Factors affecting prejudice: Individual Differences

Question 1

What are 4 different types of personality that can affect prejudice?

Answer 1

1. The authoritarian personality
2. Allport’s authoritarian personality
3. Right wing authoritarianism
4. Social dominance orientation

Question 2

Who proposed the authoritarian personality?

Answer 2

Adorno (1950)

Question 3

What did Adorno (1950) say about someone with an authoritarian personality?

Answer 3

Someone with an authoritarian personality may be more likely to consider groups as ‘us’ and ‘them’ and be more prejudice of a social or ethnic group.

Adorno found that people with an authoritarian personality were more likely to be hostile to people who are not in their group and therefore inferior to them.

Question 4

What makes someone have an authoritarian personality?

Answer 4

Harsh parenting - the child only gets love if they behave correctly, therefore they feel hostile about the conditional love and cannot express their feelings due to fear of punishment.

Question 5

Other than Adorno, who else proposed the authoritarian personality?

Answer 5

Allport (1954)

Question 6

What does Allport’s authoritarian personality suggest?

Answer 6

Allport believed that (unlike Adorno) that people with authoritarian personalities are not necessarily prejudiced but are receptive to political arguments targeting inner fears and insecurities.

Question 7

Who proposed Right Wing Authoritarianism?

Answer 7

Altemeyer (1988)

Question 8

What are the three concepts of Right Wing Authoritarianism?

Answer 8

1. They have a learned set of beliefs about the world, socially learned but parents are not the source.
2. They believe the world is dangerous and threatening which creates fear and uncertainty.
3. They are suspicious and overtly hostile towards anyone who defies the norm or seems ‘different’.

Question 9

Who proposed Social Dominance Orientation?

Answer 9

Pratto et al (1994)

Question 10

What are the main principles of Social Dominance Orientation?

Answer 10

1. Prefer hierarchy rather than equal distribution of power.
2. They see the world as a ‘competitive jungle’, people are ruthless and will fight for limited resources.
3. Learn via role models.
4. They have personality traits such as tough-mindedness.

Question 11

Who provided research support for the role of personality looking at RWA and SDO?

Answer 11

Cohrs et al (2012)

They found that RWA and SDO were both positively correlated with prejudice.

RWA = +0.48
SDO = +0.28

Question 12

What is a counter argument for the research support for the role of personality?

Answer 12

RWA and SDO may not be consistent over time - both interact with social factors, making prejudice harder to predict in the real world.

Question 13

What is a weakness of personality affecting prejudice?

Answer 13

Social norms and situational factors are ignored.

Louis et al (2003) found that 72% of Australian participants strongly disagreed with the statement, ‘The white race is the best race’, but agreed with the exclusion of asylum seekers.

This shows that it is important to understand social as well as individual factors when looking at prejudice.

Question 14

How can personality factors affecting prejudice be applied to the real world?

Answer 14

Individual differences may help to reduce prejudice. If we know more about the theories of personality affecting prejudice then we may be able to combat it.

Question 15

How do theories of personality link with issues and debates?

Answer 15

Research into individual differences may be socially sensitive.

Psychologists must be careful to ensure their research is not used to denigrate people who hold certain views.