The Authoritarian Personality

The Authoritarian Personality

The F Scale

The identification of a specific personality type - the Authoritarian Personality - provided a possible explanation for why some individuals require very little pressure in order to obey. The California F scale was used by Adorno et al to measure the different components that made up the Authoritarian Personality. The F scale contained statements such as 'Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn'. Agreeing with such items was indicative of an Authoritarian Personality. Individuals with this type of personality were rigid thinkers who obeyed authority, saw the world as black and white, and enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies.

Adorno et al also found that people who scored high on the F Scale tended to have been raised by parents who used an authoritarian parenting style. Growing up within a particular social system means that people assume that this system is the expected norm. Therefore, if children happen to grow up in a particularly authoritarian family, with a strong emphasis on obedience, then they acquire these same authoritarian attitudes through a process of learning and imitation.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Robert Altemeyer refined the concept of the Authortitarian Personality by identifying a cluster of three of the original personality variables that he referred to as right-wing authoritarianism. According to Altemeyer, high-RWA people possess three important personality characteristics that predispose them to obedience:

- Conventionalism - an adherence to conventional norms and values.

- Authoritarian Aggression - Aggresive feelings toward people who violate these norms

- Authoritarian Submission - Uncritical submission to legitimate authorities

Altemeyer tested the relationship between RWA and obedience in an experiment where participants were ordered to give themselves increasing levels of shock when they made mistakes on a learning task. There was a significant correlation between RWA scores and the level of shocks that participants were willing to give themselves. Interestingly, there was also a large red button, above which was the warning - 'Do not push this button unless you are instructed to do so'. When the experimenter was over, the experimenter ordered participants to push the button 'to administer an extra strong shock as a punishment for not trying'.Participants' level of RWA appeared to be irrelevant for this instruction as the vast majority did as they were told without…