social influence -> obedience: dispositional explanation Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is a dispositional explanation of behaviour?
An explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s own personality
What characteristic has been associated with higher levels of obedience?
The authoritarian personality
What is the authoritarian personality?
A distinct personality pattern characterised by distinct adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority
Who studied the authoritarian personality?
Theodore Adorno (1950)
-> Marxist sociologist
Why did Adorno study obedience?
To understand the anti-semitism of the Holocaust and the reasons why Nazi soldiers were willing to persecute and kill members of minority groups during WWII
Where did Adorno suggest authoritarian personalities originate from?
The foundations of the authoritarian personality were laid in early childhood as a result of harsh and strict parenting
- Linking these ideas to Freud’s work, Adorno suggested that the anger felt towards their parent was displaced onto others, mainly minority groups
- psychodynamic explanation
Why is this anger mainly displaced onto minority groups?
They are seen by the perpetrator as ‘weak’ and ‘inferior’ as a form of scapegoating
What was the aim of Adorno et. al’s (1950) study?
Conducted a study using over 2,000 middle-class, Caucasian Americans to find out their unconscious views towards other racial groups
What method did Adorno et.al’s study use?
- He conducted interviews and questionnaires with more than 2,000 middle-class, white Americans
- Participants were asked their views on law and order, morality, authority figures etc
- Adorno developed the ‘F-scale’ test to identify a particular personality type (disposition)
What is the F-scale?
A test measuring fascist tendencies (extreme right-wing ideology) which is thought to be at the core of the authoritarian personality
What are examples of items from the F-scale?
- ‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn’
- ‘Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be punished’
What are three characteristics of the authoritarian personality?
- Rigid belief in conventional values
- Strong belief in legitimate authority
- Intolerance of ambiguity and ‘black and white’ thinking
What are the three associated behaviours for these characteristics?
- Very traditional ideas - dislike of change and disorder
- Respectful and obedience to authority figures
- Strict adherence to rules - conformists
What did Adorno’s study find?
- Individuals who scored highly on the F-scale and other questionnaires self-reported identifying with ‘strong’ people and showed disrespect towards the ‘weak’
- Very status-conscious regarding themselves and others
- Showed excessive respect to those in higher power -> deference and servility
- Inflexible with ideas of right and wrong
What did Adorno find about the style of authoritarian people?
They had a particular cognitive style, which categorised other people into specific stereotypical categories, leading to a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
What was concluded from Adorno et. al’s study?
- Individuals with an authoritarian personality were more obedient to authority figures and showed an extreme submissiveness and respect
- Uncomfortable with uncertainty
- Believe society requires strong leadership to enforce rigid, traditional values
Evaluation: Research support -> strength
- Milgram and Elms (1966) conducted post-experimental interviews using participants who were fully obedient in Milgram’s original study
- They gave F-scale questionnaires to see if there was a link between high levels of obedience and an authoritarian personality
- Found that the obedient participants who went all the way up to 450V scored higher on the F-scale compared to the disobedient participants
- Obedient participants were less close to their fathers during childhood
- These findings support Adorno’s claims about the role of disposition on obedience by suggesting obedient pps displayed more characteristics of the authoritarian personality
Counterpoint:
- However, when the researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale, they found that the obedient pps had a number of characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians
- e.g. unlike authoritarians, Milgram’s obedient pps generally did not glorify their fathers, did not experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood and did not have particularly hostile attitudes towards their mothers
- Means the link between authoritarianism and obedience is complex
Evaluation: Methodological criticism -> limitation
- Possible that F-scale suffers from response bias/ social desirability bias whereby participants provide answers that are socially acceptable
- e.g. many pps may appear more authoritarian because they believe that their answers are the ‘socially correct’ and consequently, they are incorrectly classified as authoritarian when they are not
- Reduces the internal validity of the questionnaire research method used when determining the degree of authoritarianism
Evaluation: Unrepresentative -> limitation
- Adorno’s sample was all male and the research was done in America so results should be generalised to wider populations with caution
- Limitation because the patriarchal context of 1950s America would mean that men are less likely to be obedient as woman, making results unrepresentative of female population
- Additionally, America’s individualistic culture emphasising the importance of the individual rather than the wider group contrasts collectivist cultures like Japan
