Obedience- Dispositinal Explanations

Question 1

What is dispositional explanations

Answer 1

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality

Question 2

Authoritarian personality

Answer 2

A type of personality that is especially susceptible to obeying people in authority

Question 3

Adorno et al procedure

Answer 3

Investigated the causes of the obedient personality in a study of 200 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes to other racial groups.

Developed this into several scales, fascism scale F-Scale- measure authoritarian personality

Question 4

Adorno findings

Answer 4

Found a positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.

People with strong on the f scale were very conscious of their own and others status’- excessive respect for those of higher status.

Question 5

Authoritarian characteristics

Answer 5

• extreme respect for authority
• inferior social status
• conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender

Question 6

Origin of authoritarian personality

Answer 6

Strict childhood, harsh pretending, script discipline

Question 7

Evaluation- research support

Answer 7

Milgram and his assistant elms (1966)
Interviews with participants who scored highly on the f scale.

Link and correlation between obedience and authoritarian personality.

Question 8

Evaluation- limited explanation

Answer 8

Social identity explains obedience, rather than individual personality

Question 9

Evaluation- political bias

Answer 9

Christie and jahoda (1954)
F-scale measures tendency towards and extreme form of right wing ideology.

It is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation than can account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.