Adult recollections of childhood are grossly inaccurate data sources.

Evidence

Perhaps the least wellsupported of all the findings in the Berkeley study are those concerning the genesis of authoritarianism in childhood. To begin with, the data were all obtained from adult recollections and such recollections can be grossly inaccurate. Secondly, the data were nearly all obtained in the main interview study and not directly checked in the projective materials; the main interview study had many methodological defects. However, Frenkel- Brunswik has directly studied prejudice in childhood and adolescence. She reports confirmation of most of the original findings. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 649

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The study’s childhood data rested solely on adult recollection, not direct observation — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 745