Social Influence - Dispositional Explanations - Obedience Flashcards

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1
Q

what are dispositional explanations

A
  • explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality
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2
Q

What is the authoritarian personality

A
  • personality susceptible to obeying people in authority
  • submissive of higher status and dismissive of inferiors
  • always a right or wrong
  • don’t like uncertainty
  • view society as weak and need powerful leaders
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3
Q

how does the authoritarian personality develop

A
  • harsh parenting
  • conditional love from parents
  • create resentment and hostility in a child
  • child’s fears are displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker
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4
Q

what was Adorno et al research

A
  • studied 2000+ middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards racial groups
  • developed the F-scale to measure this
  • people with authoritarian leading and high on the F-scale identified with strong people + conscious of their own status and respect for those with higher status
  • fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups
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5
Q

what is the F- scale

A
  • measure attitudes of the authoritarian personality
  • conventionalism - obedience and respect are the most important values a child learns
  • authoritarian aggression - sex crimes on children deserve more than imprisonment
  • power and toughness - people divided into strong and weak
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6
Q

why does the authoritarian personality have political bias

A
  • F- scale measure right wing ideology
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7
Q

why is the authoritarian personality a limited explanation

A
  • cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population
  • pre war Germany many displayed obedient and racist behaviour
  • unlikely they all possessed an authoritarian personality
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8
Q

what is the supporting evidence for the authoritarian personality

A
  • Elms and Milgram 1966
  • interviewed people who were fully obedient in original study
  • all completed the F - Scale
  • 20 obedient participants scored higher than disobedient participants
  • supports Adorno’s view that obedient people may show similar characteristics to people who have an Authoritarian personality
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