9: Dispositional Explanation for Obedience: Authoritarian Personality

Question 1

Outline the Dispositional Explanation for Obedience: The Authoritarian Personality

Answer 1

A dispositional exp is one that focuses on the individuals own personal characteristics or traits rather than aspects of the situation.
This means that a dispositional exp for obedience would suggest that obedience is caused by internal factors such as an individual personality that makes them more likely to obey.
This personality is known as the Authoritarian Personality.
This is a personal personality type especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
People with this personality type are hostile to people of inferior status but obedient to people of higher status.
They are rigid bon their beliefs and opinions and strictly uphold traditions and conventions.
It is argued this personality type is the result of strict and rigid parenting during childhood.

First proposed by Fromm (1941) as an attempt to explain those holding right-wing, conservative views and is a personality type characterised by a belief in absolute obedience, submission to authority and domination of minorities.
Adorno et al (1950) saw people of this type as having a belief in a need for power and toughness, which leads them to be highly obedient to authority figures. The AP is measured by the ‘F-scale questionnaire’, which has 30 questions assessing nine personality personality dimensions.

When Adorno tested over 2000 Americans using the F scale he found that those with the AP had no ‘fuzziness’ between categories of people, with fixed, stereotypical views about other groups of people.
Those scoring highest on the F-scale identified with ‘strong’ people and disliked the ‘weak’, were very conscious of their own and other’s status, showing excessive respect to those of higher status.
There was a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
It was concluded that people with AP have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority as they believe we need strong leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of country, religion and tradition.

Question 2

Evaluate the Dispositional Explanation for Obedience: The Authoritarian Personality
- Strengths

Answer 2

P: Evidence to support from Elms and Milgram (1966)
E: found that when 20 obedient ppts from Milgrams OG obedience research (who had delivered 450V) were questioned using the F scale, the obedient ppts scored higher on automatism.
E: the obedient ppts also reported viewing the experimenter as more admirable and the learner as less so
L: supports Adorno et al findings that the AP makes us more likely to obey

P: further support for the authoritarian personality from Altemeyer (1998)
E/E: reported that ppts w AP type who were ordered to give themselves electric shocks, gave higher electric shocks than those without the personality type
L: supports that those with AP are more likely to obey

Question 3

Evaluate the Dispositional Explanation for Obedience: The Authoritarian Personality
- Limitations

Answer 3

P: problem w idea of a particularly obedient personality type - fails to explain obedience in the majority of a country’s population
E: this means that while the majority of the general public don’t have an AP type, there are often situations where the majority do obey authority
E: for example in pre-war germany millions of people all displayed obedient and racist behaviour despite all having very different personalities
L: although the AP exp may explain a number of specific cases of obedience it fails to explain obedience on a larger social scale

P: cannot account for situational factors that have been shown to influence obedience
E: many studies, including Milgram have shown that altering the situation, different levels of obedience occur
E: eg the proximity of the AF, the location of the research and whether the AF was wearing uniform, all of which has a significant effect on obedience
L: problem as it suggests that social situations can influence obedience, regardless of personality types

P: research cannot establish a cause and effect relationship between AP type and obedience
E: we cannot sat this personality type causes obedience
E: could be that a ‘third variable’ such as a lower level of education is involved
L: these results may be misleading