Methodological experience softened Adorno’s early hostility to American empirical techniques

Evidence

Whatever the real reasons, the music project was unsuccessful, while The Authoritarian Personality became a classic of social science immediately after its completion. The explanation for this change cannot be sought solely in Adorno’s own development - he was only one of a large number of coworkers on the second project - but with time, he did gain valuable methodological experience that caused a modification of his initial hostility to American techniques. Thus, for example, his stress on grasping the “objective spirit” rather than measuring subjective reactions to it had diminished by the end of the decade. As we shall see, the “objective” dimension of prejudice was by no means ignored, but it was never fully integrated into the subjective analyses of his and the Institut’s work on the problem. Culture might not be measurable, but it seemed as if bias more easily could be. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 671

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s concept of “objective spirit” vis-a-vis subjective attitude measurement.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno’s F-scale methodology stripped the theory of its context; Allport’s theory of prejudice outlasted Adorno’s in empirical value — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2485; Adorno’s basic philosophical positions were fixed before his American emigration — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 298 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno’s basic philosophical positions were fixed before his American emigration #complicates (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 298
• Adorno adopted ego psychology and character typologies he had formally condemned, diluting nonidentity theory #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 680
• Adorno himself conceded his jazz essay’s decisive flaws stemmed from missing American experience #corroborates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 352
• Adorno’s F-scale methodology stripped the theory of its context #complicates (0.75)
• Allport’s theory of prejudice outlasted Adorno’s in empirical value #corroborates (0.70) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2485