that make up the authoritarian personality.
What are the people with the authoritarian personality like?
Individuals with this type of personality are rigid thinkers, obeyed authority, and enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies.
What did Adorno discover?
Those who scored high on the f-scale tended to have been raised by parents who used an authoritarian parenting style.
What is right-wing authoritarianism?
A cluster of personality variables that are associated with a right-wing attitude to life.
What are the 3 personality variables that are associated with the right-wing attitude?
1)Adherence to conventional norms and values
2)Aggressive feelings towards those people who violate these norms
3)Uncritical submission to authorities
What was Altemeyer’s test?
-Tested the relationship between RWA and obedience.
-Participants were ordered to give themselves increasing levels of shock when they made mistakes on the learning task.
-Significant correlation between RWA scores and the level of shocks that participants were willing to give themselves.
What was the procedure of Elms and Milgram’s experiment?
-Used participants from Milgram’s original study.
-Selected 20 obedient participants (those who had continued to the final shock level) and 20 not-so-obedient (those who had refused to continue at some point).
-Each participant completed the MMPI scale which measures personality variables and the f scale to measure their levels of authoritarianism.
-They were also asked questions about their childhood and attitudes toward the experimenter.
Outline findings of elms and Milgram’s study.
Little difference between obedient and not-so-obedient participants on MMPI variables.
Higher levels of authoritarianism in obedient participants.
Obedient participants reported being less close to their fathers during childhood and more likely to describe them in negative terms. They also saw the authority figure as more admirable. This wasn’t the case with the not-so-obedient participants.
Suggests that the obedient group was higher on the trait of authoritarianism.
What are the 4 AO3 points for the authoritarian personality?
-More important factors than authoritarian personality
-Acquiesce/ agreement bias
-Demand characteristics
+Research support
(-AO3) What are the more important factors than the authoritarian personality?
Social context. Proximity, location, disobedient peers (unanimity) and uniform.
Dispositional factors have influence, but don’t account for changes seen in Milgram’s different conditions.
(-AO3) How the Acquiesce bias applied to research into the AP
The phenomenon of a ppt always responding the same way on a Likert scale, regardless of content. This results in a serious issue with the methodology, which effects reliability and validity of using the f-scale to indicate obedience.
(-AO3) How does research into the AP show demand characteristics
Ppts may have been aware of the study that has already taken place. It may also be easy to guess the aims from personality questions. Social desirability may also lead to answers tailored to please researchers thus, causing a lack of internal validity.
