Public Opinion Questionnaire (Form 40-45)

Abstract

The Public Opinion Questionnaire (Form 40-45) represents the final, 30-item iteration of the influential California F Scale, developed as a key instrument in the comprehensive study of the Authoritarian Personality. This scale is designed to measure underlying, often unconscious, personality traits that predispose individuals toward anti-democratic and fascistic tendencies. The items are presented as statements regarding social groups and issues, requiring respondents to express their degree of agreement or disagreement. Higher scores derived from this questionnaire are directly indicative of increasing levels of authoritarianism.

The original items, along with instructions for administration and detailed scoring procedures, were published in the seminal 1950 work, The Authoritarian Personality. A notable revised version (Form 40-45 J. Sr M Rev.) was later introduced to address issues related to the Acquiescent Response Sets inherent in the original, entirely unidirectionally worded F Scale.

Keywords

California F Scale, Authoritarianism, The Authoritarian Personality, Political Psychology, Social Attitudes, Ethnocentrism, Personality Assessment, Public Opinion Questionnaire

Authors

Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford (Original Scale Development); D. N. Jackson and S. Messick (Revised Form Developers)

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Public Opinion Questionnaire (Form 40-45) is to measure the dispositional personality factors related to political and social prejudice—specifically, the potentiality for fascism and anti-democratic behavior. It functions as a measure of the California F Scale (F for Fascism), assessing the extent to which an individual holds beliefs and attitudes characteristic of an authoritarian personality structure.

The scale was developed to be relatively subtle, aiming to assess underlying personality traits without overtly referencing political or minority groups, thus reducing potential response bias related to social desirability. The final score is calculated as a mean item score, where higher numerical results signify a greater degree of dispositional authoritarianism.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of the Authoritarian Personality Syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by nine specific personality variables or traits, which collectively form the basis of the F Scale’s construction. These dimensions include:

• Conventionalism: Rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class values.
• Authoritarian Submission: Submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealized moral authorities of the in-group.
• Authoritarian Aggression: Tendency to be watchful for, and condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional norms.
• Anti-intraception: Opposition to the subjective, the imaginative, and the tender-minded.
• Superstition and Stereotypy: Belief in mystical determinants of fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories.
• Power and Toughness: Preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension; identification with power figures; exaggerated assertion of strength and toughness.
• Destructiveness and Cynicism: Generalized hostility, vilification of the human.
• Projectivity: Disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world; the projection outward of unconscious emotional impulses.
• Sex: Exaggerated concern with sexual goings-on.

Validity

The validity of the F Scale was established through extensive clinical interviews and correlations with other measures, including the Ethnocentrism (E) Scale and the Anti-Semitism (A-S) Scale, as documented in The Authoritarian Personality (Adorno et al., 1950). The scale demonstrated strong convergent validity, showing that individuals scoring high on the F Scale also exhibited high levels of prejudice and anti-minority attitudes.

The primary challenge to the scale’s validity stemmed from its unidirectional wording (all items were phrased such that agreement indicated authoritarianism), leading to susceptibility to Acquiescent Response Sets. The revised version (Form 40-45 J. Sr M Rev.), introduced by Jackson and Messick (1957), was developed specifically to mitigate this bias by including reversed items, thereby enhancing the scale’s construct validity.

Reliability

While specific statistical reliability coefficients (such as Cronbach’s Alpha or test-retest reliability) are detailed within the original 1950 publication, the F Scale is recognized historically for demonstrating acceptable internal consistency for a measure of such broad scope. The authors relied on item-total correlations and comparisons across different forms (40 and 45) to establish the measure’s consistency in capturing the underlying authoritarian syndrome.

The final 30-item version (Form 40-45) represented a purification of earlier, longer forms, aiming to maximize reliability by retaining the most discriminating items across the nine theoretical dimensions of the authoritarian personality.

Factor Analysis

Adorno et al.’s original conceptualization of the F Scale was based on a psychoanalytic and clinical-descriptive model rather than a strict psychometric factor analytic approach. However, subsequent factor analyses conducted by other researchers often confirmed that the items tended to load onto a general factor corresponding to Authoritarianism, though the precise number of sub-factors related to the original nine theoretical dimensions has varied in later studies.

The scale’s strength lies in its ability to tap into a pervasive, underlying personality structure. The later revisions, such as those by Jackson and Messick, involved psychometric refinement designed to isolate the core construct from methodological artifacts like acquiescence, which can artificially inflate apparent factor loadings.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report attitude questionnaire (Psychometric Scale)

Format: 30 items (Form 40-45 Original); 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from +3 (strong support/agreement) to -3 (strong opposition/disagreement).

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: General population, studied primarily among middle-class Americans.

Age Group: Adults and older adolescents.

Population Details: The original research sample included various non-clinical groups, such as university students, veterans, and professional organization members, utilized for studying social prejudice.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate their agreement with statements referring to social issues. The final score is the mean of the item scores. A neutral response (omission) is hypothetically scored as 4. Scoring for the original (unreversed) items is:

-3 = 1

-2 = 2

-1 = 3

+1 = 5

+2 = 6

+3 = 7

Scoring for the reversed items (found in the J. Sr M Rev. form) is inverted:

-3 = 7

-2 = 6

-1 = 5

+1 = 3

+2 = 2

+3 = 1

Keywords

F Scale, Authoritarianism, Prejudice, Social Psychology, Fascism, Personality Inventory, Likert Scale, California F Scale, Response Bias

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Scale predates ORCID system)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: Research conducted under the auspices of the Institute of Social Research, University of Frankfurt (in exile at the University of California, Berkeley, at the time of publication).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1950 (Publication of final form in The Authoritarian Personality)

Permissions and Fee: This instrument is historically significant and is generally used for academic research purposes. Permission and fee information are dependent on the current holder of the copyright for The Authoritarian Personality (Harper & Brothers, now HarperCollins/W. W. Norton, depending on the edition). The original item set is often used freely for non-commercial research and educational purposes.

This historic document is included through collaboration with The University of Akron, The Archives of the History of American Psychology, University Libraries.

Reference’s

The primary references for the Public Opinion Questionnaire (Form 40-45) are:

1. Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper & Brothers. (Items listed in Table 7, pp. 255-257; Scoring on pp. 71-72, 109, and 242).
2. Jackson, D. N., & Messick, S. (1957). A note on ‘Ethnocentrism’ and Acquiescent Response Sets. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 54(1), 132-134. (Source for the reversed item version, Form 40-45 J. Sr M Rev.).

Items of the Public Opinion Questionnaire (Form 40-45)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The following statements refer to opinions regarding a number of social groups and issues, about which some people agree and others disagree. Please mark each statement in the left-hand margin according to your agreement or disagreement, as follows:

+l: slight support, agreement

+2: moderate support,

+3: strong support•

-1: slight opposition, disagreement

-2: moderate opposition,

-3: strong opposition,

The items below represent the original, unidirectionally worded F Scale (Form 40-45 Orig.):

21. Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.
22. No weakness or difficulty can hold us back if we have enough will power.
23. Science has its place, but there are many important things that can never possibly be understood by the human mind.
24. Human nature being what it is, there will always be war and conflict.
25. Every person should have complete faith in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question.
26. Whenaperson has a problem or worry, it is best for him not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.
27. A person who has bad manners, habits, and breeding can hardly expect to get along with decent people.
28. What the youth needs most is strict discipline, rugged determination, and the will to. work and fight for family and country.
29. Some people are born with an urge to jump from high places.
30. Nowadays when so many different kinds of people move around and mix together so much, a person has to protect himself especially carefully against catching an infection or disease from them.
31. An insult to our honor should always be punished.
32. Young people sometimes get rebellious ideas, but as they grow up they ought to get over them and settle down.
33. It is best to use some prewar authorities in Germany to keep order and prevent chaos.
34. What this country needs most, more than laws and political programs, is a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put their faith.
35. Sex crimes, such as rape and attacks on children, deserve more than mere imprisonment; such criminals ought to be publicly whipped, or worse.
36. People can be divided into two distinct classes: the weak and the strong.
37. There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great love, gratitude, and respect for his
38. Some day it will probably be shown that astrology can explain a lot of things.
39. The true American way of life is disappearing so fast that force may be necessary to preserve it.
40. Nowadays more and more people are prying into matters that should ,remain personal and private.
41. Wars and social troubles may someday be ended by an earthquake or flood that will destroy the whole world.
42. Most of our social problems would be solved if we could somehow get rid of the innnoral, crooked, and feebleminded people.
43. The wild sex life of the old Greeks and Romans was tame compared to some of the goings-on in this country, even in places where people might least expect it.
44. If people would talk less and work more, everybody would be better off.
45. Most people don’t realize how much our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
46. Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished.
47. The businessman and the manufacturer are much more important to society than the artist and the professor.
48. No sane, normal, decent person could ever think of hurting a close friend or relative.
49. Familiarity breeds
50. Nobody ever learned anything really important except through

The items below represent the revised, reversed-item version (Form 40-45 J. Sr M Rev.):

1. A love of freedom and complete independence are the most important virtues children should learn.
2. All the will power in the world will not help us when weaknesses and difficulties stand in our way.
3. The success of modem science proves that every important thing can ultimately be understood by the human mind.
4. Because human nature is improving, war and conflict will eventually be eliminated.
5. Every person should have complete faith in his own independent judgment, not in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question.
6. When a person has a problem or worry, he should drop everything and concentrate upon it until the solution appears.
7. The deeper and more enduring qualities in getting along well with people are far more important than external things like manners, habits, and breeding.
8. What the youth needs most is complete freedom from discipline in order to flow naturally into the onward stream of cooperative progress for the benefit of all mankind.
9. It is known with complete certainty that the urge to jump from high places is learned, not inborn.
10. Nowadays, since democracy demands that people of widely different background and station mix together, a person should not be finicky about catching a disease from any of them.
11. An insult to our honor should always be overlooked, for “whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
12. The rebellious ideas that young people sometimes get must be encouraged and developed at all costs to guarantee mature citizenship in adulthood.
13. Only if prewar authorities are kept out of the German government, will true democracy be achieved in that country.
14. What this country needs most, more than willful leaders, are laws and political programs requiring all citizens to actively share responsibility.
15. Sex offenses, such as rape and attacks on children, never merit punishment; such offenders should always be treated with kindness and sympathy by qualified psychiatrists.
16. All attempts to divide people into the two distinct classes of the weak and the strong are doomed to failure.
17. Every truly mature person outgrows childish feelings of submissive respect and of excessive love and gratitude for his parents.
18. Such pseudosciences as astrology have never explained anything and never
19. The surest way to insure the disappearance of the true American way of life is to resort to the use of force.
20. In this scientific age there can be no justification for denying investigators the right to study so-called personal and private matters.
21. The complete end to wars and social problems will soon be realized.
22. There would be no iI1UD.oral, crooked, or feebleminded people, if we could get down to brass tacks and somehow get rid of our social problems.
23. The wild sex life of the old Greeks and Romans makes sexual goings-on in this country seem tame.
24. If people talked things over and didn’t work so much, everybody would be better off.
25. It is foolish and ridiculous to have ideas that our lives could possibly be controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
26. Homosexuals are never criminals and must not be punished as such.
27. The business man and the manufacturer are not any more important to society than the artist and the professor.
28. No sane, norm.al, decent person can avoid having thoughts of hurting close friends or relatives.
29. We are bound to admire and respect a person if we get to know him well.
30. Nobody ever learned anything really important through suffering.