Obedience: Dispositional Explanation

Question 1

What does the dispositional explanation of obedience state?

Answer 1

That obedience happens because of a person’s personality - certain personality types can lead to a person being more, or less, obedient

Question 2

What is the F-scale? (F standing for ‘fascist’)

Answer 2

A scale which measured how authoritarian a person is

Question 3

Who developed the F-scale and how did he do it?

Answer 3

Adorno - he interviewed former Nazi soldiers at the end of World War 2

Question 4

What did Adorno find when he used the F-Scale in a study of American participants?

Answer 4

A high F-Scale score was linked with excessive respect and submission to those of higher authority

Question 5

What did Adorno conclude after his F-Scale study?

Answer 5

That an ‘authoritarian personality’ is a factor in obedience

Question 6

What are the 4 features of an authoritarian personality?

Answer 6

• Negative towards those they see as ‘beneath’ them and obedient towards those of higher status
• Rigid in their opinions
• Belief in ‘traditional’ values
• Not willing to accept any new ideas or new situations

Question 7

According to Adorno, what is the cause of an authoritarian personality type?

Answer 7

A strict upbringing

Question 8

Why does Milgram and Elms (1966) support the dispositional explanation of obedience?

Answer 8

They found a link between obedience participants and a high F-Scale score

Question 9

Why is it hard to apply the dispositional explanation of obedience to large groups of people?

Answer 9

Because not everyone will have had an authoritarian personality (i.e. Nazi Germany)