1. SOCIAL INFLUENCE (Dispositional explanations for obedience: The Authoritarian Personality) Flashcards
What is the authoritarian personality?
The authoritarian personality is a dispositional explanation for obedience, characterized by strict adherence to conventional values and a strong belief in submission to authority, often accompanied by contempt for those perceived as lower status.
What type of attitudes do people with an authoritarian personality typically hold?
: People with an authoritarian personality typically have conventional attitudes toward sex, race, and gender, believe in strong, powerful leaders, and view things in black-and-white terms, seeing no grey areas.
How is the authoritarian personality measured?
The authoritarian personality is measured using the F-scale, developed by Theodor Adorno, which assesses various traits like conformity, dogmatism, and hostility towards people of perceived lower status.
How does the authoritarian personality develop?
The authoritarian personality is thought to develop from harsh parenting, including strict discipline, physical punishment, and high standards, which may lead to submissiveness to authority and hostility towards perceived inferiors.
What are the key traits of individuals with an authoritarian personality?
Key traits include a strong tendency to obey authority, respect for hierarchical order, hostility towards those of lower social status, and conventional, inflexible views on social issues.
How does Adorno’s research support the authoritarian personality theory?
Adorno suggested that people with an authoritarian personality are more likely to be obedient because they have a high respect for authority, a rigid worldview, and a tendency to be hostile to those of lower status. He developed the F-scale to measure these traits.
What did Elms & Milgram (1966) find about the authoritarian personality?
Elms & Milgram found that participants who were fully obedient in Milgram’s studies scored significantly higher on the F-scale than those who were disobedient, supporting the idea that the authoritarian personality may be linked to obedience.
What is a limitation of the research supporting the authoritarian personality?
A limitation is that some obedient participants in Milgram’s study did not display traits typically associated with the authoritarian personality, such as hostile attitudes towards their mothers or glorification of their fathers. This suggests the link between authoritarianism and obedience is not straightforward.
What is a criticism of the authoritarian personality theory related to alternative explanations?
A limitation is that the authoritarian personality theory oversimplifies obedience by focusing solely on personality traits, neglecting situational factors (e.g., authority figure’s uniform or proximity), which Milgram’s research suggests have a greater impact on obedience.
How does education level relate to authoritarianism and obedience?
Research by Middendorp et al. (1990) found that less educated individuals tend to have more authoritarian traits. Similarly, Milgram’s study found that less educated participants were more likely to obey, suggesting that education may influence obedience more than personality.
What is a limitation of the F-scale used to measure the authoritarian personality?
A criticism of the F-scale is that it contains methodological flaws. Greenstein (1969) called it a “comedy of methodological errors,” noting that response bias (e.g., agreeing with statements regardless of content) can lead to false high scores, questioning its validity as a measure of authoritarianism.
What are the implications of the authoritarian personality in the context of Nazi Germany?
The authoritarian personality theory was developed to explain the obedience seen in Nazi Germany, suggesting that people with authoritarian personalities may be more susceptible to following destructive orders, as seen in the Holocaust.
What is a potential flaw in applying the authoritarian personality to all obedient behaviour?
A flaw in applying the authoritarian personality theory universally is that it does not account for all forms of obedience. For example, the theory fails to explain why people who do not have authoritarian traits can still be obedient, or why some individuals with authoritarian traits resist authority.
How do situational factors differ from dispositional explanations of obedience?
Situational factors, like the presence of an authority figure or the environment, are external influences on obedience, while dispositional explanations (like the authoritarian personality) focus on internal traits, such as personality characteristics, as the cause of obedience.
