Beliefs and Attitudes
24 important questions on Beliefs and Attitudes
Who was Theodor Adorno and what did he propose?
Proposed:
The authoritarian personality
Adorno felt that fear and aggression predicted conservatism
What did Adorno argue about the upbringing of authoritarians? What did he link this upbringing to?
---> Adorno also linked this upbringing to racist and facist views
(p. 557 differential textbook)
Adorno's theory took a psychodynamic view. What does this mean?
---> Adorno used such a view to present authoritarianism as the identification of submissive behaviour towards authority, with the authoritarian person directing their aggression towards other social groups, often racial minorities, in an attempt to resolve feelings of personal weakness
(p. 557 differential textbook)
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What did Theodor Adorno create?
---> Draws on a lot of fascist ideology, particularly Nazi
---> Seems very old-fashioned now, rooted in post-war america
Examples of statements
- 'What the youth needs most is strict discipline, rugged determination, and the will to work and fight for family and country
- People can be divided into two distinct categories: the weak and the strong
- Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn
Adorno’s sense = irrational, antiscientific, anti-intellectual, shoddy thinking underlies authoritarianism
What deficiencies did Altemeyer point out about the Fascism scale?
- Old-fashioned, insufficiently captures modern political attitudes
- Authoritarianism is really right-wing authoritarianism - what about left-wing authoritarianism? = this area seems neglected
What criticisms did Gul and Ray (1989) say about Adorno's F scale?
- reflects common myths and superstitions
- has an old-fashioned orientation/outlook rather than any popular viewpoint
---> they argued that Adorno's F scale was outdated rather than incorrect
(p. 557 differential textbook)
What was Altmeyer's right wing authoritarianism scale and when was it published?
---> Some similarity to Adorno’s questionnaire, but less obviously out of date
---> ideas more simple that Adorno's
Examples of statements
- Women should have to promise to obey their husbands when they get married
- It is always better to trust the judgement of the proper authorities in government and religion than to listen to the noisy rabble-rousers in our society who are trying to create doubt in people's minds
- Our country needs free thinkers who will have the courage to defy traditional ways, even if this upsets many people
What are the main aspects of Altemeyer's (1996) model of right with authoritarianism?
- Trust authorities too much
- Accept abuses of power by government
- Prejudiced on racial, ethnic, nationalist and sexual grounds
- Cause and inflame intergroup conflict
- Accept insufficient evidence to support their beliefs
- Punitive attitudes
What are the differences between Adorno's and Altemeyer's authoritarianism ideas regarding the type of view?
(p. 558 differential textbook)
What did Meloen at al, 1996 investigate?
Results
1) The various scales of right-wing authoritarianism:
a) Strongly predict (+ correlation) right-wing social/political stances, e.g. apartheid, anti-semitism, isolating AIDS victims
b) moderately predict sympathy for right-wing political parties (strongest prediction for the Racist political party)
2) Pattern of correlations does not differ much across the different scales
What did Zakrisson, 2005 investigate?
= 15 item version
= Sample: 17-50 year olds
Results
- reasonable internal consistency
- predicts modern racism and modern sexism in Sweden
What did Wilson (1973) argue were conservative attitudes?
- pro-establishment politics
- advocacy of strict rules and punishment
- militarism
- intolerance of minority groups
- conventional tastes in art/ clothing
- restrictions on sexual activity
- opposition to scientific progression
- tendency to be superstitious
(p. 558 differential textbook)
How did Wilson measure conservatism?
---> 50 questions
e.g. whether they are in favour of such things like the death penalty or abortion
(p. 559 differential textbook)
What 4 primary theoretical viewpoints of conservatism did Wilson (1973) suggest?
2. Tendency to play safe i.e. moderate, cautious, and avoid risks
3. Reflecting the distinction between generations
4. Internalisation of parental values
(p. 561 differential textbook)
What did Carney et al (2008) find in terms of the personality traits of liberals and conservatives?
- open to experience
- extravert
Conservatives:
- conscientious
- neurotic
- not open to experience
What did Jost et al (2003) find in terms of traits associated with left/right wing people?
Conservatism is positively correlated with:
- dogmatism
- intolerance of ambiguity (suggests they have a tendency of premature closure)
- need for order
- need for cognitive closure
Conservatism is negatively correlated with:
- general sensation seeking
- valuing imaginativeness
- openness to experience
- self-esteem (on average, much smaller effect)
Taking the presented studies into consideration, what are the most salient and robust characteristics of conservatism and liberalism?
Liberalism correlates with more active system focused upon social and other reward (i.e. appetitive)
What is the summary regarding traits for liberal and conservatives?
Overview:
‘Excited’
Appetitive/Approach oriented
More active Gray’s BAS
For example:
Less anxious, neurotic
Less prone to disgust
More Sensation seeking
Excited by Novelty
Open to Experience/Tolerant of Ambiguity
Less need for cognitive closure
Lower Conscientiousness
Conservative/Right of centre
Overview:
‘Threatened’, ‘Defensive’
Aversive oriented
More active Gray’s BIS
For example:
More Anxious, Neurotic
More Prone to disgust
Less sensation seeking
Suspicious of novelty
Closed to experience/Intolerant of ambiguity
Higher Need for cognitive closure
Higher Conscientiousness
What is the interpretation of Amodio et al's (2007) results?
This resulted in better performance on the task, though brain activity predicts political preference better than task response accuracy
Who demonstrated that political orientations are correlated with brain structure?
Study 1: 90 young adults, 55 female, mean 23 years old
Study 2: 28 young adults new sample, 16 female, mean 21 years old
Single-item measure: participants self-report their political orientation as ‘Very Liberal’ (1), ‘Liberal’ (2), ‘Middle of the road’ (3), ‘Conservative (4), or ‘Very Conservative’ (5)
Results
- The larger your anterior cingulate, the more ‘Liberal’ you are
- The larger your right amygdala, the more ‘Conservative’ you are
Regarding Kanai et al's (2011) study, what is a limitation regarding the sample?
- Not a single participant classed themselves as ‘very conservative’ so the scale ranged from 1-4
- UCL student population is disproportionately middle-class and upper class
How does right-wing attitudes link to Eysenck's theory of personality?
---> Eysenck (1985) defined the nature of psychoticism as compromising cruel, insensitive, unfriendly, and anti-social traits
(p. 564 differential textbook)
How does the 5 factor theory of personality and conservatism/right wing attitudes?
- Right-wing authoritarianism is negatively related to openness to experience
- Right-wing authoritarianism is positively correlated to conscientiousness (Heaven & Bucci, 2001)
- Social dominance is negatively related to openness to experience and agreeableness
---> main findings across studies = the relationship between right-wing attitudes and the two-personality dimensions of agreeableness and conscientiousness
---> using 3 factor model = psychoticism is related to right-wing attitudes
(p. 565-566 differential textbook)
What are criticisms of right-wing attitudes theories?
- This area of study is vulnerable to changes over time
- Different cultures will have different ideas of what is a right-wing attitude
(p. 567 differential textbook)
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