Dispositional Explanations Of Obedience

Question 1

Who proposed a dispositional explanation of obedience

Answer 1

Adorno (1950)

Question 2

What do dispositional explanations of behaviour claim

Answer 2

That individuals’ personality characteristics determine their behaviour, rather than situational influences

Question 3

What did Adorno argue about authoritarian personalities

Answer 3

That they are more likely to obey authority figures

Question 4

Authoritarian personalities have a collection of traits which make them more obedient
-> these include:

Answer 4

• (scapegoating) being hostile towards those of a lower status
• being preoccupied with power
• being conformist / conventional
• inflexible in their beliefs and values

Question 5

Adorno (1950) thought that people developed authoritarian personalities due to…

Answer 5

Strict parenting, involving physical punishment
-> this creates feelings of hostility which are displaced onto weaker people who cannot fight back
-> they can’t take out their anger on their parents so they repress it, acting in a submissive way (both to their parents, & then all authority figures

Question 6

What questionnaire did Adorno develop to measure authoritarian personalities

Answer 6

• the F (fascism) scale
  -pp’s are asked to rate how much they agree with statements e.g. (obedience & respect for authority are important virtues children should learn, and rules are there to follow, not be changed)

Question 7

AO3 P1 (+) Miller 1975 F Scale

Answer 7

Miller found that people who scored high on the F scale were more likely to obey an order too hold onto some electrical wiring while working on an arithmetic problem, compared to those who scored low

Question 8

AO3 P2 (-) situational variables may be more important

Answer 8

Milgram (1974) has conducted several variations of his original experiments with vastly different results
- obedience = 100% when Mr Wallace = no sound
- obedience = 0% when there were two authority figures who disagreed with each other (one who wanted the teacher to stop, and one continue)

Question 9

AO3 (P3) (+) - Altemeyer (1981) F Scale

Answer 9

• a significant correlation between those willing to shock themselves and high scores on the F scale
  -> he ordered pps to give themselves increasing shocks when they made a mistake on a learning task

Question 10

AO3 P4 (-) how dispositional explanations can’t explain obedience in whole societies

Answer 10

This is as authoritarian personalities are not common (less than 65% of people have one) so it cannot be the ONLY reason for a level of obedience in the O.G, Milgram (1963)

Question 11

AO3 P5 (-) that different factors cause obedience & the authoritarian personality

Answer 11

Middendorp & Meleon (1990) found that less educated people are more likely to have an authoritarian personality, and Milgram found that participants with lower education were more obedient