the authoritarian personality

Question 1

what is the f scale

Answer 1

• used by Adorno to measure the different components that make up the authoritarian personality
• individuals with this type of personality are rigid thinkers, obeyed authority, enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies

Question 2

what did Adorno also discover

Answer 2

those who scored high on the f-scale tended to have been raised by parents who used an authoritarian parenting style.

Question 3

what are the three personality characteristics that high right wing authoritarian people show

Answer 3

• an adherence to conventional norms and values
• aggressive feelings towards people who violate these norms
• uncritical submission to legitimate authorities

Question 4

what was Altemeyer’s test

Answer 4

• tested relationship between RWA and obedience
• participants were ordered to give themselves increasing levels of shock when they made mistakes on learning task.
• significant correlation between RWA scores and the level of shocks that participants were willing to give themselves.

Question 5

outline procedure of Elms and Milgrams experiment

Answer 5

• used participants from Milgrams original study
• selected 20 obedient participants (those who had continued to final shock level) and 20 not so obedient (those who had refused to continue at some point)
• each participant complete 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 to the experimenter

Question 6

outline findings of elms and Milgrams study

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

explain the limitation that there are differences between authoritarian and obedient participants

Answer 7

• the study showed some differences in characteristics between the authoritarian personality and the characteristics of obedient participants
• e.g. when they asked participants about their upbringing, many of the fully obedient participants reported having a very good relationship with their parents, rather than having grown up in the overly strict environment associated with the authoritarian personality

Question 8

explain the limitation that education may determine authoritarianism and obedience

Answer 8

• research has generally found that less educated people are consistently more authoritarian than the well educated.
• Milgram also found that participants with lower levels of education tended to be more obedient than those with higher levels of education
• this suggests that instead of authoritarianism causing obedience, lack of education could be responsible for authoritarianism and obedience

Question 9

explain the evaluation that left wing views are associated with lower levels of obedience

Answer 9

• right wing authoritarianism suggests that people who define that people who define themselves as on the right side of the political spectrum would be more likely to obey authority.
• therefore we might expect that who who are left wing are less obedient
• Bègue supported this. Carried out replication of Milgram’s study as part of a fake game show.
• contestants had to give fake electric shocks to other contestants
• interviews shied that the more participants define themselves as left wing , the lower the intensity of shocks they agreed to give to the other contestant.
• this suggests that situational context doesn’t exclude the possibility of individual differences as a determining influence in obedience

Question 10

The authoritarian personality is a dispositions explanation of obedience. What does this mean ?

Answer 10

• internal explanations
• I.e. personality
• individual reasons why someone obeys

Question 11

Characteristics of someone with a authoritarian personality

Answer 11

• believe that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures
• do not challenge stereotypes due to their tendency to adopt absolutist thinking

Question 12

Why does the authoritarian personality have little ecological validity

Answer 12

• because it can not explain many real life examples of mass obedience
• e.g. it is very unlikely that the whole of the Germany population during nazi occupation had an authoritarian personality
• theory is limited in explaining some examples of obedience