The Authoritarian Personality Flashcards
What is an authoritarian personality?
a person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them.
What is the Californian F scale?
used by Adorno et al
measures the different components that made up the Authoritarian Personality
What are some of the characteristics someone with an Authoritarian personality possesses?
Rigid thinkers,
See world as black & white
Believe in adhering to social roles & hierarchies
Highly conventional attitudes towards race, sex and gender could lead to prejudice
Anxious of social change
What did Adorno et al discover about people who score high on the Californian F scale?
they tended to have been raised by parents who used an authoritarian parenting style
What is right wing authoritarianism?
Robert Altermeyer (1981) refined the concept of the authoritarian personality by identifying a cluster of three of the original personality variables:
1. conventionalism
2. authoritarian aggression
3. authoritarian submission
Elms and Milgram
carried out a follow-up study using ppts who’d previously taken part in one of Milgram’s experiments.
they selected 20 ‘obedient’ ppts and 20 ‘defiant’ ppts.
each ppt completed the MMPI scale and the Californian F Scale.
they also answered some open questions about their relationship with their parents during childhood
Elms and Milgram: findings
Little difference between obedient and defiant ppts on MMPI variables.
However, they did find higher levels of authoritarianism among ppts classified as ‘obedient’
The Authoritarian Personality: AO3
- Elms and Milgram suffers from social desirability bias
- Strength of Adorno’s theory
- Weakness of Adorno’s theory
4.
How does Elms and Milgram suffer from social desirability bias?
Elms and Milgram used Adorno’s F scale to determine levels of authoritarian personality. It is possible that the F scale suffers from response bias or social desirability, where participants provide answers that are socially acceptable. For example, participants may appear more authoritarian because they believe that their answers are the socially ‘correct’ and consequently they are incorrectly classified as authoritarian when they are not.
What is a strength of Adorno’s theory?
Adorno’s theory has expanded our understanding of obedience from only situational factors and highlighted individual traits’ influence on our behaviour. Combining these factors gives us a better and more holistic understanding of political and societal phenomena.
What is a weakness of Adorno’s theory?
Adorno used a sample of middle-class Caucasian Americans, suggesting the theory may be ethnocentric and have class bias. Although the study was later replicated across cultures, most research has been conducted in the West.
