Else Frenkel-Brunswik
Austrian-American psychologist of personality and prejudice
Austrian-born psychologist at Berkeley who co-authored The Authoritarian Personality (1950) with Theodor Adorno, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford, and wrote on intolerance of ambiguity and prejudice in children.
Why this person matters
Frenkel-Brunswik's research concerned personality and prejudice. Her profile says she may have been the senior author of The Authoritarian Personality and was listed second because the authors appeared in alphabetical order. Nepotism rules initially barred her from tenure consideration.
Main contributions
The Authoritarian Personality
The 1950 book, written with Theodor Adorno, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford, studied the authoritarian personality and prejudice.
Intolerance of ambiguity
Her 1949 article, Intolerance of ambiguity as an emotional and perceptual personality variable, appeared in the Journal of Personality.
Prejudice in children
Her 1948 paper, A study of prejudice in children, appeared in Human Relations.
Context and limits
Nepotism rules barred her from tenure consideration while her husband Egon Brunswik was also on the Berkeley faculty. After his death in 1955 that barrier was gone, and her appointment was endorsed on 4 December 1957. She left Austria in 1938 after the Anschluss. The sources read do not discuss critiques of the Authoritarian Personality studies or of the F-scale, so none is stated here.
In your introductory course
Social psychology.She appears in social psychology chapters for the authoritarian personality and in personality chapters for intolerance of ambiguity.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 12.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1930
She earned her doctorate at the University of Vienna under Karl Bühler.
- 1939
She began work at the Institute of Child Welfare at Berkeley.
- 1948
She published A study of prejudice in children.
- 1950
The Authoritarian Personality was published.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Else Frenkel-BrunswikArchive or museum. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Else Frenkel-BrunswikReference work. Reference article inspected.