Authoritarian personality- fscale (adornos research)

What’s an autonomous state?

The state where one is responsible for their own actions

What’s an agentic state

The state where an individual gives up their autonomy and accountability to act as an active agent for an authority figure

What’s an agentic shift

When one shifts from an autonomous state to an agentic one

What are binding factors?

Aspects of the situation that allow people to ignore/minimise the damaging consequences of their actions

-reduce the moral strain they are feeling

Why do we allow authority figures to influence our behaviour?

Because it allows out society to function

What is a consequence of legitimacy of authority

Some people are given more power than others. For example the power to punish others

Where do we initially learn to obey authority

Form our parents- primary socialisation

What is destructive authority

When authority is used to make people act in crule dangerous and stupid ways

What is an authoritarian personality?

A personality type that results in a person to become more obedient

What are the characteristics of the authoritarian personality

Rigid beliefs in conventional values

General hostility towards other groups

Intolerant towards ambiguity-anything nkt easily defined

Submissive towards authority

What was the f-scale questionnaire

A questionnaire created to determine whether or not you have an authoritarian personality

What was the aim of adornos research?

To find out if there is a relaitonship between ones personality type and their beliefs about obedience and authority

What’s was the method for adornos research?

He got 2000 white middle class men to complete the F-scale

What were the results of adornos research?

They found a positive relaitonship between authoritarian personalities and the obedience towards authority figures

What was the conclusion to adornos research

People with an authoritarian personality characteristics are morelikely to show higher levels of obedience

What was wrong with the sample that adorno used in his experiment?

It makes it hard to generalise as the sample was only middle class white men

What is wrong with the f-scale questionnaire (evaluation)

Questions were often ambiguous with duel interpretations with no middle ground

Adornos subjective interpretation of the authoritarian personality is what the questions are based on

Where does an authoritarian personality often originate from?

A very disciplined harsh upbringing from parents.

Harsh punishments and little love -(usually the father)

What can having harsh upbringing with little love result in?

A fear and hatered of your parents

What can a fear and hatered of your parents result in

A fear of your parents - excessively respectful of authority

A hatered for your parents- hatered displaced onto others

What is an evaluation point of the authoritarian personality involving obedience?

Although both adorno and milgram both show links between obedience and the authoritarian personality it’s also likely that a range of factors can affect the level of obedience

What’s an evaluation of the authoritarian personality involving peoples level of education (evaluation)

Less educated people are more likely to display authoritarian personality traits. If this is correct it’s possible to conclude that its acctuslly education that contributes to the authoritarian personality