obedience authoritian personality ; dispositional explanation

Question 1

what is authoritarian personality

Answer 1

• show respect/obedient towards people of perceived higher status.
• show contempt with lower status
  think society has weaken so is in need of powerful leaders.

Question 2

where does authoritarian personality orginate from

Answer 2

traits of this personality orginate from strict/harsh parenting. This includes strict discipline, severe criticsm.

Parents give conditional love - i only love if….
This creates resentment which the person takes out on people they perceive as low in status rather than parents.

Question 3

adorno’s research procedure

Answer 3

2000 white american - studies their unconcious attiudes towrds other racial groupS, USING THE F-SCALE to measure their authoritarian personality.
Statements in this includes ‘Obeidnce of authority is one of the most important things for a child to learn.

Question 4

Adorno’s findings

Answer 4

People who scored highly:
* identified with the strong and disliked the weak
* concious of status and showed respect to higher status
* held sterotypes of other racial groups
Positive correlation between authoritatrain and prejudice

Question 5

ao3: Research support from milgram

Answer 5

Milgram interviewed a sample of 20 ppts from the orginal baseline study who had been fully obedient. All of them scored significantly highly on the f scale compared to 20 who were disobedient (comparison group). This shows that the two groups were different in terms of authoritarian personality. Therefore these findings support adornos view that obedient people share characteristics with people with the authoritarian personality

counterpoint- however researchersanalyzed individiaul subscales of fscale and found that the obedient ppts didnt characteristics normal to authotritarians such as not experiencing unusal lvls of punishment during childhood.
A.P may not useful when talking about obedience.

Question 6

ao3: individual differences contribute to authoritarian personality

midendorp

Answer 6

researchers found that less educated people are more likely than well edcated people to display authoritarian personality characteristics. If these claims are correct, then its possible to conclude that its not authoritarian personality characteristics that lead to obedience alone, but levels of education. Therefore the authoritarian personality explaination is a limited explanation of obedience.

Question 7

ao3: other explanations of obedience e.g. obedience may be situational; not dispositional;

Answer 7

Situational explanations - agentic state, legitmacy of authority
Bickman - 3 conderates in 3 diff outfits; milkman, suit and tie, security guard.
Confed stood in the street and asked members of public to perform tasks e.g. pick up litter.
People twice as likely to obey security guard than suit and tie conferate. - legi
Supports view that people who percieve someone of having higher status, leads to inceased obedience.

Question 8

ao3: f scale research is flawed; methodilogical issues

Answer 8

f scale suffers form response bias or social desirability where ppts provide answers that they think are socially acceptable or just select ‘agree’ answers’. Because of this, some people are incorrectly assessed as having an authoritarian personality.

Therefore this reduces internal validity of the f scale as it may not be accurately identifying true authoritarian traits.