Abstract
This paper describes and tests a model of radical personality based upon social psychological correlates of New Left ideology. Following methodological criticism of studies that portrayed radicals as psychologically “liberated,” a model of psychopolitical rebellion is described as an inverted form of authoritarian personality. This model was tested by administering projective psychological instruments to a large sample of American college students during 1971–73. As hypothesized, radicalism was associated with measures of power motivation, narcissim, self-assertive psychosocial orientation, lack of affiliative motivation, and perceptions of protest and militancy as sources of power. The developmental sources of rebellion are also examined, and the implications for studies of personality and politics are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adorno, T. W., Else Frenkel-Brunswick, Daniel Levinson, and R. Nevitt Sanford (1950).The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper.
Allerbeck, Klaus (1971). “Soziale Bedingungen der studentischen Radikalismus.” Ph.D. dissertation, Koln University.
Atkinson, John, ed. (1958).Motives in Fantasy, Action, and Society. New York: Van Nostrand.
Bettelheim, Bruno (1969). “Obsolete Youth.”Encounter 33:29–42.
Block, Jeanne, Norma Haan, and M. Brewster Smith (1969). “Socialization Correlates of Student Activism.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 25:143–177.
Blum, Richard (1969).Students and Drugs: Drugs II. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Braungart, Richard (1971). “Family Status, Socialization and Student Affairs.”American Journal of Sociology 77:108–130.
—— (1979). “Youth Movements.” In Joseph Adelson (ed.),Handbook of Adolescent Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Bronfenbrenner, Urie (1970).Two Worlds of Childhood. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Cole, Jennifer (1979). “Narcissistic Character Traits in Left Activists.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.
Erikson, E. H. (1950).Childhood and Society. New York: Norton.
Eysenck, H. J. (1954).The Psychology of Politics. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
—— (1956). “The Psychology of Politics and the Personality Similarities between Fascists and Communists.”Psychological Bulletin 53:431–438.
Feuer, Lewis (1969).The Conflict of Generations. New York: Basic Books.
Flacks, Richard (1967). “The Liberated Generation: An Exploration of the Roots of Student Unrest.”Journal of Social Issues 23:35–61.
Fromm, Erich (1936). “Sozialpsychologischer Teil.” In Institut für Sozialforschung,Studien über Autorität und Familie. Paris: Alcan.
Gold, Alice R., Lucy N. Friedman, and Richard Christie (1971). “The Anatomy of Revolutionists.”Journal of Applied Social Psychology 1:26–43.
—— (1976).Fists and Flowers. New York: Academic Press.
Gutmann, David, S. Rothman, and S. R. Lichter (1979). “Two Kinds of Radicals: A Discriminant Analysis of a Projective Test.”Journal of Personality Assessment 43:13–22.
Haan, N., M. B. Smith, and J. Block (1968). “Moral Reasoning of Young Adults: Political-Social Behavior, Family Background, and Personality Correlates.”Journal of Personal and Social Psychology 10:183–201.
Hampden-Turner, Charles (1970).Radical Man. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman.
Hendin, Herbert (1975).The Age of Sensation. New York: W. W. Norton.
Inglehart, Ronald (1971). “The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies.”American Political Science Review 65:991–1017.
—— (1977).The Silent Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Isenberg, P., R. Schnitzer, and S. Rothman (1977). “Psychological Variables in Student Radicalism: The Radical Triad and Some Religious Differences.”Journal of Youth and Adolescence 6:11–24.
Jacobs, M. A., L. S. Anderson, H. D. Eisman, J. J. Miller, and S. Friedman (1967). “Interaction of Psychologic and Biologic Predisposing Factors in Allergic Disorders.”Psychosomatic 29:572–585.
Jacobs, M. A. (1972). “Perceptions of Faculty Parent-Child Relationships and Illness Behavior.”Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychiatry 39:49–55.
Jay, Martin (1973).The Dialectical Imagination. Boston: Little, Brown.
Keniston, Kenneth (1967). “The Sources of Student Unrest.”Journal of Social Issues 23:108–37.
—— (1968).Young Radicals: Notes on Committed Youth. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
—— (1971).Youth and Dissent. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
—— (1973).Radicals and Militants. Lexington, Mass.: Heath.
Kerlinger, R. M. (1974).Foundations of Behavioral Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Kernberg, Otto (1975).Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. New York: Jason Aronson.
Kirscht, John, and Ronald Dillehay (1967).Dimensions of Authoritarianism. Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky Press.
Ladd, Everett, and S. M. Lipset (1975).The Divided Academy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Landes, Ruth, and Mark Zborowski (1950). “Hypotheses Concerning the Eastern European Jewish Family.”Psychiatry 13:440–460.
Lasch, Christopher (1977).Haven in a Heartless World. New York: Basic Books.
Lichter, S. Robert (1977). “Psychopolitical Models of Student Radicalism.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University.
—— (1979). “Young Rebels: A Psychopolitical Study of West German Male Radical Students.”Comparative Politics 12:28–47.
Lichter, S. R., and Stanley Rothman (1980). “Jewish Ethnicity and Radical Culture.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Study for Psychology and Politics, Boston.
—— (1982). “Jewish Ethnicity and Radical Culture.”Political Psychology 2:116–157.
Liebman, Arthur (1979).Jews and the Left. New York: Halstead Press.
Lipset, S. M. (1976).Rebellion in the University. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McClelland, David (1975).Power: The Inner Experience. New York: Halstead Press.
Mankoff, Michael, and Richard Flacks (1971). “The Changing Social Base of the American Student Movement.”The Annals 395:54–67.
Meissner, W. W. (1978).The Paranoid Process. New York: Jason Aronson.
Murray, Henry (1938).Explorations in Personality. New York: Oxford University Press.
Niemi, Richard (1974).How Family Members Perceive Each Other. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Nisbett, Richard, and T. D. Wilson (1977). “Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes.”Psychological Review 84:231–59.
Osgood, C. E., G. Suci, and P. Tannenbaum (1957).The Measurement of Meaning. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Reich, Charles (1970).The Greening of America. New York: Random House.
Reiche, Reimut (1969). “Verteidigung der ‘Neuen Sensibilität’.” In Klaus Dorner, (ed.),Die Linke Antwortet Jürgen Habermas. Frankfurt.
Rokeach, Milton (1960).The Open and Closed Mind. New York: Basic Books.
Rothman, Stanley (1978a). “Group Fantasies and Jewish Radicalism.”Journal of Psychohistory 6:211–240.
—— (1978b). “Faces in the Crowd: Portraits of Radical (and non-Radical) Youth.” In Sherman C. Feinstein (ed.),Adolescent Psychiatry Vol. VII. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 195–223.
Rothman, S., and S. R. Lichter (1978a). “The Case of the Student Left.”Social Research 45:535–609.
—— (1978b). “Power, Politics and Personality in Post-Industrial Society.”Journal of Politics 40:675–707.
—— (1980). “Personality Development and Political Dissent.”Journal of Political and Military Sociology 8:191–204.
—— (1982).Roots of Radicalism: Jews, Christians and the New Left. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rothman, S., A. H. Bedlington, P. Isenberg, and R. Schnitzer (1977). “Ethnic Variations in Student Radicalism.” In S. Bialer and S. Sluzar (eds.),Sources of Contemporary Radicalism. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Shils, Edward (1954). “Authoritarianism: Right and Left.” In Richard Christie and Marie Jahoda (eds.),Studies in the Scope and Method of ‘The Authoritarian Personality.” Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.
—— (1969). “Plenitude and Scarcity.”Encounter 32:37–58.
Stewart, A. J. (1977). “Scoring System for Stages of Psychological Adaptation to the Environment.” Unpublished paper, Boston University.
Sullivan, John, James Peireson, and George Marcus (1979). “An Alternative Conceptualization of Political Tolerance: Illusionary Increases, 1950s–1970s.”American Political Science Review 73:781–94.
Westby, David (1976).The Clouded Vision. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Press.
Wilkinson, Rupert (1972).The Broken Rebel. New York: Harper & Row.
Winter, D. G. (1973).The Power Motive. New York: Free Press.
Winter, D. G., and A. J. Stewart (1977). “Power Motive Reliability as a Function of Experimental Instructions.”Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
—— (1978). “The Power Motive.” In H. London and J. Exner (eds.),Dimensions of Personality. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Wolfenstein, E. V. (1967).The Revolutionary Personality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wolfenstein, Martha (1955). “Two Types of Jewish Mother.” In M. Mead and M. Wolfenstein (eds.),Childhood in Contemporary Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wood, James (1974).The Sources of American Student Activism. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (GS35307A1) and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lichter, S.R., Rothman, S. The radical personality: Social psychological correlates of new left ideology. Polit Behav 4, 207–235 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990106
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990106