The group-discussion project conflated group spirit with individual attitudes without resolving the contradiction.

Evidence

Both the research and the analysis of it were therefore marred by a persistent lack of clarity. Although the principal purpose was to identify the objective spirit through group discussions, the attitudes of individual speakers formed the basis for both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses. These attitudes were considered to be not aspects of the group concerned but elements of the totality made up by the participants. In addition, although the function of the objective spirit for the individual state of mind was to be examined, attempts to develop a procedure capable of doing this never progressed beyond the initial stages. Moreover, since the goal of the proceedings was to prepare the ground for a theoretically significant and representative inquiry (it had also been planned that the Berkeley study should broaden out in this way), the group study took on a provisional and experimental character as well. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1884

Categorization

• QUESTION: Would be worth tracing how this unresolved methodology later shaped the Authoritarian Personality study.