Dispositional reasons for obedience

Question 1

What did Adorno propose?

Answer 1

The Authoritarian Personality

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

Adorno 1950
Investigated cause of obedient personality in 2000 middle-class white Americans + their feelings to POC. Developed F scale.

Question 3

Features of the F scale

Answer 3

30 questions. Ps rate their agreement with items on a scale of 1-6.

Question 4

People with the authoritarian personality exhibit:

Answer 4

-Hostility to those perceived as lower status
-Obedience to those perceived as higher status
-Extreme respect for authority
-Conformity
-Dogmatic tendencies
-Prejudice

Question 5

Authoritarian Personality stems from:

Answer 5

A harsh parenting style, including strict discipline, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.

Question 6

Strength: Research to support authoritarian personality

Answer 6

Eg: Milgram and Alan Elms (1966)
Conducted interviews w the 20 most obedient and 20 least
Most obedient got higher on F scale than least disobedient
Strength: obedient ppl share traits w those w an authoritarian personality, provides support.

Question 7

Weakness: Correlation =/=
Causation

Answer 7

Adorno n co measured correlations between variables. Found authoritarianism strongly correlated w prejudice against minority groups
Weakness as strong correlation does not guarantee that one variable causes the other.

Question 8

Weakness: authoritarian personality is a limited explanation- cannot explain obedience in entire societies.

Answer 8

e.g: unreasonable to assume an entire society is authoritarian. Pre war germany was racist + antisemetic, despite ppl varying in personality. Weakness: dilutes validity of theory, unlikely most of pop has these negative traits

Question 9

Weakness; authoritarian personality based on flawed methodology

Answer 9

E.g every item is worded in the same direction, people who score high may not be authoritarian but instead ‘acquiescers’..