Acceptance of Authority, Self, and Others

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Abstract
Relationships between acceptance of authority (both attitudinal and behavioral) as measured by modified versions of Rigby's (1982) General Attitude towards Institutional Authority Scale and Rigby's (1984a) Authority Behavior Inventory, and evaluations of authority figures, nonauthority figures, generalized others and self, were examined using questionnaire results from 68 social work students. The specificity of the acceptance of authority measures was supported: Whereas pro-authority subjects tended to rate the selected authority figures more highly than did other subjects, they did not rate nonauthority figures higher. In addition, contrary to expectations suggested by the theory of classical authoritarianism, pro-authority subjects were not comparatively low in respect for nonauthority figures, nor did they show low acceptance of self and others, as assessed by modified versions of Berger's measures of self-acceptance and acceptance of others (Shaw and Wright, 1967).