The Authoritarian personality Flashcards
Define AP:
Personality type especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Submissive to those of higher status
Dismissive of inferiors
Define dispositional factors:
individual characteristics that influence behaviour + actions in a person
What did Adorno believe?
High levels of obedience was a psychological disorder located in personality of individual.
What are the characteristics of someone with AP?
Show extreme respect to authority.
Submissive to those higher, dismissive of those ‘beneath’ them
Very rigid ideas of right + wrong –> no grey area
What are the origins of AP?
Psychodynamic explanation
Childhood = harsh parenting = AP
Extremely strict discipline + severe criticism.
Conditional love –> love depends on how child behaves.
Creates resentment + hostility in child.
Child cannot express feelings due to fear of punishment
.: fear displaced onto others they perceive as weaker (scapegoating)
Describe the procedure of Adorno’s research (1950)
2000 white middle class Americans–> test unconscious attitudes to other racial groups.
Created several measurement scales including F-scale.
Used to measure AP.
Example: ‘Obedience + respect for authority are most important virtues for children to learn’
What is fascism?
Extreme right wing ideology that promotes nationalism.
Total rejection of democracy –> leader = total power
Anti-individualist
What were the findings of Adorno’s research?
~ AP = high results = identified with ‘strong’ people + intolerant of the ‘weak’
~ Concerned with status of themselves + others
~ Showed excessive respect for high status
~ Cognitive style = distinctive/fixed stereotype about other groups
~ Strong positive correlation between AP + prejudice
Evaluation of AP:
Research support:
(1966) Elms + Milgram
Interviewed small sample of fully obedient ppt in OG experiment.
Completed F-scale
20 obedient ppt scored significantly higher on F-scale compared to 20 disobedient ppt.
Findings support Adorno view obedient = AP
COUNTERPOINT:
Researchers analysed individual subscales of F-scale.
Found obedient ppt = number of characteristics unusual for authoritarians.
Did not glorify their fathers.
Did not experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood
Did not have hostile attitudes towards their mothers.
Link between obedience + authoritarianism = complex.
Unlikely to be useful predictor for obedience
Evaluation of AP:
Limited explanation
Cannot explain obedient behaviour in majority of country’s population.
Pre-war Germany = millions displayed obedient + anti-semitic behaviour
Differed in personalities in some sort of way.
Extremely unlikely all had AP.
Alternative view = majority of Germans identified with antisemitic Nazi state + scapegoated Jews due to SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY.
limited explanation as alternative more realistic.
Evaluation of AP:
Political bias:
Only measure tendency towards extreme form if right-wing ideology.
Christie + Jahoda (1954) = F-scale politically biased interpretation of AP.
Reality of left wing authoritarianism (Russian Bolshevism/Chinese Maoism)
Extreme left + right wing = lots of things in common
Both emphasise complete obedience to political authority.
Adorno theory = not comprehensive dispositional explanation accounting for obedience on whole political spectrum.
Evaluation of AP:
Flawed evidence:
Greenstein (1969) calls F-scale ‘comedy of methodological errors’
Seriously flawed scale.
Possible to get high score by just selecting ‘agree’ answers
Anyone with response bias = AP
.: concept of AP may not be valid if method of measuring = flawed
