obedience - dispositional explanation Flashcards
authoritarian personality
dispositional
explanation of behaviour which highlights the importance of an individual’s personality
what is the dispositional explanation for obedience
authoritarian personality
who proposed this explanation
adorno et. al (1950)
traits of someone who obtains an authoritarian personality
- highly obedient
- dismissive of anyone inferior
- conservative views eg. sex, race
- distinct cognitive style (right/wrong)
- think societies ‘going to the dogs’
- believe we need strong, powerful leaders to promote traditional values
when does this personality form & as a result of
childhood
–> result of strict disciplinarian parenting
parenting style features
- expectation for full loyalty
- impossible high standards
- conditional love
what does the parenting style cause the child act like
- hostility & despair
- cannot express feelings due to fear eg. punishment
- displace emotions onto weak
what’s the term for displacing emotions onto the weak
‘scapegoating’
what did adorno base his theory on & explain
research data
- studied unconscious attitude towards other racial groups of 2000 middle-class white americans
- developed several measurement scales eg. fascism scale (f-scale)
what does the fascism scale investigate (f-scale)
the authoritarian personality
findings of adorno’s research of those who scored high on the f-scale
- identified with strong & pitied the weak
- aware of own social status (& those around them)
- extreme respect & flattery to those who were superior/higher status
- patronised lower status
- positive correlation between authoritarianism & stereotypes/
prejudice
evaluation of dispositional explanation of obedience - AO3
+)
P: supporting research
E: eg. elms & milgram (1966) interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies & who had been fully obedient. they all completed the f-scale as part of the interview & these 20 obedient participants scored significantly higher than a comparison of 20 disobedient participants. the 2 groups were clearly different in terms of authoritarianism
T: findings support adorno et. al’s view that obedient people may show similar characteristics to people with an authoritarian personality
COUNTERPOINT^
-)
P: opposing research
E: the scale used to detect the authoritarian personality is made of items. greenstein (1969) analysed the items & described them as being worded in a particular direction. this means it is possible to score high for authoritarianism just by clicking the same line of boxes down 1 side of the page. this means people could be marking them deliberately, causing acquiescence bias.
T: this weakens the validity of adorn et. al’s research & reduces the credibility of the theory of dispositional factors & the authoritarian personality of obedience
-)
P: different theory
E: in pre-war germany, mllions displayed obedient, racist & antisemitic behaviour. this was despite the fact they must have difference in their personalities in all sorts of way. it seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality. an alternative view is the majority of german people identified with the antisemitic nazi state & ‘scapegoated’ the outgroup of jewish people known as a social identity theory approach
T: adorno et. al’s theory is limited as an alternative explanation is much more realistic
-)
P: political bias
E: adorno et. al’s explanation doesn’t easily account for obedience of entire social groups/societies. middendorp & meleon (1990) found less educated people are more likely to display authoritarian personality characteristics than well-educated people which may be the 3rd variable. these results are inconsistent with the explanation & these people should surely be considered the subordinates & not the oppressive
T: adorno et. al’s theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum
