Lesson 4.1.1.5

4.1.1.5 Authoritarian Personality Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.1.1.5, Authoritarian Personality: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Psychology (7182), Unit 1: Introductory topics in Psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which theorist proposed the authoritarian personality as an explanation of obedience and prejudice?

    • Bandura and colleagues
    • Bowlby and colleagues
    • Adorno and colleagues
    • Milgram and colleagues

  2. What is the main idea of the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation of obedience?

    • A temporary state caused by being placed in a situation with an authority figure who gives instructions to the participant
    • A rigid personality type that is submissive to authority and hostile to those seen as lower in status
    • A personality type that copies the behaviour of peers in a group and changes its views to suit the majority opinion
    • A personality type that is always independent and resists all authority figures, showing little concern for social norms or rules

  3. Which measure was developed by Adorno and colleagues to assess the authoritarian personality?

    • The Hassles and Uplifts Scale
    • The F-scale
    • The Social Readjustment Ratings Scale
    • The Bem Sex Role Inventory

  4. According to Adorno and colleagues, what kind of childhood experience is linked to the development of an authoritarian personality?

    • Warm parenting that encourages independent thought
    • Attending a school with a very flexible curriculum
    • Harsh, strict parenting with conditional love
    • Having many friends from a range of backgrounds

  5. Which trait is most closely linked to the authoritarian personality?

    • Independent thinking and tolerance of ambiguous situations, together with a willingness to question the views of others
    • Submission to authority combined with hostility towards those seen as weaker or lower in status
    • A strong interest in changing social norms and challenging established authority figures in every area of life
    • A preference for leading groups in a democratic way, with decisions shared equally among all members of the group

  6. A person scores very highly on the F-scale. Which prediction is most consistent with the authoritarian personality?

    • They are equally likely to obey or resist any authority figure
    • They are more likely to obey authority and to hold prejudiced views
    • They are likely to change their views depending on the group they are in
    • They are more likely to resist authority and to hold tolerant views

  7. Which criticism of the authoritarian personality is most often made?

    • The research was conducted only on children aged under ten, so the findings cannot be applied to adults in any setting
    • The F-scale can be affected by acquiescence bias, so agreeing with statements may reflect response style rather than personality
    • The F-scale has been shown to measure only the ability to solve arithmetic problems quickly and accurately under time pressure
    • The theory has been shown to explain every form of obedience in every situation, with no exceptions in any published study

  8. Which criticism points out a weakness in the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience?

    • It assumes obedience is caused only by the situation and never by personality
    • It ignores situational factors, such as proximity and location
    • It has been shown to predict obedience in every situation perfectly
    • It is based on a sample of thousands of participants with the same results

  9. A psychologist finds that people with an authoritarian personality were more obedient in Milgram-style studies than others, but obedience also changed with the location of the study. What conclusion is best supported?

    • Only dispositional factors influence obedience and the location is irrelevant
    • Only situational factors influence obedience and personality is irrelevant
    • Both dispositional and situational factors appear to influence obedience
    • Obedience is unaffected by personality or situation

  10. Which evaluation point is a strength of the authoritarian personality explanation?

    • It explains all obedience without reference to any individual difference, since every person responds to the situation in the same way
    • It identifies individual differences that may help explain why some people are more obedient than others
    • It is based on a complete experimental test with random allocation to conditions, showing that personality causes obedience directly
    • It has been shown to predict obedience with no measurement error, because the F-scale is perfectly reliable in every study

  11. Which study design would be best to test whether the authoritarian personality causes obedience?

    • Measure F-scale scores first, then compare obedience levels in a controlled experiment
    • Measure obedience only once and never measure personality
    • Observe obedience in a single group with no comparison
    • Ask participants to describe their childhood without any measurement of obedience

  12. A person with a strongly authoritarian personality says they would always follow a leader's orders, even when the orders seem wrong. Which concept does this best illustrate?

    • Informational social influence through uncertainty
    • The authoritarian personality's submission to authority
    • Minority influence through consistent counter-arguments
    • The agentic state's shift of responsibility in a particular situation

  13. Which argument would best challenge the authoritarian personality as the main explanation of obedience?

    • Many people who score low on authoritarian measures still obey authority in some situations
    • Authoritarian people always refuse to obey an authority figure
    • Authoritarian people always obey and never question any authority
    • High F-scale scores are found only in people who have never been in a leadership role

  14. A researcher argues that the authoritarian personality is a dispositional explanation. Which of these is consistent with that view?

    • Obedience is explained by the features of the situation alone
    • Obedience is explained by stable traits within the individual
    • Obedience is explained by temporary moods only
    • Obedience is explained by the group's shared beliefs in every case

  15. Which statement about the F-scale is accurate?

    • It was developed to measure the type of attachment in infants, and it has been criticised for relying on parental reports
    • It was developed to measure the amount of stress experienced in the workplace, and it has been criticised for its wording
    • It was developed to measure memory span in children, and it has been criticised for using very small and unrepresentative samples
    • It was developed to measure authoritarian attitudes and has been criticised for response bias

  16. Which result would most clearly support the claim that authoritarian personality is linked to prejudice?

    • People who score highly on the F-scale also show more prejudice towards minority groups
    • There is no link between F-scale scores and attitudes towards other groups
    • People with low F-scale scores are the most prejudiced in every survey
    • People who score highly on the F-scale show less prejudice towards minority groups

  17. Why might a researcher be cautious about using the authoritarian personality to explain the obedience shown in Milgram's study?

    • Because the authoritarian personality only applies to children and adolescents, and cannot explain obedience in adult participants
    • Because Milgram did not use any authority figure in his study, so the personality of the authority cannot have affected obedience
    • Because the situation changed obedience, and the personality measure does not explain those changes
    • Because Milgram's participants all had high F-scale scores, so the variation in their obedience cannot be explained by personality at all

  18. Which is a strength of the authoritarian personality explanation compared with situational explanations?

    • It explains obedience without any reference to individual differences
    • It can explain why different people in the same situation may behave differently
    • It has no link with childhood experience
    • It is based on a single case study of one person

  19. A study finds that people high on the authoritarian personality scale were more willing to obey an experimenter, but many low scorers also obeyed. Which conclusion is best supported?

    • Obedience only occurs in people with high authoritarian scores
    • Personality predicts some of the variation in obedience, but not all of it
    • Personality explains all obedience completely
    • Personality has no effect on obedience at any level

  20. Which term best describes the view that obedience is caused by a stable, internal set of traits?

    • Agentic
    • Normative
    • Situational
    • Dispositional

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