Authoritarian Personality

Question 1

What is the Authroitarian personality?

Answer 1

-The Authoritarian Personality is a dispositional explanation of obedience, developed by psychologist Adorno.
- It suggests that early childhood experiences shape adult personalities and that people who have an authoritarian personality are extremely obedient.

• Adorno built upon Freud’s concept of the unconscious mind by suggesting that harsh and strict parenting led to hostility in the child, who then repressed these conflicting feelings into the unconscious mind.
• Later in life, this hostility then resurfaced and was displaced onto minority groups such as different racial groups.
• Furthermore, Adorno suggested that people with this personality type tend to be harsh towards people who have a lower status than them, but respect those of a higher position, highlighting how those with this personality type have high levels of obedience for authority figures
  -. To measure authoritarian personality, Adorno created the F scale (facism scale) from his previous research.

Question 2

What are the 3 important personality characteristics into developing it? By who?

Answer 2

Robert Altemeyer (1981) refined the concept of the Authoritarian Personality by identifying a cluster of three important personality characteristics that predispose them to obedience:

● Conventionalism - an adherence to conventional norms and values.
● Authoritarian aggression - aggressive feelings toward people who violate these norms.
● Authoritarian submission - uncritical submission to legitimate authorities.

Question 3

A03 - Milgram

Answer 3

• Whilst AP may have an effect, it appears that the situation is much more significant.
• Although Milgram accepted that there might be a dispositional basis to obedience and disobedience, he did not believe the evidence for this was particularly strong.

-Milgram showed that variations in the social context of the study (e.g. proximity of the victim, location, presence of disobedient peers) were the primary cause of differences in participants’ levels of obedience, not variations in personality.
-He believed that the specific social situation participants found themselves in caused them to obey or resist regardless of their personalities.
-Therefore, the authoritarian personality may not offer a full explanation of obedience.

Question 4

A03 - Genes

Answer 4

-Whilst there is some evidence that AP is associated with obedience it is not clear that AP is caused by harsh parenting.

• Adorno stressed the importance of a harsh environment in causing someone to develop the authoritarian personality.
  -Elms and Milgram’s asked participants about their upbringing, many of the fully obedient participants reported having a very good relationship with their parents, rather than having grown up in the overly strict family environment associated with the Authoritarian Personality.
• An alternative view is that genetic factors are important. McCourt et al. addressed this issue in a twin study, finding that when one MZ twin displays an authoritarian personality then there is an increased chance that twin two will display the same.
  -Therefore, more research is required on the mechanisms behind the authoritarian personality.

Question 5

A03 - Elms and Milgram Research

Answer 5

-However, Elms and Milgram arguably do offer some support for Adorno’s explanation with regards to how those with an authoritarian personality view their peers.

-They found that obedient participants saw the experimenter as more admirable and the learner less so, which supports the explanation that people with an authoritarian personality respect those of a higher social status more so than those with a lesser social status than themselves.

-This shows how there were higher levels of authoritarianism among those classed as obedient than those who were classed as defiant which is largely consistent with Adorno’s authoritarian personality.

• In particular, when immoral orders are issued, participants who are strongly obedient tend to find great value in any command issued from a higher authority figure.
• However, Elms and Milgram’s supporting study was carried out in the 1960’s which may mean that it lacks temporal validity as contemporary society has changed a significant amount in 50 years therefore the findings may not be the same.
• But it is likely that personality types remain consistent so this shouldn’t be a significant issue in the context of Adorno.