Authoritarian Personality and Obedience Factors

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Factors affecting Obedience:
Personality
The Authoritarian
Personality
ADORNO, T. (1950).
 
prejudice caused by 
a flaw
in the personality
an 
ego-weakness
 or
maladjusted
’ personality
Adorno was also 
Jewish
;
academic interest triggered
by a desire to understand
the 
Holocaust
his ideas fit with the
Germans as different”
hypothesis
The Authoritarian Personality
ADORNO, T. (1950).
 
Created 
questionnaires
 about
upbringing, politics and prejudices
In-depth interviews 
of high and low
scorers on the questionnaires,
including 
Larry and Mack
analysed transcripts 
and used them
to design another questionnaire (the
F-scale
) which measured
Authoritarian Personality
AP 
predicts both obedience and
prejudice 
to outgroups
But Adorno criticised for his
subjective interpretation 
of the
original transcripts
 
How did Adorno do his research?
 
many ‘items’ (questions) which
assess amongst other things…
Receptivity to fascist ideology
Anti-Semitism
Conservatism
Ethnocentrism
http://www.anesi.com/fscale.htm
The F scale
Harsh and punitive style of
upbringing
 leads to low self-esteem,
self-loathing, anger and hostility in the
infant
The development
 of the
Authoritarian Personality in 
early
childhood
To resolve these inner feelings, the children
identify with the parents and come to
idealise them
; they become overly
subservient
 to those in power
Anger and fear are repressed
 (motivated
forgetting) into the “unconscious”; the emotions
still exist but are buried away from conscious
awareness, protecting the person from
undesirable impulses to hurt the parents
This anger and fear is 
expressed
through displacement
; these people
will act as though outgroups
members are threatening, and
respond with aggression, however
the real target is the parents, but this
knowledge is buried in the
unconscious
Outcome – people with 
rigid,
inflexible attitudes, highly
obedient
 to those they
perceive as higher status and
brutal and discriminatory
towards those seen as having
lower status
This hostility cannot be expressed
towards the parents due to fear
 
Alan Elms 
found that 
those
scoring higher on the F-scale also
gave higher shocks
Yet, AP is only be a 
partial
explanation
 of Milgram’s study,;
65% obeyed up to 450 V
 and the
percentage of 
people who score
highly on the F scale is far lower
than this.
However, it may help to explain
why some people found it easier
to 
resist obedience 
and showed
higher levels of defiance/
dissent…
e.g. 
very low scores on fscale
AP and obedience
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Factors influencing obedience, like the Authoritarian Personality theory by Adorno, suggest that early childhood experiences, especially harsh upbringing, can lead to rigid beliefs, high obedience to authority, and discrimination towards perceived lower-status groups. Adorno's research utilized questionnaires and in-depth interviews to study personality traits linked to obedience and prejudice. The F-scale was developed to measure Authoritarian Personality traits such as receptivity to fascist ideologies and ethnocentrism. The development of this personality type highlights how repressed emotions can shape behaviors and attitudes towards authority figures and outgroups.


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  1. Factors affecting Obedience: Personality The Authoritarian Personality ADORNO, T. (1950).

  2. The Authoritarian Personality ADORNO, T. (1950). prejudice caused by a flaw in the personality an ego-weakness or maladjusted personality Adorno was also Jewish; academic interest triggered by a desire to understand the Holocaust his ideas fit with the Germans as different hypothesis

  3. How did Adorno do his research? Created questionnaires about upbringing, politics and prejudices In-depth interviews of high and low scorers on the questionnaires, including Larry and Mack analysed transcripts and used them to design another questionnaire (the F-scale) which measured Authoritarian Personality AP predicts both obedience and prejudice to outgroups But Adorno criticised for his subjective interpretation of the original transcripts

  4. The F scale many items (questions) which assess amongst other things Receptivity to fascist ideology Anti-Semitism Conservatism Ethnocentrism http://www.anesi.com/fscale.htm

  5. The development of the Authoritarian Personality in early childhood Harsh and punitive style of upbringing leads to low self-esteem, self-loathing, anger and hostility in the infant This hostility cannot be expressed towards the parents due to fear Anger and fear are repressed (motivated forgetting) into the unconscious ; the emotions still exist but are buried away from conscious awareness, protecting the person from undesirable impulses to hurt the parents To resolve these inner feelings, the children identify with the parents and come to idealise them; they become overly subservient to those in power Outcome people with rigid, inflexible attitudes, highly obedient to those they perceive as higher status and brutal and discriminatory towards those seen as having lower status This anger and fear is expressed through displacement; these people will act as though outgroups members are threatening, and respond with aggression, however the real target is the parents, but this knowledge is buried in the unconscious

  6. AP and obedience Alan Elms found that those scoring higher on the F-scale also gave higher shocks Yet, AP is only be a partial explanationof Milgram s study,; 65% obeyed up to 450 V and the percentage of people who score highly on the F scale is far lower than this. However, it may help to explain why some people found it easier to resist obedience and showed higher levels of defiance/ dissent e.g. very low scores on fscale

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