Dispositional Explanations Of Obedience

Question 1

Strength: RTS

Answer 1

Milgram and elms, interviewed ppts who had taken part in Milgram’s original study, asked them to complete F Scale Questionnaire, higher levels of authoritarianism in ppts who went to the full 450v compared with those classed as defiant, suggests association between authoritarian personality and obedience, supports dispositional explanation

Question 2

Weakness: social desirability

Answer 2

Research conducted by Adorno et al, ppts may have exaggerated any facist views on f scale, present themselves in best possible light, completed F scale just after 2nd world war, look more obedient, reduces internal validity

Question 3

Weakness: limited explanation

Answer 3

Dispositional explanation crit for being a limited explanation, difficult to use personality as an explanation for most of country’s population, pre-war Germany most individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic views, unlikely they all would have had an authoritarian personality, casts doubt on dispositional explanation