Adorno: Authoritarian personality

Question 1

Adorno’s Background

Answer 1

-Adorno also wanted to understand the high levels of obedience of ordinary German citizens to Nazi orders during the Holocaust
-Unlinke Milgram, who suggested that any individual can display high levels of obedience when in the right situation, Adorno argued that high levels of obedience and vulnerability to an authority figure are dispositional, resulting form a personality type he called the Authoritarian personality

Question 2

Authoritarian personality

Answer 2

-Adorno suggested that an authoritarain personality forms in early childhood as a result of a strict upbringing with harsh physical punishments
-Linking his ideas to Freud’s theories, Adorno suggested that the anger children felt towards their parents was displaced onto others, in particular minority groups

Question 3

Authoritarian personality traits

Answer 3

-High level of respect to people with high social status
-Hostile to those they believe are lower status
-Fixed views/sterotypes about certain groups of people
-Views on morality are dogmatic

Question 4

F-scale

Answer 4

-Adorno (1950s) created the F (fascism) - scale to measure authoritarian personality
-Those with a high test on the score had fixed stereotypes, identified with “strong” people, had a dislike for “weak” people, and had dogmatic views on morality
WHAT DID IT MEASURE
-The questions on the F-scale measured 9 different factors two of which include:
-Authoritarian submission which is an uncritical view of authority figures
-Power and toughness which is identification with power figures and views on the importance of dominance/submission

Question 5

Positive evaluation of Adorno’s theory of Authoritarian personality (35% resistance in Milgram’s OG study)

Answer 5

-In Milgram’s original experiment, 35% of participants resisted the orders of the uahtority figure, this level of resistance cnanot be explaianed by situational factors affecting agentic state and legitimacy of authority
-Adorno’s “Authoritarian personality” theory acknowledges that the willingess for obedience varies from person to person, explaining the extreme variation in Milgram’s results

Question 6

Positive research evaluation of Adornos authoritarian personality theory (Elms and Milgram 1966)

Answer 6

-Elms and Milgram (1966) 20 obedient males who went to the highest shock level in Milgram’s original study and 20 defiant males hwo resisted authority, were given the F-scale
-It was found that the obedient males scored significantly higher on the F-scale than those definat males; indicating that they had an authoritarian personality and providing evidence for Adorno’s theory that dispositional factors affect obedience

Question 7

Negative evaluation of Adorno’s theory (link between abusive childhood etc is only correlational, alternate theories have lots of research evidence)

Answer 7

-Adorno’s theory of the link between abusive childhood, authoritarian personality and obedience can only be proved through correlational research
-However, alternate situational theories explanations for obedience such as agentic state and legitimacy of authority are supported by significant research evidence such as Milgram, Hofling, and Bickman

Question 8

Negative evaluation of the F-scale as a measurement of authoritarian personality (acquiescence bias)

Answer 8

-The F-scale has been criticised as an innacurate measurement of an authoritarian personality due to acquiescence bias; the tendency for people to agree on all questions; agreeing to all questions on the F- scale gives a participant a high score, inaccurately indicating that they have an authoritarian personality