Directiveness and Authoritarianism: Some Research Findings and a Critical Reappraisal

Resulting from a cogent critique of the F scale as a measure of personality, Ray (1976) has proposed his ‘directiveness’ scale as a behaviourally valid measure of authoritarian personality. Research using this scale has suggested that authoritarian personality and the endorsement of authoritarian attitudes or ideology may be quite unrelated. This was supported by the present study which found no relationship between directiveness and either intolerant and negative attitudes towards homosexuals or an F scale measure of authoritarian attitudes. The conceptualizations of authoritarianism of Ray and Adorno et al. (1950) were then briefly reviewed and it was suggested that they appear to be quite distinct. It was therefore concluded that research using Ray's directiveness scale does not invalidate the theory of the authoritarian personality and that the development of a behaviourally valid measure of authoritarian personality as conceptualized by Adorno et al. remains a major research priority.