432
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
in representational forms.
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
in representational forms.
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
.
.
.
The whole trouble with me is I didn't grow up.
I thought it was a big game of cops and robbers.
I don't think any of .
.
.
were malicious about it.
We heard about others getting caught, but couldn't believe we would.
"
M57: "I'm kind of ashamed, I'm the only black sheep in the family . . . and I've made more money than all the others put together. Yes, a man of my intelligence let some damn broad put me behind bars. "
In the following examples a weak ego is seen as possessed by alien forces within the personality, such as the "carnal self" or "weak flesh":
M p: "I've often stopped and more or less took an inventory of myself. I have let myself slip, let my carnal self get away from me. . . . "
Ms8: "Well, I'm a bad example-! don't live what I believe, possibly because the flesh is weak-don't have the stamina to stand up and live it-try not to harm some- body else. . . . "
Examples from the records of high-scoring women are:
F7z: "I'm inclined to be nervous; haven't the confidence in myself. . . . I'm the clinging vine type and my sister is. My parents have always felt that I'm the back- ward one-need guidance. They gave me dancing lessons in grade school-knew I needed it. I made all B's in high school. " ?
F77 says about the girl to whom she has a sexual attachment: "She is always the boss; although she's younger, she's mean, hurts my feelings awfully bad. I can't understand why I love a wicked girl so much. "
The foregoing record of an otherwise conventional girl reflects rejection of an ego-alien part of herself, a part she is prone to link with an external temptation (see also Chapter XXII).
F79 is a good example of how derogatory the opinion about oneself can become: "I wanted to finish school after I got out of the SPARS, and I went to _ _ _ _ Junior College although mother and father couldn't afford it. I didn't do m~ch. I just ate and got fat and mother and father hit the ceiling. I was already neurotic, I guess. I didn't go out. I was in a rut and I got fatter. Mother and father made me do calisthenics by force. Then I went to College summer school and was scared of the boys. Then I went to business school. I hated it; it was so boring just to sit and type. I could go to the University of if I lost weight. My brother was going. I couldn't because I was too heavy. I felt out of place working in a jewelry store. I hated it and was awfully uncomfortable. I kept on eating; it was the only thing I could turn to, and mother and father got furious. Mother would get these terrific anger spurts. She would yell and I would yell, and then I would feel disgusted. "
This is the same girl who at another place in her interview reported that she could get a sense of personal worth by reminding herself of her family background. The existing cleavage between pretense and reality is also re- vealed by her finding it a matter "of course" that her mother is "wonder-
? THE AUTHORITARIA~ PERSONALITY
ful" (see the passages, quoted in Chapter X, concerning idealization of
parents and other contexts).
3. MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY
We turn now to the more specific aspects of the self-image of the high- scoring subjects as contrasted with that of the low scorers. In line with previ- ous discussion, especially in Section A of this chapter, one might expect high- scoring men to think of themselves as very masculine, and that this claim would be the more insistent the greater the underlying feelings of weakness. Low-scoring men, on the other hand, having actually more personal and masculine identity-perhaps by virtue of having had less threatening parental figures-can afford to admit failures and doubts along these lines.
In fact, there seems to be, in the high-scoring men, more of what may be called pseudo-masculinity-as defined by boastfulness about such traits as determination, energy, industry, independence, decisiveness, and will power -and less admission of passivity. An ego-accepted admission of passivity, softness, and weakness, on the other hand, is found predominantly in low- scoring men. The difference is significant at the 1 per cent level (Category 35a). Examples of these two different attitudes in the realm of sex have been quoted in Section A of this chapter.
Similar attitudes can be found in the vocational sphere and in the approach to life in general. Thus, one high-scoring man discussed his successful tech- niques of "driving sharp bargains. " "Certain ordinary ways of doing busi- ness," he said, "are too damn slow for me. " Being successful by outsmarting others in the competitive struggle is part of the ego-ideal of the prejudiced man. Low-scoring men, on the other hand, more often refer to their depend- ence, to their liking of cooking and to other tastes usually considered as feminine. They are, furthermore, more often described by the interviewer as "~entle," "mild," "soft-spoken. "
An analogous trend-although statistically not significant-toward what may be called pseudo-femininity is found in evaluating the self-estimates given by high-scoring women. These women tend to think of themselves as feminine and soft; no masculine trends are being admitted ("being a house- wife is definitely my career"). As is not surprising, a rather crude aggression, directed especially against men, seems to go with this attitude, as revealed indirectly in the interviews and directly in the Thematic Apperception Test stories.
Low-scoring women, on the other hand-as was mentioned . in Section A - often profess to have a real conflict over their femininity. They sometimes show envy of men rather directly and often engage in so-called masculine activities. At the same time a certain real fondness for men and the wish to be with them and to participate in their activities is revealed. Extreme exam-
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 429
ples of openly expressed rejection of the feminine? role in low-scoring women are:
F62: "My mother always said that I would make a better boy than a girl. I was always hammering, building, and constructing something. In my adolescence, I was always wearing overalls. Today still when I am in despair, I build things-work it out physically. "
F23: Subject wished very much that she were a boy and elaborated on the prej- udice against women in her profession. She does not like to cook or sew. "If I were a man I could have a wife-that's what I really need, someone to cook and sew and take care of me. " She feels that she is really quite dependent in this respect. There- fore, she will either not marry, or else will continue to work after she is married. Even if she had children she would want to go back to work and get someone else to bring them up after the first year. "I don't think I could bring children up very well anyway. . . . I liked everything the boys did and disliked everything the girls did. I wanted to play baseball with the boys and I did go out and play baseball with them. (What do girls do? ) They sit around and talk about boys-and nothing bores me more. "
4. CONVENTIONALISM AND MORALISM
Likewise in line with some of the findings reported earlier is the tendency of high-scoring men and women to think of themselves as basically highly moral and controlled and to consider any conduct which contradicts this norm as a "break-through" of tendencies which cannot be explained or influenced. The above quotations illustrate the tendency these individuals have to describe themselves as honest and as possessing high ideals and self- control in the sense of a conventional moralism. Low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, more readily admit fallibility of self-control without trying to explain it away as a break-through of something foreign to their basic nature. This difference is significant at the r per cent level for both men and women (Category 35b). In the case of high-scoring women, the more de- tailed definition of the category, as given in the passages of the Scoring Manual accompanying the table, indicates special emphasis on such traits as propriety, poise, self-control, and unselfishness; these are contrasted with
admission of selfishness in low-scoring women. ?
The importance of conventional traits in the self-image of high-scoring subjects may be considered as one of the aspects of their strong desire to belong to the powerful majority. There is reason to believe that a certain lack of personal identity is compensated for by a wish to "belong," and to conceive of oneself as average and therefore all right, with attempted denial or "forgetting" of deviations, may these deviations be past or present (Cate- gory 36a). A great deal of protection and security must be assumed to derive from the feeling of being, in this sense, part of a group. However, as has been mentioned before, this kind of belonging to a group is something quite dif- ferent from genuine identification with other individuals and society. For prejudiced subjects, then, the greater the deviation, the more stress must be
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
43?
laid on denying its existence. This is especially marked in our prison sample, from which the following quotations are taken.
Msz: Subject says he robbed just once and blamed this on drinking. "I still don't consider myself antisocial. . . . "He emphasizes that he doesn't consider himself per- verted. He remarks that a while back he took some glandular treatments and feels that these have made him more masculine.
M57: Subject expresses the superficial desire to understand why he had gotten in so much trouble when his brothers have not, and to straighten out. He sponta- neously denies "that there is anything the matter with me. "
These passages from the interviews of high-scoring deviates illustrate at the same time the tendency of high-scoring subjects in general to see their deviations and lack of control as a break-through in the sense defined in the discussion of the preceding category.
In contrast to this, low-scoring subjects tend to see themselves as different, individualized, or unconventional (Category 36a, continued). This can be seen from records quoted in previous sections. The difference for the entire category is significant for men at the I per cent level; for women there is a trend in the same direction (I I positive vs. 5 negative instances).
Apparently, the greater "personal identity" of the low scorers facilitates establishment of genuine object relationships. In the few cases in which low scorers referred to identification in the present sense of "belonging" it tended to be in terms of mankind in general, that is, as a form of "world identifi- cation" with the stress on an equalitarian brotherhood ideal (Category 36b; for "humanitarianism" see the next subsection).
5. CONFORMITY OF SELF AND IDEAL
Lack of insight and of self-criticism on the part of the typical high scorers is revealed in their tendency to mention as the type of person they would wish to be, as their self-ideal, the same set of traits which they actually ascribe to themselves. There is hardly any discrepancy between their image of what they ought to be and their conception of what they really are.
Thus, high-scoring men tend to mention as their ego-ideal the combination of traits characterized above as "pseudo-masculine" (determination, energy, industry, independence, decisiveness, will power, no passivity) as well as the syndrome of "moralistic conventionalism," likewise mentioned above.
An example of a more worrisome adoption of this type of ego-ideal in a high-scoring man is the following:
Mp: (Worries? ) "Well, I had worries, I remember that. I think my greatest de- sire was to be somebody in life. I did a lot of reading as a kid. . . . I was sort of a hero worshipper-nobody particularly-! wanted to be a success in business. I used to plan, and sometimes worried about whether I would. "
The following quotations illustrate the admiration high-scoring men have
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 43I
for men of action and success, such as MacArthur and Andrew Carnegie who "amounted to so much":
M47: "And then another one I like real well . . . this Patton. I like him for the same reason I like MacArthur. He went right up to the front. . . . He wouldn't send his men anywhere he wouldn't go himself. "
M 51: "Andrew Carnegie, I guess, I got from some of my relatives. . . . His coming over here with so litde and amounting to so much. . . . "
High-scoring women likewise tend to list as the ideal the same traits which they mentioned in their self-description and which were summarized under the heading "pseudo-femininity" and "conventional moralism. "
Low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, tend to mention, as their ideal, traits which are different from, or at least differently conceived from those which they ascribe to themselves. Being basically more secure, it seems, they can more easily afford to see a discrepancy between ego-ideal and actual reality. Seeing this discrepancy enables them to strive toward a better full- fillment of the ego-ideal. A study dealing with mechanisms of self-deception seems to indicate that the more aware subjects are of falling short of their ideals, the nearer they actually are to the realization of these ideals (see 33).
Specifically, the values listed as ideals by low-scoring men and women may best be summarized as real achievement. There is also an emphasis on humanitarian values such as understanding, nurturance (the latter especially emphasized by women), affiliation, or work for liberal values such as the improvement of social relations or self-improvement.
The difference between the two types of ego-ideal (as covered by the ratings on Categories 37a and 37b) is statistically highly significant for both men and women.
Since the ego-ideal of the low-scoring subjects is closely related to their tolerance, several illustrations of this point will here be given from their records. Their emphasis on achievement as a value in its own right rather than as a mere means for some ulterior end is shown in the following examples:
M55: (I see you would like to be a Congressman? ) Subject laughs. He indicates this is not a realistic choice, but that he would like to be a Congressman. He empha- sizes what he calls the "in-values" here, "not working just for money, etc. . . but for what you accomplish . . . and though are likely to be defeated, you have the satis- faction of trying. " (Attractions? ) Not adept at personal relations, but enjoys this more than statistics or research, but would rather be out in contact with people . . . one war job at Bethlehem Steel involved some personal relations work. . . . "I may be aiming too high. . . . I might be an interviewer at an employment agency. "
F62: "I would like to teach drama in high school. The reason for this seems per- haps sort of queer. I have always enjoyed drama very much and I thought the world should know more about the theater. I want people to know about good enter- tainment, high-class art. "
F63: "In my art work I have been very interested in abstract forms, not so much
?
432
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
in representational forms. I have been very influenced by the Bauhaus kind of design. " Now interested in writing. (Q) "I was at the Art Gallery (school) and at that time there was a job open art critic for the _ _ _ _ which I took. I have also had other jobs for newspapers. " Interested in experimental forms of writing.
F23: Subject has been employed as a junior chemist at Development for a year and a half. She is disappointed in her job because she had hoped to do research, instead of which she is doing routine work such as could be done by a lab assistant. "You are not allowed to do things your own way, nor are you given any responsi- bility at unless you have a Ph. D. " Subject is also annoyed by the lack of honesty in her fellow workers: they practice what is known as "pencil chemistry"; i. e. , if a reading fails to give the expected result, they will fake the result. She went and told the boss about this, but he did not do anything about it. "They won't do anything on your say-so, and he didn't even check the results for himself. " In re- sponse to a question as to whether she had ever wished that she were a boy, subject replied: "Yes, I do very much because then I could do what I liked. When I first came here they asked me what I would like to do and I told them organic chemistry; so they asked me whether I would like to do organic analysis and I said, yes, without thinking very much about it. The work turned out to be simple filtrations which were interesting at first, but very easy to learn. . . . I want to quit next summer and get my Ph. D. because perhaps then I might have a better chance to do what I want. "
M44: "One thing that I think was important, I always liked school and took pride in it. I was always afraid that I might lose out there. "
Emphasis on humanitarian values is exemplified by the following records of interviewees scoring extremely low on the ethnocentrism questionnaire. Some of them refer to specific and concrete plans for help in the execution of a program with humanitarian implications, while others may do no more than pay lip-service in terms of vague generalities.
M53: (Satisfactions? ) "Well, this is a little obscure . . . a certain justification of one's own existence . . . stocks and bonds never convinced me, because it didn't seem to me to make a damn bit of difference (to the public welfare). This work. . . . I can see results quickly . . . and honest-to-goodness results. "
Msg: "To help those less fortunate than oneself, and to be a part of the commu- nity or society that one is in, to take an active pa~t in it, and being kind and generous and to more or less have a high regard for your fellow human being. . . . "
M 15: "Started out in college with a strong interest in social studies, history. This interest is still strong, but now it is combined with a desire to work with people. Counseling appears to be my present choice. (Idea behind it? ) Well, in our church I have observed how many people have problems. I think I would like to help them. (What kinds of probems? ) Personal. . . . (Your religious point of view at present? ) You might call it something like Social Religion. (Q) It is a sin to be indifferent to progress. "
The statements just quoted are good examples of values important to low- scoring subjects: real achievement often accompanied by anxiety over pos- sible failure, intellectuality, and socially constructive . goals.
6. DENIAL OF SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSA TION
In high-scoring subjects the general lack of insight and the unrealistic view of oneself seem to be connected with a tendency toward a certain
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 433
wishful denial of genuine causality-as revealed by easy explanations of one's own shortcomings in terms of heredity, physical or accidental factors, etc. - or the denial of the symptomatic character of one's behavioral manifesta- tions. Thus, as will be discussed more fully in Chapter XXII, high-scoring subjects in the sample drawn from a psychiatric clinic tend to refer to their symptoms as something merely physical, or as caused by a "hereditary taint," or as otherwise alien to the ego of the subject.
On the other hand, low-scoring subjects tend in general toward socio- psychological explanations, conceiving of the present self in the context of its development under the influence of social and psychological factors. Thus, while talking about themselves, these subjects spontaneously refer back to their childhood, using explicitly such phrases as "it may go back to infancy" in describing the cause of behavioral deviations. One low-scoring subject relates his not having many fears to the fact that his "sister had a lot of fears. " "I used that as a technique not to have any," he said. To be sure, all this should not be taken to imply that the low-scoring subjects in question necessarily possess the correct or full insight into themselves; it means only that there is a greater inclination to think in psychodynamic terms and to seek explanation of one's own behavior in these terms.
The difference between the two attitudes (encompassed in Category 38) is statistically highly significant (at the 1 per cent level) for both men and women.
7. PROPERTY AS EXTENSION OF SELF
The basic insecurity that lies beneath the overt denials and overconfidence of the high-scoring subjects may be a chief contributing factor in their exaggerated wish for property, in the sense of a conception of property as an extension of the self. There is an overlibidinization of money and property, per se. Low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, tend to have a more realistic attitude toward money, knowing fully its value as a means, yet not over- estimating it by making it an end in itself. They generally conceive of
property as means to an end.
Differentiation between prejudiced and unprejudiced groups under this aspect (as covered by Category 39) is statistically highly significant.
The following quotations from high-scoring subjects are examples of their search for "basic security and independence" through money or through the accumulation of goods. It often seems that the need has become functionally autonomous, to use a term by Allport (9), and is as such insatiable.
F24: (How much is enough? ) "Quite a bit-I have to make good-get lots of it and get it fast. "
F32: The desire for $woo a month or "all I could get" represents a wish for secu- rity. The more one ears, the more one can put aside.
M57: (What might a lot of money make possible for you? ) "Buy more cattle, more land, that's my greatest ambition. "
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THE AUTHORITARIA~ PERSONALITY
Records of low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, more often show emphasis on money as a means of obtaining some of the desirable things in life or else of achieving some socially constructive goal. They furthermore illustrate the greater casualness, passivity, and more pleasure-seeking attitude of the low scorers with respect to money and possessions. Enjoyment of music and books is often mentioned; and there is generally more emphasis on specific things to be obtained rather than on the more vague and perhaps imaginary goal of "security" as stressed by high scorers.
Examples are found in the following records of low-scoring subjects:
M42: "I think the best things are free, but lots of times . . . let's see . . . it takes a certain amount of money . . . to do a few things with friends, etc. (Saving vs. spend- ing? ) I don't believe in saving money to the point of a mania . . . but planning for the future is something. . . . l don't make a point of saving a certain amount of money every month . . . no use pinching pennies now, so that you can live better later. . . . "
M44: (What do you miss most that your present income doesn't permit? ) "A good radio with a record player on it, but that's just an immediate thing. . . . "
M48: (What might a lot of money make possible for you? ) "Mean just a good living. I like to go to plays, concerts, etc. , to have a nice home, etc. "
M49: (What do with $75oo? ) "Well, of course, it would give us a comfortable home, to begin with, and a good living, and my wife has always wanted to write, and she's started on several ideas, and that would give her enough to get materials and go ahead with her writing, and-if she did go into writing-we could hire the people to do the house cleaning and laundry, so as to give her more time . . . and she always likes to go to plays and concerts . . . and we could indulge in those things without jeopardizing. . . . "
F63: "Money has never meant much to me. Maybe it is stupid and unrealistic. But it is the work itself that gives me satisfaction. "
F7o: (If you had more, what would you do? ) "I would probably spend it. (On what? ) Well, maybe I would buy some more dishes and silver, although I have more than I can use now; probably not material things. If I had a lot of money I didn't know what to do with, I might run a small private hospital. . . . I don't think I'd buy expensive objects of art. Well, maybe I would. I might buy quite a few material things, go to a lot of concerts and plays. One seems to be able to spend a lot of money on those. "
F27: "That isn't much, I guess. Neither of us wants much. (Is it enough for a family of six? ) Well, what I meant was that we want a comfortable home without any worry, plenty of books, and a good record player with lots of records. We could be happy. "
D. CONCEPTION OF CHILDHOOD SELF
1. DEFINITION OF RA TING CA TEGORIES AND QUANTITATIVE RESULTS
The discussion of attitudes toward oneself thus far has concerned traits which our interviewed subjects ascribed to themselves as of the present. As a regular feature of the interview, subjects were further ? asked the question: "What were you like as a child? " Obviously, answers to this question must not necessarily be taken to reflect the actual nature of the subjects as chil-
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 435
dren. The answers may well refer in part or predominantly to the subject's image of himself as a child. The two alternative interpretations of the mate- rial will have to be kept in mind throughout the discussion which follows. The results of a study on social discrimination in children, including inter- views with their parents (30), give support to the assumption that the descriptions which our subjects give of themselves show at least a certain degree of correspondence with the actual facts.
The rating categories used in the evaluation of this part of the interview material are as follows:
INTERVIEW SCORING MANUAL: CONCEPTION OF CHILDHOOD SELF
(to Table 4(XI))
PREsUMABLY "HIGH" VARIANTs PREsUMABLY "Low" VARIANTs
4oM. Traits ascribed to childhood self hyMen:
a. Unmanageable, difficult, stub- born, aggressive, spoiled, sensi- tive, etc.
b. Bland childhood. Happy, ac- tive, no worries, no shyness, etc.
c. "Gang"-oriented
40W. Traits ascribed to childhood self by Women:
a. Difficult child. Nervous, frail, etc.
b. Bland childhood
a. (I) Quiet, shy, self-conscious (z) Tomboy, independent
b. Adult-oriented, internalized
standards
41. Discontinuity between child- 41. Continuity between childhood
hood self and now self and now
42. Childhood habits (Write in each habit men- tioned, e. g. , nail-biting, thumb-sucking, bed- wetting, nightmares, fear of dark, fear of
animals, etc. )
43? Time of earliest sex experience remembered
(W rite in: Childhood [1-6]; Prepuberty [7-12]; Adolescence [13-19]; Adult life [zo- ])
44? Natureofearliestsexexperienceremembered (Write in: e. g. , homosexual or heterosexual sex play; dates; kissing; heterosexual or homosexual intercourse, masturbation)
45? Source of early sex information (\Vrite in: e. g. , mother; father; male or female sib; other relative; other adult; books; the gang; etc. )
46. Little spontaneous comment 46. Considerable spontaneous com- ment
a. Quiet, shy, self-conscious
b.
M57: "I'm kind of ashamed, I'm the only black sheep in the family . . . and I've made more money than all the others put together. Yes, a man of my intelligence let some damn broad put me behind bars. "
In the following examples a weak ego is seen as possessed by alien forces within the personality, such as the "carnal self" or "weak flesh":
M p: "I've often stopped and more or less took an inventory of myself. I have let myself slip, let my carnal self get away from me. . . . "
Ms8: "Well, I'm a bad example-! don't live what I believe, possibly because the flesh is weak-don't have the stamina to stand up and live it-try not to harm some- body else. . . . "
Examples from the records of high-scoring women are:
F7z: "I'm inclined to be nervous; haven't the confidence in myself. . . . I'm the clinging vine type and my sister is. My parents have always felt that I'm the back- ward one-need guidance. They gave me dancing lessons in grade school-knew I needed it. I made all B's in high school. " ?
F77 says about the girl to whom she has a sexual attachment: "She is always the boss; although she's younger, she's mean, hurts my feelings awfully bad. I can't understand why I love a wicked girl so much. "
The foregoing record of an otherwise conventional girl reflects rejection of an ego-alien part of herself, a part she is prone to link with an external temptation (see also Chapter XXII).
F79 is a good example of how derogatory the opinion about oneself can become: "I wanted to finish school after I got out of the SPARS, and I went to _ _ _ _ Junior College although mother and father couldn't afford it. I didn't do m~ch. I just ate and got fat and mother and father hit the ceiling. I was already neurotic, I guess. I didn't go out. I was in a rut and I got fatter. Mother and father made me do calisthenics by force. Then I went to College summer school and was scared of the boys. Then I went to business school. I hated it; it was so boring just to sit and type. I could go to the University of if I lost weight. My brother was going. I couldn't because I was too heavy. I felt out of place working in a jewelry store. I hated it and was awfully uncomfortable. I kept on eating; it was the only thing I could turn to, and mother and father got furious. Mother would get these terrific anger spurts. She would yell and I would yell, and then I would feel disgusted. "
This is the same girl who at another place in her interview reported that she could get a sense of personal worth by reminding herself of her family background. The existing cleavage between pretense and reality is also re- vealed by her finding it a matter "of course" that her mother is "wonder-
? THE AUTHORITARIA~ PERSONALITY
ful" (see the passages, quoted in Chapter X, concerning idealization of
parents and other contexts).
3. MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY
We turn now to the more specific aspects of the self-image of the high- scoring subjects as contrasted with that of the low scorers. In line with previ- ous discussion, especially in Section A of this chapter, one might expect high- scoring men to think of themselves as very masculine, and that this claim would be the more insistent the greater the underlying feelings of weakness. Low-scoring men, on the other hand, having actually more personal and masculine identity-perhaps by virtue of having had less threatening parental figures-can afford to admit failures and doubts along these lines.
In fact, there seems to be, in the high-scoring men, more of what may be called pseudo-masculinity-as defined by boastfulness about such traits as determination, energy, industry, independence, decisiveness, and will power -and less admission of passivity. An ego-accepted admission of passivity, softness, and weakness, on the other hand, is found predominantly in low- scoring men. The difference is significant at the 1 per cent level (Category 35a). Examples of these two different attitudes in the realm of sex have been quoted in Section A of this chapter.
Similar attitudes can be found in the vocational sphere and in the approach to life in general. Thus, one high-scoring man discussed his successful tech- niques of "driving sharp bargains. " "Certain ordinary ways of doing busi- ness," he said, "are too damn slow for me. " Being successful by outsmarting others in the competitive struggle is part of the ego-ideal of the prejudiced man. Low-scoring men, on the other hand, more often refer to their depend- ence, to their liking of cooking and to other tastes usually considered as feminine. They are, furthermore, more often described by the interviewer as "~entle," "mild," "soft-spoken. "
An analogous trend-although statistically not significant-toward what may be called pseudo-femininity is found in evaluating the self-estimates given by high-scoring women. These women tend to think of themselves as feminine and soft; no masculine trends are being admitted ("being a house- wife is definitely my career"). As is not surprising, a rather crude aggression, directed especially against men, seems to go with this attitude, as revealed indirectly in the interviews and directly in the Thematic Apperception Test stories.
Low-scoring women, on the other hand-as was mentioned . in Section A - often profess to have a real conflict over their femininity. They sometimes show envy of men rather directly and often engage in so-called masculine activities. At the same time a certain real fondness for men and the wish to be with them and to participate in their activities is revealed. Extreme exam-
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 429
ples of openly expressed rejection of the feminine? role in low-scoring women are:
F62: "My mother always said that I would make a better boy than a girl. I was always hammering, building, and constructing something. In my adolescence, I was always wearing overalls. Today still when I am in despair, I build things-work it out physically. "
F23: Subject wished very much that she were a boy and elaborated on the prej- udice against women in her profession. She does not like to cook or sew. "If I were a man I could have a wife-that's what I really need, someone to cook and sew and take care of me. " She feels that she is really quite dependent in this respect. There- fore, she will either not marry, or else will continue to work after she is married. Even if she had children she would want to go back to work and get someone else to bring them up after the first year. "I don't think I could bring children up very well anyway. . . . I liked everything the boys did and disliked everything the girls did. I wanted to play baseball with the boys and I did go out and play baseball with them. (What do girls do? ) They sit around and talk about boys-and nothing bores me more. "
4. CONVENTIONALISM AND MORALISM
Likewise in line with some of the findings reported earlier is the tendency of high-scoring men and women to think of themselves as basically highly moral and controlled and to consider any conduct which contradicts this norm as a "break-through" of tendencies which cannot be explained or influenced. The above quotations illustrate the tendency these individuals have to describe themselves as honest and as possessing high ideals and self- control in the sense of a conventional moralism. Low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, more readily admit fallibility of self-control without trying to explain it away as a break-through of something foreign to their basic nature. This difference is significant at the r per cent level for both men and women (Category 35b). In the case of high-scoring women, the more de- tailed definition of the category, as given in the passages of the Scoring Manual accompanying the table, indicates special emphasis on such traits as propriety, poise, self-control, and unselfishness; these are contrasted with
admission of selfishness in low-scoring women. ?
The importance of conventional traits in the self-image of high-scoring subjects may be considered as one of the aspects of their strong desire to belong to the powerful majority. There is reason to believe that a certain lack of personal identity is compensated for by a wish to "belong," and to conceive of oneself as average and therefore all right, with attempted denial or "forgetting" of deviations, may these deviations be past or present (Cate- gory 36a). A great deal of protection and security must be assumed to derive from the feeling of being, in this sense, part of a group. However, as has been mentioned before, this kind of belonging to a group is something quite dif- ferent from genuine identification with other individuals and society. For prejudiced subjects, then, the greater the deviation, the more stress must be
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
43?
laid on denying its existence. This is especially marked in our prison sample, from which the following quotations are taken.
Msz: Subject says he robbed just once and blamed this on drinking. "I still don't consider myself antisocial. . . . "He emphasizes that he doesn't consider himself per- verted. He remarks that a while back he took some glandular treatments and feels that these have made him more masculine.
M57: Subject expresses the superficial desire to understand why he had gotten in so much trouble when his brothers have not, and to straighten out. He sponta- neously denies "that there is anything the matter with me. "
These passages from the interviews of high-scoring deviates illustrate at the same time the tendency of high-scoring subjects in general to see their deviations and lack of control as a break-through in the sense defined in the discussion of the preceding category.
In contrast to this, low-scoring subjects tend to see themselves as different, individualized, or unconventional (Category 36a, continued). This can be seen from records quoted in previous sections. The difference for the entire category is significant for men at the I per cent level; for women there is a trend in the same direction (I I positive vs. 5 negative instances).
Apparently, the greater "personal identity" of the low scorers facilitates establishment of genuine object relationships. In the few cases in which low scorers referred to identification in the present sense of "belonging" it tended to be in terms of mankind in general, that is, as a form of "world identifi- cation" with the stress on an equalitarian brotherhood ideal (Category 36b; for "humanitarianism" see the next subsection).
5. CONFORMITY OF SELF AND IDEAL
Lack of insight and of self-criticism on the part of the typical high scorers is revealed in their tendency to mention as the type of person they would wish to be, as their self-ideal, the same set of traits which they actually ascribe to themselves. There is hardly any discrepancy between their image of what they ought to be and their conception of what they really are.
Thus, high-scoring men tend to mention as their ego-ideal the combination of traits characterized above as "pseudo-masculine" (determination, energy, industry, independence, decisiveness, will power, no passivity) as well as the syndrome of "moralistic conventionalism," likewise mentioned above.
An example of a more worrisome adoption of this type of ego-ideal in a high-scoring man is the following:
Mp: (Worries? ) "Well, I had worries, I remember that. I think my greatest de- sire was to be somebody in life. I did a lot of reading as a kid. . . . I was sort of a hero worshipper-nobody particularly-! wanted to be a success in business. I used to plan, and sometimes worried about whether I would. "
The following quotations illustrate the admiration high-scoring men have
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 43I
for men of action and success, such as MacArthur and Andrew Carnegie who "amounted to so much":
M47: "And then another one I like real well . . . this Patton. I like him for the same reason I like MacArthur. He went right up to the front. . . . He wouldn't send his men anywhere he wouldn't go himself. "
M 51: "Andrew Carnegie, I guess, I got from some of my relatives. . . . His coming over here with so litde and amounting to so much. . . . "
High-scoring women likewise tend to list as the ideal the same traits which they mentioned in their self-description and which were summarized under the heading "pseudo-femininity" and "conventional moralism. "
Low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, tend to mention, as their ideal, traits which are different from, or at least differently conceived from those which they ascribe to themselves. Being basically more secure, it seems, they can more easily afford to see a discrepancy between ego-ideal and actual reality. Seeing this discrepancy enables them to strive toward a better full- fillment of the ego-ideal. A study dealing with mechanisms of self-deception seems to indicate that the more aware subjects are of falling short of their ideals, the nearer they actually are to the realization of these ideals (see 33).
Specifically, the values listed as ideals by low-scoring men and women may best be summarized as real achievement. There is also an emphasis on humanitarian values such as understanding, nurturance (the latter especially emphasized by women), affiliation, or work for liberal values such as the improvement of social relations or self-improvement.
The difference between the two types of ego-ideal (as covered by the ratings on Categories 37a and 37b) is statistically highly significant for both men and women.
Since the ego-ideal of the low-scoring subjects is closely related to their tolerance, several illustrations of this point will here be given from their records. Their emphasis on achievement as a value in its own right rather than as a mere means for some ulterior end is shown in the following examples:
M55: (I see you would like to be a Congressman? ) Subject laughs. He indicates this is not a realistic choice, but that he would like to be a Congressman. He empha- sizes what he calls the "in-values" here, "not working just for money, etc. . . but for what you accomplish . . . and though are likely to be defeated, you have the satis- faction of trying. " (Attractions? ) Not adept at personal relations, but enjoys this more than statistics or research, but would rather be out in contact with people . . . one war job at Bethlehem Steel involved some personal relations work. . . . "I may be aiming too high. . . . I might be an interviewer at an employment agency. "
F62: "I would like to teach drama in high school. The reason for this seems per- haps sort of queer. I have always enjoyed drama very much and I thought the world should know more about the theater. I want people to know about good enter- tainment, high-class art. "
F63: "In my art work I have been very interested in abstract forms, not so much
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432
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
in representational forms. I have been very influenced by the Bauhaus kind of design. " Now interested in writing. (Q) "I was at the Art Gallery (school) and at that time there was a job open art critic for the _ _ _ _ which I took. I have also had other jobs for newspapers. " Interested in experimental forms of writing.
F23: Subject has been employed as a junior chemist at Development for a year and a half. She is disappointed in her job because she had hoped to do research, instead of which she is doing routine work such as could be done by a lab assistant. "You are not allowed to do things your own way, nor are you given any responsi- bility at unless you have a Ph. D. " Subject is also annoyed by the lack of honesty in her fellow workers: they practice what is known as "pencil chemistry"; i. e. , if a reading fails to give the expected result, they will fake the result. She went and told the boss about this, but he did not do anything about it. "They won't do anything on your say-so, and he didn't even check the results for himself. " In re- sponse to a question as to whether she had ever wished that she were a boy, subject replied: "Yes, I do very much because then I could do what I liked. When I first came here they asked me what I would like to do and I told them organic chemistry; so they asked me whether I would like to do organic analysis and I said, yes, without thinking very much about it. The work turned out to be simple filtrations which were interesting at first, but very easy to learn. . . . I want to quit next summer and get my Ph. D. because perhaps then I might have a better chance to do what I want. "
M44: "One thing that I think was important, I always liked school and took pride in it. I was always afraid that I might lose out there. "
Emphasis on humanitarian values is exemplified by the following records of interviewees scoring extremely low on the ethnocentrism questionnaire. Some of them refer to specific and concrete plans for help in the execution of a program with humanitarian implications, while others may do no more than pay lip-service in terms of vague generalities.
M53: (Satisfactions? ) "Well, this is a little obscure . . . a certain justification of one's own existence . . . stocks and bonds never convinced me, because it didn't seem to me to make a damn bit of difference (to the public welfare). This work. . . . I can see results quickly . . . and honest-to-goodness results. "
Msg: "To help those less fortunate than oneself, and to be a part of the commu- nity or society that one is in, to take an active pa~t in it, and being kind and generous and to more or less have a high regard for your fellow human being. . . . "
M 15: "Started out in college with a strong interest in social studies, history. This interest is still strong, but now it is combined with a desire to work with people. Counseling appears to be my present choice. (Idea behind it? ) Well, in our church I have observed how many people have problems. I think I would like to help them. (What kinds of probems? ) Personal. . . . (Your religious point of view at present? ) You might call it something like Social Religion. (Q) It is a sin to be indifferent to progress. "
The statements just quoted are good examples of values important to low- scoring subjects: real achievement often accompanied by anxiety over pos- sible failure, intellectuality, and socially constructive . goals.
6. DENIAL OF SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSA TION
In high-scoring subjects the general lack of insight and the unrealistic view of oneself seem to be connected with a tendency toward a certain
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 433
wishful denial of genuine causality-as revealed by easy explanations of one's own shortcomings in terms of heredity, physical or accidental factors, etc. - or the denial of the symptomatic character of one's behavioral manifesta- tions. Thus, as will be discussed more fully in Chapter XXII, high-scoring subjects in the sample drawn from a psychiatric clinic tend to refer to their symptoms as something merely physical, or as caused by a "hereditary taint," or as otherwise alien to the ego of the subject.
On the other hand, low-scoring subjects tend in general toward socio- psychological explanations, conceiving of the present self in the context of its development under the influence of social and psychological factors. Thus, while talking about themselves, these subjects spontaneously refer back to their childhood, using explicitly such phrases as "it may go back to infancy" in describing the cause of behavioral deviations. One low-scoring subject relates his not having many fears to the fact that his "sister had a lot of fears. " "I used that as a technique not to have any," he said. To be sure, all this should not be taken to imply that the low-scoring subjects in question necessarily possess the correct or full insight into themselves; it means only that there is a greater inclination to think in psychodynamic terms and to seek explanation of one's own behavior in these terms.
The difference between the two attitudes (encompassed in Category 38) is statistically highly significant (at the 1 per cent level) for both men and women.
7. PROPERTY AS EXTENSION OF SELF
The basic insecurity that lies beneath the overt denials and overconfidence of the high-scoring subjects may be a chief contributing factor in their exaggerated wish for property, in the sense of a conception of property as an extension of the self. There is an overlibidinization of money and property, per se. Low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, tend to have a more realistic attitude toward money, knowing fully its value as a means, yet not over- estimating it by making it an end in itself. They generally conceive of
property as means to an end.
Differentiation between prejudiced and unprejudiced groups under this aspect (as covered by Category 39) is statistically highly significant.
The following quotations from high-scoring subjects are examples of their search for "basic security and independence" through money or through the accumulation of goods. It often seems that the need has become functionally autonomous, to use a term by Allport (9), and is as such insatiable.
F24: (How much is enough? ) "Quite a bit-I have to make good-get lots of it and get it fast. "
F32: The desire for $woo a month or "all I could get" represents a wish for secu- rity. The more one ears, the more one can put aside.
M57: (What might a lot of money make possible for you? ) "Buy more cattle, more land, that's my greatest ambition. "
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THE AUTHORITARIA~ PERSONALITY
Records of low-scoring subjects, on the other hand, more often show emphasis on money as a means of obtaining some of the desirable things in life or else of achieving some socially constructive goal. They furthermore illustrate the greater casualness, passivity, and more pleasure-seeking attitude of the low scorers with respect to money and possessions. Enjoyment of music and books is often mentioned; and there is generally more emphasis on specific things to be obtained rather than on the more vague and perhaps imaginary goal of "security" as stressed by high scorers.
Examples are found in the following records of low-scoring subjects:
M42: "I think the best things are free, but lots of times . . . let's see . . . it takes a certain amount of money . . . to do a few things with friends, etc. (Saving vs. spend- ing? ) I don't believe in saving money to the point of a mania . . . but planning for the future is something. . . . l don't make a point of saving a certain amount of money every month . . . no use pinching pennies now, so that you can live better later. . . . "
M44: (What do you miss most that your present income doesn't permit? ) "A good radio with a record player on it, but that's just an immediate thing. . . . "
M48: (What might a lot of money make possible for you? ) "Mean just a good living. I like to go to plays, concerts, etc. , to have a nice home, etc. "
M49: (What do with $75oo? ) "Well, of course, it would give us a comfortable home, to begin with, and a good living, and my wife has always wanted to write, and she's started on several ideas, and that would give her enough to get materials and go ahead with her writing, and-if she did go into writing-we could hire the people to do the house cleaning and laundry, so as to give her more time . . . and she always likes to go to plays and concerts . . . and we could indulge in those things without jeopardizing. . . . "
F63: "Money has never meant much to me. Maybe it is stupid and unrealistic. But it is the work itself that gives me satisfaction. "
F7o: (If you had more, what would you do? ) "I would probably spend it. (On what? ) Well, maybe I would buy some more dishes and silver, although I have more than I can use now; probably not material things. If I had a lot of money I didn't know what to do with, I might run a small private hospital. . . . I don't think I'd buy expensive objects of art. Well, maybe I would. I might buy quite a few material things, go to a lot of concerts and plays. One seems to be able to spend a lot of money on those. "
F27: "That isn't much, I guess. Neither of us wants much. (Is it enough for a family of six? ) Well, what I meant was that we want a comfortable home without any worry, plenty of books, and a good record player with lots of records. We could be happy. "
D. CONCEPTION OF CHILDHOOD SELF
1. DEFINITION OF RA TING CA TEGORIES AND QUANTITATIVE RESULTS
The discussion of attitudes toward oneself thus far has concerned traits which our interviewed subjects ascribed to themselves as of the present. As a regular feature of the interview, subjects were further ? asked the question: "What were you like as a child? " Obviously, answers to this question must not necessarily be taken to reflect the actual nature of the subjects as chil-
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 435
dren. The answers may well refer in part or predominantly to the subject's image of himself as a child. The two alternative interpretations of the mate- rial will have to be kept in mind throughout the discussion which follows. The results of a study on social discrimination in children, including inter- views with their parents (30), give support to the assumption that the descriptions which our subjects give of themselves show at least a certain degree of correspondence with the actual facts.
The rating categories used in the evaluation of this part of the interview material are as follows:
INTERVIEW SCORING MANUAL: CONCEPTION OF CHILDHOOD SELF
(to Table 4(XI))
PREsUMABLY "HIGH" VARIANTs PREsUMABLY "Low" VARIANTs
4oM. Traits ascribed to childhood self hyMen:
a. Unmanageable, difficult, stub- born, aggressive, spoiled, sensi- tive, etc.
b. Bland childhood. Happy, ac- tive, no worries, no shyness, etc.
c. "Gang"-oriented
40W. Traits ascribed to childhood self by Women:
a. Difficult child. Nervous, frail, etc.
b. Bland childhood
a. (I) Quiet, shy, self-conscious (z) Tomboy, independent
b. Adult-oriented, internalized
standards
41. Discontinuity between child- 41. Continuity between childhood
hood self and now self and now
42. Childhood habits (Write in each habit men- tioned, e. g. , nail-biting, thumb-sucking, bed- wetting, nightmares, fear of dark, fear of
animals, etc. )
43? Time of earliest sex experience remembered
(W rite in: Childhood [1-6]; Prepuberty [7-12]; Adolescence [13-19]; Adult life [zo- ])
44? Natureofearliestsexexperienceremembered (Write in: e. g. , homosexual or heterosexual sex play; dates; kissing; heterosexual or homosexual intercourse, masturbation)
45? Source of early sex information (\Vrite in: e. g. , mother; father; male or female sib; other relative; other adult; books; the gang; etc. )
46. Little spontaneous comment 46. Considerable spontaneous com- ment
a. Quiet, shy, self-conscious
b.
