F Scale

Partha Desikan

A well`acclaimed personality scale with the designation California F Scale was published in 1950 by psychologists in the US and has since been used literally in hundreds of publications. The F in its name stands for the adjective fascist.

I do not know whether it has been edited since its birth, but I am giving

Appendix B 

California F Scale

1. Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.
2. A person who has bad manners, habits and breeding can hardly be expected to get along with decent people.
3. If people would talk less and work more, everybody would be better off.
4. The businessman and the manufacturer are much more important to society than the artist and the professor.
5. Science has its place, but there are many important things that can never possibly be understood by the human mind.
6. Young people sometimes get rebellious ideas, but as they grow up, they ought to get over them and settle down.
7. What this country needs most, more than laws and political programs, is a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put their faith.
8. No sane, normal, decent personcould ever think of hurting a close friend or relative.
9. Nobody ever learned anything really important except through suffering.
10. What the youth need(s) is strict discipline, rugged determination, and the will to work and fight for family and country.
11. An insult to our honor should always be punished.
12. Sex crimes, such as rape and attacks on children, deserve more than mere imprisonment; such criminals ought to be publicly whipped, or worse.
    
13. There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great love, gratitude, and respect for his parents.
14. Most of our social problems would be solved if we could somehow get rid of the immoral, crooked, and feeble minded people.
15. Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished.
16. When a person has a problem or worry, it is best for him not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.
17. Every person should have complete faith in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question.
18. Some people are born with an urge to jump from high places.
19. People can be divided into two distinctclasses: the weak and the strong.
20. Some day it will probably be shown that astrology can explain a lot of things.
21. Wars and social troubles may someday be ended by an earthquake or flood that will destroy the whole world.
22. No weakness or difficulty can hold us back if we have enough will power.
23. It is best to use some prewar authorities in Germany to keep order and prevent chaos.
24. Most people don't realize how much our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
25. Human nature being what it is, there will always be war and conflict.
26. Familiarity breeds contempt.
27. Nowadays when different kinds of people move around and mix together so much, a person has to protect himself especially carefully against catching an infection or disease from them.
28. Nowadays more and more people are prying into matters that should remain personal and private.
29. The wild sex life of the old Greeks and Romans was tame compared to some of the goings-on in this country, even in places where people might least expect it.

Do you see what I see only too clearly? Clever academics can certainly use an opportunity like the preparation of the above list, to include all sections of people who oppose them on some count or other, in their group-portrait of 'so and so's. 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (7)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Fascist Shakespeare!
written by narensomu, 2008-04-29 07:05:45

Dear Partha
Thanks for an informative article.
I am going to take that test too-just to find out what my head contains in these people's opinion.
According to these smart people [ point no 5] W. Shakespeare who talked about the many things in heaven and Earth that couldnt be understood by anyone's philosophy was a first rate fascist.

They could have added one more point.

Anyone who disagrees is one as well.:-).
Regards
ns.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by P. Desikan, 2008-04-24 10:15:47

Dear Soumi,
The Appendix in the Roceach book had 29 items for use in the questionnaire. The All American questionnaire that was drawn up from the California F Scale had an extra statement,
[30] The true American way of life is disappearing so fast that force may be necessary to preserve it.
You will find that my comment on the intended descriptions also refers to the number 30.
You have taken the All American test.
Liberal Airhead? A pioneer-lander who liberally facilitates further landing? Into what territory?
Search me.
Regards. Partha

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Liberal Airhead
written by Soumi Basu, 2008-04-23 23:00:10

Dear Partha,
Thanks again for a very informative article.
I took the test online:
http://www.anesi.com/fscale.htm
Verdict: You are a liberal airhead!
Don't know if that was a compliment...but my blood did boil at some of the questions

• 
• +0
• 
• 

You are right
written by P. Desikan, 2008-04-22 17:57:53

Indeed, dear Pradip. The framer of the questionnaire is redeemed, as far as 17 is concerned!
regards. Partha.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by Dr. Pradip Gangopadh, 2008-04-22 17:40:58

Dear Partha,
There is a reason for point 17! In the western world, faith in the All mighty comes with hell for those who do not blindly believe in the supernatural. That kind of position does seem to me to be fascistic.

Regards

Pradip

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Intended descriptions of scale questions
written by P. Desikan, 2008-04-22 17:13:16

Let me also give the intended description of the variables in the questionnaire.
Variable Questions measuring variable
Conventionalism: Rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class values. 1, 2, 3, 4
Authoritarian Submission: Submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealized moral authorities of the ingroup. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Authoritarian Aggression: Tendency to be on the lookout for, and to condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional values. 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Anti-intraception: Opposition to the subjective, the imaginative, the tender-minded. 3, 4, 17, 18
Superstition and Stereotypy: The belief in mystical determinants of the individual's fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories. 5, 6, 19, 20, 21, 22
Power and "Toughness": Preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension; identification with power figures; overemphasis upon the conventionalized attributes of the ego; exaggerated assertion of strength and toughness. 8, 11, 12, 20, 23, 24, 25, 30
Destructiveness and Cynicism: Generalized hostility, vilification of the human. 26, 27
Projectivity: The disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world; the projection outwards of unconscious emotional impulses. 18, 22, 25, 28, 29
Sex: Exaggerated concern with sexual "goings-on." 13, 16, 29
Do the questions in the form given add up to the above descriptions?
I do hope the scale has been edited substantially if it is still in vogue.
Partha.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Pardon me, I explain the obvious.
written by P. Desikan, 2008-04-22 16:24:34

Perhaps I need to explain a bit.
Look at item 17 in the list.
The person having complete faith in some supernatural power is a fascist, you read.I did not mean it exactly so, says the author of the scale. Only if the person obeys the decisions of the superpower without question. Decisions/ of a power which is the product of faith? Forget it.
Look at 13.
If I feel great love, gratitude, respect for your parents, I am a fascist, you read. No says the Scale-creator. Only if you think you are scum if you do not have such love, gratitude and respect.
Do you see techniques of brainwashing at work/
Karigar, do you remember your lyrical ajji-vandane, which prompted Nitinbhai to add his salute his grandma?
Do you approve of the F scale?
Do the rest of us remember matrdevo bhava, pitrdevo bhava and should we feel insulted, or only sneakily so?
Regards. Partha.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment Preview