adornos authoritarian personality

why was this study carried out

adorno wanted to understand the anti-semitism of the holocaust

attributes of ap

submissive to those of higher status, dismissive of those deemed as inferior to them, have a 'black-and white' cognitive approach

why do individuals have ap

result of harsh parenting in childhood e.g. high standards conditional love which creates resentment and hostility in the individual so they take out their anger on those 'weaker' than them

sample in adorno's study

more than 2000 middle class white americans

what is the f-scale

potential for fascism scale showing whether or not you are authoritarian, identified the attributes of the personality e.g. having fixed ideas of right and wrong

what attributes did people who scored high on the f-scale have

identification with 'strong' people and contemptuous of the 'weak', conscious of status, respectful to those of higher status, fixed stereotypes (+ve correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice)

research support for theory

elms and milgram 1966 - interviewed 20 who had been fully obedient in milgram's baseline study scored very high on the f-scale compared to 20 who were not fully obedient (however those who fully obeyed didn't have authoritarian characteristics e.g. didn't experience harsh parenting)

cons of theory

cannot explain obedience in a majority of a country's population e.g. millions of germans were anti semitic and it is unrealistic that all are authoritarian

limitations of f-scale

politically biased as only measures tendency towards extreme form of right-wing ideology