Photograph taken in April 1964 by Jeremy J. Shapiro at the Max Weber-Soziologentag. Horkheimer is front left, Adorno front right, and Habermas is in the background, right, running his hand through his hair.AdornoHorkheimerHabermasbyJeremyJShapiro2 by Jjshapiro at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Annotated Links
The Authoritarians by Robert Altemeyer (2007), University of Manitoba, is a review of research on the Authoritarian Personality as applied to American politics. The entire book is available on this website in PDF format.
The Authoritarian Personality Revisited According to Alan Wolfe, [the book] The Authoritarian Personality (by T. W. Adorno, et al., 1950) addressed itself to the question of whether the United States might harbor significant numbers of people with a potentially fascistic disposition. It did so with methods that claimed to represent the cutting edge in social science — and that’s where the book got in trouble with scholars of its day. But in today’s political climate, it might be time to revisit its thesis. This opinion piece from The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 7, 2005.
Characteristics of the Authoritarian Personality Paul Gingrich, in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina, Canada, discusses these 9 characteristics as part of his Sociology class.
Overview Dave Nunez posts this overview from a social psychology class at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Includes discussion of authoritarianism as an intropsychic concept and a brief critique.
Assignments, Exercises, and Activities
Case Studies
Authoritarian Personality: Friedrich Menneke: A “Euthanasia” Physician From the website: In Cologne, students in a class on educational methods decided to delve deeper into the subject of the authoritarian character by taking an in-depth look at Friedrich Mennecke, the physician responsible for Operation T4, Vernichtung unwerten Lebens [destruction of those unworthy of living]. By analyzing documents, the students also learned about attempts to reintegrate perpetrators into postwar West German society. Includes an extensive lesson plan and on-line access to primary source material including letters and biographies.
Prejudice and Discrimination These notes, in PDF format, from Geoff Denham’s social psychology class, presents a brief overview of the relationship between the Authoritarian Personality and prejudice and discrimination.
Current Researchers and Research Teams
Electronic Texts
Examples and Illustrations
Lecture Notes
Slide Presentations
Tests, Measures, and Scales
Authoritarian Personality The F-Scale measure of the authoritarian personality from T. W. Adorno et al. (1950), The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Authoritarianism-Rebellion Scale Ron Okada, at York University, Toronto maintains this collection of tests that students can use in research including the Authoritarianism-Rebellion Scale, Survey of Recent Life Experiences, The Body Esteem Scale, The Body Awareness Scale, Personal Attribute Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Current Thoughts Scale, Trust Scale and much, much more.
Multimedia Resources
Authoritarian Attitudes: Claremont Graduate University Online Video Library. Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, maintains an online video library of selected talks and panel discussions at the University.Authoritarian Attitudes in Times of Threat. Merolla, Jennifer L. (Claremont Graduate University). From the 2008 SBOS-Stauffer Symposium, Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty. April 6, 2008. 31 minutes.
The Authoritarian Personality Shrink Rap Radio: A Psychology talk and Interview Show (Podcast; Show #127, March 14, 2008). In this episode, Dr. Dave talks with Robert Altemeyer, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba and the world’s leading authority on The Authoritarian Personality, a topic he has researched and written on extensively. In fact, he has made a book on this topic available for free .