Ray Directiveness Scale Research Articles

A Comparative Assessment of the Construct Validity of Three Authoritarianism Measures

The relationship between three measures of authoritarianism and first-and second-order personality traits was assessed. In Part 1, 508 students completed the 16PF, Ray Balanced F Scale (BF), Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SD), and Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI). The results of regression analyses between the 16PF and the BF indicated that authoritarianism was related to three second-order factors: Behavior Control, Tough Poise, and low Independence, but was more strongly related to seven first-order factors: low Imagination, Concrete Thought, Insensitivity, Closed-mindedness, Self-discipline, Seriousness, and Suspiciousness. In Part 2, a subsample of 139 students also completed the Altemeyer Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWA) and Ray Directiveness Scale (RDS). It was found that the RWA paralleled the BF in terms of the 16PF factors associated with it, while the RDS was dissimilar from the other two scales in this respect. The RDS was primarily related to the Dominance and Social Boldness first-order factors and the Independence second-order factor. First- and second-order conversion equations are reported for the BF, RDS, and RWA. Finally, the three scales′ reliabilities and relationships to self-esteem and socially desirable responding were assessed.

Social class, authoritarianism and directiveness

Abstract. In his comment on our work, Ray misinterprets our conclusions and contradicts himself on the issue of working class authoritarianism. His suggestion that the directiveness scale measures authoritarianism must be seriously questioned. His methods of validation of this concept are insufficient. The Adorno et al. F‐scale has been shown to be a potential fascism scale (Meloen et al., 1988), whereas there is no such evidence for Ray's directiveness scale. Suggestions are offered that may clarify the controversy around Lipset's thesis on working class authoritarianism.

Effects of an affirmative gay psychotherapy workshop on counselors' authoritarianism.

21 counselors and trainees enrolled in a 3-day workshop showed decreased scores on authoritarianism, measured on the Ray Directiveness Scale, after the training and at 2-mo. follow-up, and lower scores than controls, although scores were like the control group's at pretest.

Acceptance of Authority and Directiveness as Indicators of Authoritarianism: A New Framework

Summary Authoritarianism is defined anew as a combination of high directiveness and a strongly pro-attitude to authority. To examine the independence of each concept Ray's Directiveness Scale and the author's two measures of acceptance of authority, the short General Attitude to Institutional Authority Scale and the Authority Behavior Inventory, were administered to 114 college students. In addition, Ss were asked to rate each other according to eight behavioral criteria, half relating to directiveness and half to acceptance of authority. The Authority Behavior Inventory correlated highly with the attitude to authority scale (.76) but nonsignificantly with the Directiveness Scale (-.11). Discriminant validity was also obtained for all three measures with six of the eight peer-group ratings. It was concluded that future research into authoritarianism might usefully employ measures of acceptance of authority (either attitude scales or behavioral inventories) and directiveness, in a complementary manner.

The Attitudes of English and Australian College Students toward Institutional Authority

Summary It is argued that “authoritarianism” and “attitude to authority” should be differentiated, and that measures based upon the latter concept hold greater promise of success in investigating differences between cultures. It was confirmed that Ray's Directiveness Scale, a valid measure of one aspect of authoritarianism, is uncorrelated with a general measure of attitudes toward institutional authority (the GAIAS). Further, unlike the Directiveness Scale, that measure provided evidence of cross-cultural differences between college students in England (N = 100) and Australia (N = 100). English students were significantly more pro-authority.

The Behavioral Validity of Some Recent Measures of Authoritarianism

Summary The Rigby and Rump attitude to authority scale, the Hogan symbolic authoritarianism measure, the Ray Directiveness scale, and a balanced F scale were administered to a group of people selected and rated by students. An achievement motivation scale was also included because of recent findings suggesting that achievement motivation may be one source of authoritarian behavior. The responses of the 82 Ss showed the five scales as adequate in reliability. The composition of the sample was representative by basic demographic criteria. Ratings of 11 attributes important in the authoritarianism literature were gathered for each S. The highest correlation with rated overall authoritarian behavior was recorded for the achievement motivation scale followed closely by the Ray Directiveness scale. Equivalent correlations for the other three scales were nonsignificant. It was concluded that future research into authoritarianism should restrict itself to the use of behavior inventories as measuring instruments.

Directiveness and Authoritarianism: Some Research Findings and a Critical Reappraisal

Resulting from a cogent critique of the F scale as a measure of personality, Ray (1976) has proposed his ‘directiveness’ scale as a behaviourally valid measure of authoritarian personality. Research using this scale has suggested that authoritarian personality and the endorsement of authoritarian attitudes or ideology may be quite unrelated. This was supported by the present study which found no relationship between directiveness and either intolerant and negative attitudes towards homosexuals or an F scale measure of authoritarian attitudes. The conceptualizations of authoritarianism of Ray and Adorno et al. (1950) were then briefly reviewed and it was suggested that they appear to be quite distinct. It was therefore concluded that research using Ray's directiveness scale does not invalidate the theory of the authoritarian personality and that the development of a behaviourally valid measure of authoritarian personality as conceptualized by Adorno et al. remains a major research priority.

A factorial study of a new measure of authoritarianism

In the present study scores on Ray's Directiveness scale were subjected to Varimax rotation. Three factors explaining more than 50% of the variance of authoritarianism were interpreted and labelled Submissiveness, Dominance and Aggressiveness, respectively. Although these are in line with Ray's earlier conception of the nature of authoritarianism and do, to some extent, support other findings, it is suggested that the Directiveness scale be expanded to accommodate more characteristics of authoritarianism such as rigidity, hostility and superstitiousness.

Measuring Authoritarianism by Behaviour Inventory among Afrikaners

Although adequately reliable short forms of the Ray Directiveness scale have been produced for use among English-speaking populations, research using one short form among Afrikaans-speaking samples has shown the reliability to be low. This study reports an Afrikaans short form of the scale with suitable reliability.

Authoritarianism and Eysenck'S P Scale

Summary Eysenck's claim that Psychoticism (P) explains Tough-mindedness is examined. It is pointed out that authoritarianism is said by Eysenck to be one type of tough-mindedness. The P and F scales should therefore correlate positively. In a random postal survey of New South Wales (N = 172), the P scale, a balanced F scale, and the Ray Directiveness scale were administered. The F scale was found to correlate significantly negatively with the P scale. Authoritarian personality as measured by the Directiveness scale did however correlate positively with P.

Authoritarianism and Self-Esteem Among White Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) and South African Students

Summary Several months prior to the official renaming of Rhodesia as Zimbabwe, Ray's directiveness scale, which measures authoritarian behavior, and Rosenberg's self-esteem inventory were administered to a sample of 160 white first-year and third-year Rhodesian and South African university students. Respondents ranged in age from 17 years to 23 years. The hypothesis that third-year male students would be more authoritarian than their third-year female counterparts, and that this difference would not exist in the first-year level, was confirmed. The hypothesis that male students would have significantly greater self-esteem than the females was not supported. These findings are accounted for in terms of involvement in the antiterrorist military effort. An unexpected finding was that the Rhodesian females had a significantly lower self-esteem score than the South African female students.