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Authoritarian Personality Approach And The Dual-Process Motivation

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Intergroup conflict, in general terms, is a prevalent issue that has been present throughout history, but never so much as it is in the 21st century. This is issue is more relevant today as it has ever been due to increasing globalisation. Critically, modern psychology has placed great importance on understanding this issue and how we can reduce the harmful social and individual effects intergroup conflict has created. The biggest issue that has caused intergroup conflict is prejudice, which often leads discrimination against minority groups of people. There are many theories that have been developed to help us understand and minimise this issue. For the purpose of this paper, the Authoritarian Personality Approach, and the Dual-Process Motivation …show more content…

There are personality types that struggle with change and this may be the reason for having personality traits such as authoritarianism, conservatism, and traditionalism. In turn, it is important to note that the Authoritarian Personality Approach has some elements of Freud’s psychodynamic theory. For people with personalities that tend to fit within the RWA and SDO categories, Freud theory would argue that they failed to progress through the psychosexual stages of development. This means individuals may have developed some fixation like Anal and Phallic fixations. This may explain the ridged and structured beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours for people, as these traits may have evolved in their early stages of personalities development. Personality traits may have deeply affected peoples’ abilities to be open to new social and moral beliefs and values. If this is the case however, and although it is difficult, psychological help mechanisms like psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), or dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) can be solutions to individuals with extreme and destructive RWA and SDO tendencies. On the other hand, the idea that intergroup conflict is cause by personality indirectly, and is also group and cultural influences that evoke RWA and SDO. This occurs where there is group identification, group cohesiveness, and social conformity. It any other ‘type’ of person or group were to challenge or even threaten their group ethos, then intergroup conflict will occur. Psychology may be one of the few solutions to this issue. While CBT and other psychological therapies are useful, they have a limited capacity if the prejudice and (more critically) the discrimination that is a concern is causes by significantly sizable group.

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