Authoritarian personality

authoritarian personality

• person who has extreme submissiveness and respect to authority.

• hostile.

• dispositional explanation of obdience

• high F scale score

Adornos research

• P: used surveys to devolop F scale: measures relationship between personality + prejudice beliefs. Conducted interviews to 2000 ppt about authority.

• F: strong positive correlation between AP and prejudice. showed excessive respect to higher status.

• ppl with AP often had strict parents and experienced harsh punishments.

origin of authoritarian personality

• stems from extremely strict discipline

• parents usually have high expectations and expect upmost loyalty

• children repress hostile feelings towards parents and displace them onto inferior people

strength - research to support

• Elms and Milgram: wanted to see if obedient ppts in milgrams research would show traits of AP.

• each ppt completed the F scale. 20 obedient ppts scored significantly higher on the Fscale then 20 disobedient ppt

• provides empirical support, gives weight to theory

Limitation - deterministic

• reliance on psychic determinism, suggest personality traits are shaped by early experiences alone (little free will)

• critics argue that situational factors like proximity also play a crucial role

• deterministic stance assumes that ppl with AP are predisposed to follow authority. unconsciously displace repressed feelings

• reduces complexity to early experiences alone - overly simplistic and dismisses role of conscious decision making

limitation - methodological problems

• reliance on self report methods like f scale and interviews

• respondents may have given answers that reflect societal expectations. adorno himself interviewed ppt - vulnerable to interviewer bias

• affects overall credibility as adorno could alter responses to support his hypothesis.