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F Scale
A scale created by Theodor Adorno et al. and published in the book The Authoritarian Personality to measure the Anti-Democratic/Pre-Facist tendincies in an individual on the personality level. The F scale was in response to Nazi-Germany and World War II, in hopes of revealing that Anti-Semitism and ethnocentrism could be traced back to persistant, unconscience tendencies that could be measured and further studied. The tests' goal was also to single out those individuals with specific personality traits that would make them receptive to anti-democratic propaganda. Adorno, while working with The University of California, Berkley, compiled a set of opionated statements that would be answered and scored in accordance with the PEC(Political-Economic), A-S(Anti-Semitism), and E(Ethnocentrism) scales. The preliminary F scale was 38 statements measured by the Likert scale that were administered in the spring of 1945 to four groups of people.

The F scale is largely referenced on the subject of authoritarianism and the concept of the authoritarian personality and was a major contribution to the study of social psychology (J.J. Ray). The F scale became the predecessor to other scales, such as the RWA scale, that are regarded as a modification and improvement of this original scale on this specific subject.

"The task then was to formulate scale items which, though they were statements of opinions and attitudes and had the same forms as those appearing in ordinary opinion-attitude questionnaires, would serve as 'giveaways' of underlying anti-democratic trends in the personality" (see The Authoritarian Personality pg 223)

All statements were projective and the assumption was that judgments and interpretations of fact are manipulated by psychological urges. Adorno considered the adherence to conventional values as the variable in the person and more specifically several different variables that manifest to form a single syndrome. The nine variables that questions were targeted to produce evidence were;

[ The following is a simplification of Theodor Adorno's explanation of the variables that he was studying in the F scale in The Authoritarian Personality, and the definition of each beyond the normal definition]

1) Conventionalism
 * This was not used in the sense of an individual's value of traditional conventions but more as "an adherence to conventional values determined by an external social pressure."

2) Authoritarian Submission
 * An exaggerated, emotional need to submit to authority due to a lack of individual conscience

3) Authoritarian Aggression
 * Sadistic or masochistic tendencies as a result of an individual being stripped of basic pleasures of everyday life which leads to the need to exert aggressive dominance on to a "scapegoat"

4) Anti-Intraception
 * The unwillingness to focus on anything but the tangible, the rejection of emotion or fantasy which was seen to lead to the devaluing of the human from a dynamic being to a physical object that was to be manipulated.

5) Superstition and Stereotypy
 * Stereotypy is seen as a rigid over-simplification of things that can not be part of the "weak ego" because it is seen as "affect-laden and anxiety producing".
 * Superstition is seen as the expression of shifting responsibility to the external forces.

6) Power and Toughness
 * The inclination to think of all relationships as a dominant-submissive dynamic. Often exaggerated-toughness is an expression of these dynamics of power and the fear of loosing it. It is important to note that individuals seen as having these tendencies often see themselves as lay-people but derive power from being the means in which others derive power.

7) Destructiveness and Cynicism
 * A need for outlets for aggressive impulses which can be easily rationalized, ego accepted, and non-moralized as well as a generalized hatred for others.

8) Projectivity
 * A mechanism of justification of aggression by means of projecting aggression from another.

9) Sex
 * The inclination in an individual for over-exaggerated sexuality and sexual ideology; the need to punish sex crimes more so than others.

Results

Adorno revised the items in the F scale several times by the time of publication, and from his findings from two nationwide samples, he revealed that inmates of the San Quentin Penitentiary and working-class men had the highest mean score with only a marginal difference between one another. There was also a high correlation between ethnocentrism and authoritarian tendencies. He did go on to study other factors that were not a part of the F scale that may also contribute to the authoritarian personality such as intelligence, childhood, and religious ideology.

Critics of the F scale
Moris Janowitz and Dwaine Marvick
 * In a 1953 edition of the Public Opinion Quarterly, these authors questioned the ability to quantify a "personality" since it has so many dynamics and is too comprehensive. They also criticized how well Adorno's sample really represented the U.S. as a whole and suggested that, for it to be valid, there must be a much larger survey. Janowitz and Marvick also suggested that there was no room in the scale for a line between "conservatives" and "reactionaries", as well as "liberals" and "radicals". This is what they attributed to only a moderate relation to political-economic influences that may have been understated by this flaw.

Richard Christie
 * In his 1954 work, Studies in the Scope and Method of The Authoritarian Personality; he advises those using the F scale to be weary of its ideological nature and the structure of the relationships between items. Cristie had also claimed that to his knowledge to date no Fascist had received the test but that the tests content was related to political fascism.

Bob Altemeyer
 * In his 1981 publication, one of many on the authoritarian personality, he called the model vague and stated that it was "methodologically impossible".He criticized that many of the items targeted multiple variables and thus could not be measured accurately. In response to what he saw as the F scale's many shortcomings he responded with his RWA scale (for Right-Wing Authoritarianism).

John Dean
 * In his 2006 book Conservatives Without Conscience, admits that there are flaws in the F scale and the complete study behind The Authoritarian Personality, but suggests that it be revisited on the basis that it shows high correlation between authoritarianism and some modern right-wing conservative personalities.

J.J. Ray
 * His modern critique of the F scale discounts its applicability to the modern era. He argues that those with high F scale scores are "lost in pre-war" thinking and romantics of the past and not necessarily harboring authoritarian tendencies. He also claims that the variables studied in the F scale have a strong relationship with countless other variables. Thus, it can not be concluded that the thing that the F scale measures is the authoritarian potential. He concludes that the F scale measures an incomplete part of another, larger syndrome.

For more information see;

The Strange Death of The Authoritarian Personality: 50 Years of Psychological and Political Debate

THE OLD-FASHIONED PERSONALITY

The Revised F scale

A Research Note on the Shortened F scale for Political Surveys: An Argentinian Sample

References


 * Adorno, Theodor W, Else Frenkel-Brunswik et al. The Authoritarian Personality. The American Jewish Committee Harper & Row, New York NY 1950.


 * Altemeyer, Bob. Right Wing Authoritarianism. The University of Manitoba Press. Canada 1981.


 * Christie, Richard and Marie Jahoda. Studies in the Scope and Method of "The Authoritarian Personality". The Free Press Gelncoe, Illinois. 1954.


 * Dean, John W. Conservatives Without Conscience. Penguin Group New York, NY 2006.


 * Ray, J.J.The Old-Fashioned Personality. University of South Wales, Australia Human Realations. 1990,43,997-1015.


 * Janowitz, Morris and Dwaine Marvick. Authoritarianism and Political Behavior. Public Opinion Quarterly Summer of 1953 Princeton University.