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Updated for AQA 2025 Spec – Teaching from SEPTEMBER 2025 onwards

This resource is designed for teaching Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality as a dispositional explanation for obedience under the AQA A-Level Psychology (2025 Specification). It has been fully updated to reflect the revised requirements, which expect students to describe Adorno et al.’s research into the F-scale, explain how dispositional factors influence obedience, and evaluate the strengths and limitations of this theory.

If you’re looking for the 2019 specification version of this topic, please visit my shop.

This fully editable lesson explores how personality traits rooted in upbringing and early socialisation — such as rigid thinking, submission to authority, and hostility toward perceived inferiors — may predispose individuals to obey. Students are supported in building strong AO1, AO2, and AO3 skills through guided content, interactive activities, and structured evaluation practice.

What’s Included:

• Fully Editable Lesson Slides – Comprehensive coverage of Adorno’s theory and research, including:
  • Key traits of the authoritarian personality
  • Origins in strict parenting and conditional love
  • The F-scale and findings from Adorno’s 1950 study
  • Application to obedience and prejudice
  • Links to Milgram & Elms (1966)
  • Student-friendly layout, visuals, and retrieval tasks

• Think, Pair, Share Tasks – Discussion prompts linking personality to behaviour, psychodynamic concepts, and broader approaches in psychology.

• MCQ Quiz – Multiple-choice recap activity to test students’ understanding of key facts (e.g. what the F in F-scale stands for, characteristics of high scorers, research findings).

• Evaluate It Task – Students sort statements into strength, limitation, or both, followed by a moral challenge question on responsibility and personality.

• Evaluation Worksheet – Printable worksheet where students apply AO3 skills to critique the theory using key evidence and counterarguments. Includes an extension linking to Social Identity Theory.

• Exam Practice Questions –
  • 4-mark outline question with space for scaffolding
  • 8-mark discuss question with model paragraphs, evaluation structure, and planning grid

• Plenary Discussion Prompt – “Is the F-scale a valid way to measure obedience?” encourages students to consolidate learning and reflect critically.

How This Resource Reflects the 2025 Specification Changes:

• Fully aligned with AQA 2025 content under Social Influence: Obedience
• Includes the F-scale, Adorno et al. (1950), and Milgram & Elms (1966) as required knowledge
• Develops AO3 skills through evaluation of correlational methods, political bias, and alternative explanations
• Engages students with interactive, scaffolded tasks to improve retrieval and exam confidence
• Provides structured support for 4- and 8-mark exam-style questions with model answers and evaluation practice