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Mental Rigidity and Performance in Sociology

Studies of authoritarianism portray persons high on this dimension as frequently holding a rigid categorical view of the world, behaving toward the environment in terms of extreme stereotypes, and being intolerant of ambiguity (Adorno, 1950; Christie and Jahoda, 1954). This personality syndrome has been related to various personal and social characteristics, but the effects of authoritarianism onperformance in specific situations have seldom been measured. Yet there is some experimental evidence which indicates that mentally rigid persons have difficulty tolerating ambiguous situations and seek closure in their experiences. For example, Rokeach (1946) found that in solving arithmetic problems, ethnocentric children showed greater resistance to changing a given set which interfered with the solution of new tasks. Studying the autokinetic effect, Block and Block (1951) reported that ethnocentric subjects stabilized their judgments of the estimated amount of movement in the light more rapidly than subjects who were more tolerant. The present study is concerned with the relationship between authoritarianism and performance in introductory sociology. Introductory sociology has certain characteristics which lead us to expect that this relationship will be inverse. Students in introductory sociology are asked to think analytically in areas previously structured by social ideology. Effective learning and performance in the course would seem to require a willingness to modify, or at least question, certain attitudes and beliefs. The introductory class also typically does not provide closure for students. For instance, a large part of the introductory course is devoted to learning a new vocabulary. Many of the words are not new to students but the sociological meaning is likely to differ from conventional usage. In addition there is usually little continuity between chapters. The topics which are included are selected and ordered somewhat arbitrarily. Finally, there is a relative absence of "hard facts" which students can memorize for examinations. When data are presented they are in the form of probabilistic propositions which do not provide closure. A learning situation of this nature is likely to be more problematic for highly authoritarian persons. The tendency of authoritarian persons to resist changing a mental set and to seek stable judgments plus the stated assumptions about sociology suggests that an inverse relationship will appear between authoritarianism and performance in introductory sociology.