F-scale (personality test)

The California F-scale is a 1947 personality test, designed by German Theodor W. Adorno and others to measure the "authoritarian personality".^[1] The "F" stands for "fascist". The F-scale measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism, such as conventionalism, authoritarian aggression, superstition and stereotypy, power and "toughness", destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and sex. Scores acquired from the F-scale could be directly associated with background components, educational level, and intellectual capacity.^[2] It is an indirect type of test that ensures the result would not be due to the individual's fake responses; this is possible because the purpose of the measurement and which attitude is being measured are initially concealed from the participants.^[3] The existence of this correlation could possibly affect the way in which the F-scale accurately measures the authoritarian personality syndrome.^[2] The F-scale has two principal purposes: it aims to measure prejudice and anti-democratic tendencies at the personality level.^[3]

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
• Power and "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]