Adorno F Scale Flashcards
(9 cards)
What are people with an authoritarian personality like?
More obedient
Respect social hierarchy’s and authority figures
See the world in a rigid, inflexible way
How does an authoritarian personality form during childhood?
As a result of having overbearing parents
Harsh parenting
Set extremely high standards
Expect absolute loyalty
Strengths of Adorno F scale?
Replicable
Uses standardised questions- all ppts answer the same questions
Large sample size and quantitative data- makes it reliable
Limitations?
People may lie on a questionnaire
People may be prone to social desirability bias- may develop demand characteristics
The theory is overly simplistic- not everyone who has high levels of obedience has an authoritarian personality
What was the Adorno F scale devised to measure?
The authoritarian personality
How many people completed it and what were they like?
More than 2000 middle-class white Americans completed it- did not represent all racial and ethnic groups in the USA
Support- milgram?
Milgram interviewed a small sample of people who had been in the original study
They all completed the f scale
20 obedient ppts scored significantly higher on the f scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient ppts scored significantly
Limitation of authoritarianism?
Can’t explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population
E.g. in Germany, many displayed obedient, anti-Semitic behaviour but they all had different personalities
Seems unlikely that they all possessed an authoritarian personality
Limitation of f scale- right win ideology?
Richard Christie and Marie Jahoda argued that the F scale is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
Extreme right wing and extreme left wing have a lot more in common
Both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority
Means that adornos theory is not comprehensive for obedience to authority across the whole politics spectrum.
