Disposal explanations of obedience

Question 1

Dispositional Explanation of Obedience

Answer 1

Internal explanation (e.g., personality factors) for why individuals obey authority

Question 2

Authoritarian Personality

Answer 2

A personality type where individuals strictly obey authority and expect submission from those beneath them

Question 3

F-Scale (Fascism Scale) definition

Answer 3

A Likert-style questionnaire measuring authoritarian traits in individuals

Question 4

Adorno’s Theory

Answer 4

Childhood experiences, particularly harsh parenting, lead to authoritarian personalities due to displaced anger and scapegoating

Question 5

Cognitive Style of Authoritarian Personality
definiton

Answer 5

A rigid, black-and-white way of thinking that reinforces stereotypes and discourages questioning authority

Question 6

Scapegoating (Psychodynamic Explanation)

Answer 6

Displacing aggression onto weaker groups due to unresolved conflicts with strict parents

Question 7

A03 methodological issues
(Weakness)

Answer 7

✅ Point: The F-scale has serious methodological flaws, reducing its validity.

✅ Evidence: Greenstein (1969) argued that the F-scale is highly susceptible to acquiescence bias, meaning participants may agree with statements regardless of their actual opinions.

✅ Explain: This suggests that the F-scale may not be measuring authoritarian personality but rather a general tendency to agree, making the results unreliable and invalid.

✅ Link: If the F-scale lacks reliability and validity, then Adorno’s research cannot be fully trusted, weakening the authoritarian personality explanation as a whole

Question 8

A03 - Political bias
(Weakness)

Answer 8

✅ Point: The authoritarian personality theory is politically biased, as it only focuses on right-wing ideology.

✅ Evidence: Christie & Jahoda (1954) criticized the F-scale for only measuring fascist (far-right) tendencies, ignoring left-wing authoritarianism (e.g., Bolshevism)

✅ Explain: Both far-right and far-left ideologies emphasize extreme obedience to authority. By failing to consider left-wing authoritarianism, Adorno’s theory lacks balance and generalizability.

✅ Link: If authoritarian traits exist across the political spectrum, then the authoritarian personality theory is limited in explaining obedience beyond right-wing views.

Question 9

A03 - Research support
(strength)

Answer 9

✅ Point: There is research evidence supporting the link between authoritarian personality and obedience.

✅ Evidence: Milgram & Elms (1966) conducted post-experiment interviews with participants from Milgram’s original obedience study and found that those who were highly obedient scored higher on the F-scale, suggesting a link between obedience and authoritarian personality.

✅ Explain: This supports Adorno’s idea that personality traits can influence obedience levels, giving credibility to the dispositional explanation.

✅ Link: Since the research demonstrates a measurable link between authoritarian personality and obedience, it strengthens the validity of Ardono’s theory.