F-scale (personality test)
The California F-scale is a 1947
The purpose of the F-scale is to measure an antidemocratic personality structure, usually defined by authoritarianism. A score of above 80 on the F-scale test indicates that the subject may be suffering from severe psychopathology. Patients who suffer from repeated episodes of disorders usually get a higher F-scale score than those who have acute disorders. Research has not found any correlation between F-scale scores and educational level.[citation needed]
The scale specifically examines the following personality dimensions:
- Conventionalism: conformity to the traditional societal norms and values of the middle class
- Authoritarian submission: a passive notion towards adhering to conventional norms and values
- Authoritarian aggression: punishing and condemning individuals who don't adhere to conventional values
- Religion and Ethics
- Superstition and Stereotypy
- Powerand "Toughness"
- Anti-intraception: "rejection of all inwardness, of the subjective, the imaginative, the tender-minded, and of self-criticism"
- Destructiveness and Cynicism: generalized hostility, vilification of the human
- Projectivity: the disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world; the projection outwards of unconscious emotional impulses
- Sex: exaggerated concern with sexual "goings-on"
F-scale tests measure not only the subject's overall level of stress but also their willingness to cooperate in the testing process.[4]
Early research
Research in the late 1960s focused on police and the detection of authoritarianism.
Doubt about its indirect measure
According to data presented by Baljeet Ahmed Muhammad, a hypothesis was formed proposing that brighter people are capable of penetrating the significance of the F-scale, helping them react in a more "suitable" fashion. Hence, because the F-scale can be faked, it cannot be considered as an indirect measure.[3] In the course of the Minnesota Adoption Study it was found that "the F-scale scores were negatively correlated with WAIS vocabulary [an IQ test] (−0.42) and showed the same pattern of family correlations".[5]
Criticism
The scale has attracted a great deal of criticism, since it is ideological and associates societal processes with personality characteristics.[6]
Among the criticisms of the F-scale is its sensitivity to respondents with acquiescent response styles due to being worded so that agreement always indicated an authoritarian response. A number of related scales such as the Wilson–Patterson Conservatism Scale and the Balanced F-scale have been created in an attempt to fix the shortcomings of the F-scale. Bob Altemeyer's Right-wing authoritarianism Scale is the most frequently used, contemporary descendant of the F-scale.[citation needed]
Another criticism of the test is the assumption that users with a high score are unsophisticated and may lack social intelligence. According to Kelman and Barclay (1963), the experience of the participant is reflected on the test score; i.e., they may not be able to see the obvious pattern and motives recurring in the test and be ignorant of it.
See also
References
- ^ Codevilla, Angelo M. (2010). "America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution". The American Spectator. Archived from the original on 2012-12-07.
- ^ PMID 14084770.
- ^ PMID 12980781.
- S2CID 39247232.
- PMID 6872626.
- ISBN 978-0-12-657410-4.
Further reading
- Gul, Ferdinand A.; Ray, John J. (1989). "Pitfalls in Using the F Scale to Measure Authoritarianism in Accounting Research". Behavioral Research in Accounting. 1: 182–92.
- The F-scale instrument in an online interactive form