F-scale (personality test)

The California F-scale is a 1947 personality test, designed by Theodor W. Adorno and others to measure the authoritarian personality. The "F" stands for "fascist". The F-scale measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism, such as conventionalism, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, 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. 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. The existence of this correlation could possibly affect the way in which the F-scale accurately measures the authoritarian personality syndrome. The F-Test has two principal purposes: it aims to measure prejudice and anti-democratic tendencies at the personality level.

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. The scale specifically examines the following personality dimensions:

F-scale tests measure not only the subject's overall level of stress but also his or her willingness to cooperate in the testing process.

Research in the late 1960s focused on police and the detection of authoritarianism.

According to data presented by Levinson, 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. 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".

The scale has attracted a great deal of criticism, since it is ideological and associates societal processes with personality characteristics.

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