Authoritarianism revisited: a study among Afrikaans and English middle-class women

• Main Author: Van den Berg, Rika
• Other Authors: Levett, Ann
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2016
• Subjects: Psychology; Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18312

This study explored the concept of authoritarianism from a social group perspective. It was argued that authoritarian social attitudes are derived from social categorisations (underpinned by ideological beliefs) which maintain imbalances in power and authoritarian social structures and practices. Historical analyses have found ideologies of nationalism, militarism, conspiracy and patriarchy operative among Afrikaans-speakers. It was argued that these ideologies underpin Altemeyer's (1981) Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale, and that Afrikaans-speakers would therefore score significantly higher than English-speakers on the RWA scale. Exploratory investigations compared a group of 97 white, Afrikaans-speaking, middle-class women in the age group 30-45, with a matched sample of 101 English-speaking women, on the RWA scale. It was argued that among Afrikaners, the mentioned ideologies are legitimated by a religious discourse. A measure of Christian Orthodoxy (SCO) was therefore included. A correlation between RWA and Racism, as measured by Duckitt's (1990) Subtle racism (SR) scale was demonstrated in previous research. This finding was investigated in the study. The Washington University Sentence Completion test (WUSCT) served as a control measure of adherence to social norms. Afrikaans women were expected to score significantly higher on the RWA, SCO and SR measures, and to show less variability in their responses to these scales, and to the WUSCT. This hypothesis was confirmed, suggesting that Afrikaans-speakers adhere to group ideologies more than English-speakers do. SR and RWA correlated significantly in combined and group data sets, supporting the findings in past research. SR and SCO, and RWA and SCO correlated in the combined data set. The RWA, SR and SCO scales demonstrated validity and reliability.