Obedience: Dispositional explanations Flashcards
The authoritarian personality
Dispositional explanation
Adorno et al wanted to understand anti-Semitism of Holocaust
Research led them to draw diff conclusions from Milgram
Believed that high level of obedience was basically psychological disorder
Believed that causes of such disorder lie in personality of individual rather than in situation
Authoritarian personality (AP) & obedience
Dispositional explanation
Adorno et al rgued that people with AP show extreme respect for authority & view society as weaker than it once was
Believe we need strong & powerful leaders to enforce traditional values
Both of these characteristics make people w/ AP more likely to obey orders from source of authority
People w/ AP show contempt for those w/ inferior social status
This is fuelled by their inflexible outlook on world
Everything is either right or wong & they’re uncomfortable w/ uncertainty
Therefore, people who are ‘other’ are responsible for ills of society
‘Other’ people are conveniant target for authoritarians who are likely to obey orders from authority figures even when such orders are destructive
Origins of authoritarian personality
Dispositional explanation
Adorno et al belived the AP type forms in childhood, as result of harsh parenting
This parenting style typically features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty & impossibly high standards
Parents give conditional love
Adorno et al argued these childhood experiences create resentment & hostility in a child
If child cannot express these feelings directly against their parents because they fear punishment
Fears are displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker
This explains hatred towards people considered socially inferior
This is a psychodynamic explanation
Evaluation: Research support
Dispositional explanation
Strength: evidence from Milgram supporting AP
Elms & Milgram interviewed sample of people who participated in OG obedience studies & were fully obedient
All completed F-scale too
These 20 obedient ppts scored sigly higher on F-scale than comparison group of 20 disobedient ppts
The 2 groups were clearly quite diff in terms of authoritarianism
Therefore, findings support Adorno et al’s view that obedient people may show similar characteristica to people who have AP
Evaluation: Research support (Counterpoint)
Dispositional explanation
However, when researchers analysed individual subscales of F-scale, they found obedient ppts had number of characteristics that were unsual for authoritarians
E.g. obedient ppts generally didn’t glorify their fathers & didn’t experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood
Therefore, the link between obedience & authoritarianism is complex
Evaluation: Limited explanation
Dispositional explanation
Limit: cannot explain obedient behaviour in majority of a country’s pop
E.g. pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient & anti-Semitic behaviour
This was despite the fact they must have differed in personalities
It seems unlikely they could all possess AP
Alternative view is that majority of German people indentified w/ anti-Semitic Nazi state & scapegoated the outgroup of Jews, social indentity theory app
Therefore, Adorno’s theory is limited because an alternative explanation is much more realistic
Evaluation: Political bias
Dispositional explanation
Limit: F-scale only measure tendency towards an extreme from of right-wing ideology
Christie & Jahoda argued F-Scale is politically-biased interpretation of AP
They point out reality of left-wing authoritarianism in sape of Russian Bolshevism or Chinese Maoism
In fact, extreme right-wing & left-wing ideologies have a lot in common
E.g. both emphasise importance of complete obedience to political authority
Therefore, Adorno’s thoery is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum
