the authoritarian personality Flashcards
what is ideology
an organisation of opinions, attitudes and values - a way of thinking about man ans society
disposition regarding personality/ ideplogy
Personality is mainly a potential; it is a readiness for behaviour rather than behaviour itself
whne does authoritarianism appeal
Authoritarian ideology is appealing when people’s psychological needs feel met by ‘bowing up while kicking down’, i.e., obeying ‘father figures’ and dealing firmly with perceived threats to the status qu
what was the TAP sample
- Over 2000 white, non-Jewish, native-born non-fascist Americans; predominantly middle-class, relatively well educated, and youngish
- Deliberate exclusion of minority groups
- Recruited via formal organisations
ideology scale developmenyt
- Anti-Semitic (AS) scale
- Ethnocentrism (E) scale
- Political and Economic Conservatism (PEC) scale
- Potential for Fascism (F) scale
masked concept capture
- care was taken to allow the subject ‘a way out,’ that is to say, to make it possible for him to agree with such a statement while maintaining that he was not ‘prejudiced’ or ‘undemocratic.’” (Adorno et al, 1950, p. 15)
- E.g., “The trouble with letting Jews into a nice neighbourhoodis that they gradually give it a typically Jewish atmosphere”
what is the anti-semitic [AS]
readiness to support or oppose anti-semitic ideology, a “broad system of ideas including”:
- neg opinions regarding jews
- hostile attitudes towards them, and
- ‘moral’ values which permeate the opinions and justify the attitudes
AS sub scales
- offensive
- threatening
- attitudes
- seclusion
- intrusive
what is the ethnocentric [E] personality
readiness to support or oppose ideologies incorporating in-group/out-group hostility
- anti black
- anti minorities
- ‘patriotic’
- in group favouring and out-group derogatory
what is political and economic conservatism
- An attachment to “things as they are”; a resistance to social change
- Also elements of individual liberty and personal responsibility (and opposition to state ‘interference’ with such things)
what is recursive triangulation
triangulation is using more than one data point/ type of data point
what is recursive triangulation related to the authoritarian personality
- To study potentially antidemocratic individuals, researchers first needed to identify them. They created a questionnaire that many people filled out anonymously.
- Those who agreed most with the antidemocratic statements were interviewed, along with some who disagreed or were neutral.
- Based on these interviews, the researchers revised the questionnaire and repeated the process.
the F scale
- Potential for “Fascism”
- Target-neutral items Ideologically-neutral items
- Based on Ethnocentrism differentiators
- All pro-trait
- Nine (or 10) clusters — the higher the number the more you agree
F scale ‘clusters’
- conventionalism = the way things have always been
- authoritarian submission
- authoritarian aggression
- others !
what is the protypical authoritarian
- People often deny having certain negative traits that they may actually share with their parents.
- Instead, they project those traits onto others, especially minorities.
- Prejudiced individuals have aggressive feelings but won’t express them toward their own group.
- They feel justified in attacking minorities, thinking those groups are aggressive.
- This lets them express their own unacceptable feelings indirectly. They care more about status and success than real connections with others.
- Those with an authoritarian personality usually don’t reflect on their behavior.
- When things go wrong, they blame others instead of taking responsibility.
F scale analysis
- good reliability
- single factor
- very strong correlation [.75] with E- scale
- strong correlation [.57] with PEC
F scale conc
- relatively:
- excellet samples
- huge and varied, including [but mot exclusively] students
- excellet samples
- excellent methods
- breadth and depth. multi-method. multi-revised
- excellent focus
- not ‘benign’ in-group preferences [we’re better than you - even though you may be okay,too] but genuine prejudice: ‘oppress the jews, blacks etc’
- excellent results
- A-S, E, PEC and F always covary . prediction of real behaviour
right wing authoritarians
- submission to the established, legitimate authorities in their society
- aggression in the name of those authorities
- conventionalism
social dominance orientance
The extent to which one desires that one’s in-group dominate and be superior to out-groups
nature of SDO
SDO shows several correlations where RWA shows little, none, or opposite correlations, particularly with respect to power
nature of RWA
RWA shows several correlations where SDO shows little, none, or opposite correlations, particularly with respect to religious fundamentalism
conc of both the SDO and RWA
- “In … threat-control-driven [RWA] prejudice, out-groups are disliked and feared because they are seen as threatening… bad, dangerous, immoral, and deviant…”
- **“In … competitive-dominance-driven [SDO] prejudice, out-groups are despised and derogated because they are believed to be inferior, worthless, and inadequate…”
SDO-D dominace
- An ideal society requires some groups to be on top and others to be on the bottom
- Some groups of people are simply inferior to other groups
- No one group should dominate in society*
- Groups at the bottom are just as deserving as groups at the top
SDO-E: anti-egalitarianism
- Group equality should not be our primary goal
- It is unjust to try to make groups equal
- We should do what we can to equalise conditions for different groups
- We should work to give all groups an equal chance to succeed
