1.7: The internal explanation

Question 1

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks)

Answer 1

The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors

Question 2

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
What did Adorno conclude?

Answer 2

Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority

Question 3

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.

Answer 3

They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it

Question 4

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also

Answer 4

They also:

1. Show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status
2. Have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender

Question 5

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
How do they view society?

Answer 5

They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family

Question 6

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are what in their outlook, meaning that for them what?

Answer 6

People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong

Question 7

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
What are they very uncomfortable with?

Answer 7

They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty

Question 8

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
How can the degree of authoritarian personality be assessed?

Answer 8

The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale

Question 9

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
How did Adorno et al. argue the authoritarian personality formed?

Answer 9

Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting

Question 10

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.

Answer 10

Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings

Question 11

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
What is it also characterised by?

Answer 11

It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves

Question 12

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

First AO3 PEEL paragraph

Answer 12

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality

Question 13

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
Example

Answer 13

For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants

Question 14

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
What does this do?

Answer 14

This:

1. Supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience
2. Suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience

Question 15

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However,

Answer 15

However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables

Question 16

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
What does this do?

Answer 16

This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result

Question 17

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
What may be?

Answer 17

It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954)

Question 18

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition,

Answer 18

In addition, there is also contradictory research

Question 19

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although

Answer 19

Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict

Question 20

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
Example

Answer 20

For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected)

Question 21

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
What does this do?

Answer 21

This:

1. Gives only limited support for the concept
2. Suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience

Question 22

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

Second AO3 PEEL paragraph

Answer 22

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them

Question 23

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
Example

Answer 23

For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups

Question 24

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However,

Answer 24

However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other

Question 25

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore,

Answer 25

Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality

Question 26

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
Why is this a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation?

Answer 26

This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people

Question 27

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

Third AO3 PEEL paragraph

Answer 27

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience

Question 28

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
Why is this?

Answer 28

This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population

Question 29

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
Example

Answer 29

For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities

Question 30

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.

Answer 30

It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality

Question 31

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
Why is this a limitation of Adorno’s explanation?

Answer 31

This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory

Question 32

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.

Answer 32

As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews

Question 33

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
What does this illustrate?

Answer 33

This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application

Question 34

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application.

Fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph

Answer 34

The fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph is that another limitation of the authoritarian personality is that is it based on a flawed methodology, as the F-scale is an inaccurate measure of the degree of authoritarian personality

Question 35

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application.

The fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph is that another limitation of the authoritarian personality is that is it based on a flawed methodology, as the F-scale is an inaccurate measure of the degree of authoritarian personality.
Who is this supported by?

Answer 35

This is supported by Greenstein (1969), who argues that the F-scale is ‘a comedy of methodological errors’

Question 36

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application.

The fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph is that another limitation of the authoritarian personality is that is it based on a flawed methodology, as the F-scale is an inaccurate measure of the degree of authoritarian personality.
This is supported by Greenstein (1969), who argues that the F-scale is ‘a comedy of methodological errors’.
Example

Answer 36

For example, every one of the scale’s items is worded in a confirming or the same direction, meaning that the F-scale also suffers from response bias, because it is possible to get a high score for authoritarianism just by ticking the same line of boxes on one side

Question 37

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application.

The fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph is that another limitation of the authoritarian personality is that is it based on a flawed methodology, as the F-scale is an inaccurate measure of the degree of authoritarian personality.
This is supported by Greenstein (1969), who argues that the F-scale is ‘a comedy of methodological errors’.
For example, every one of the scale’s items is worded in a confirming or the same direction, meaning that the F-scale also suffers from response bias, because it is possible to get a high score for authoritarianism just by ticking the same line of boxes on one side.
People who agree with the items on the F-scale are therefore

Answer 37

People who agree with the items on the F-scale are therefore not necessarily authoritarian, but merely ‘acquiescers’ and the F-scale is just measuring the tendency to agree to everything, as it is subject to acquiescence bias

Question 38

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application.

The fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph is that another limitation of the authoritarian personality is that is it based on a flawed methodology, as the F-scale is an inaccurate measure of the degree of authoritarian personality.
This is supported by Greenstein (1969), who argues that the F-scale is ‘a comedy of methodological errors’.
For example, every one of the scale’s items is worded in a confirming or the same direction, meaning that the F-scale also suffers from response bias, because it is possible to get a high score for authoritarianism just by ticking the same line of boxes on one side.
People who agree with the items on the F-scale are therefore not necessarily authoritarian, but merely ‘acquiescers’ and the F-scale is just measuring the tendency to agree to everything, as it is subject to acquiescence bias.

Answer 38

The measurement of authoritarian also relies on self-report (F-scale) data in itself, which may be invalid, due to social desirability bias

Question 39

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (16 marks).
The authoritarian personality is a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority.
Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as the love of country, religion and family.
People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook, meaning that for them there are no ‘grey areas’ and everything is either right or wrong.
They are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
The degree of authoritarian personality can be assessed using the F-scale.
Adorno et al. argued that the authoritarian personality formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
It is also characterised by conditional love, which is when the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves.

The first AO3 PEEL paragraph is that there is research support for the authoritarian personality.
For example, Elms and Milgram (1966) found that participants in Milgram’s study, who were highly obedient, were significantly more authoritarian on the F-scale than disobedient participants.
This supports the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience and suggests that the authoritarian personality is therefore a valid explanation for obedience.
However, the link is merely a correlation between the two measured variables.
This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result.
It may be that a third factor is involved, as both authoritarian personality and obedience may be associated with a lower level of education, for example, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley, 1954).
In addition, there is also contradictory research.
Although the F-scale has some research support, supposedly authoritarian individuals do not always score highly on all the dimensions, as the theory would predict.
For example, Zillmer et al. (1995) reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the F-scale dimensions, but not all 9 (as was expected).
This gives only limited support for the concept and suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience.

The second AO3 PEEL paragraph is that As well as this, Adorno et al. measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them.
For example, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups.
However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other.
Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
This is a serious limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation, because causality cannot be established, so the explanation itself is not valid and it cannot explain obedience, on an individual level or with masses of people.

The third AO3 PEEL paragraph is that the authoritarian personality is a limited explanation of obedience.
This is because any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour and this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities.
It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
This is a limitation of Adorno’s explanation, because it is clear that alternative explanations are much more realistic, for example social identity theory.
As Goldhagen (1996) argued in ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’, the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
This illustrates that the authoritarian personality cannot explain events in history and therefore does not have real world application, whereas other explanations such as social identity theory can and thus do have real world application.

The fourth AO3 PEEL paragraph is that another limitation of the authoritarian personality is that is it based on a flawed methodology, as the F-scale is an inaccurate measure of the degree of authoritarian personality.
This is supported by Greenstein (1969), who argues that the F-scale is ‘a comedy of methodological errors’.
For example, every one of the scale’s items is worded in a confirming or the same direction, meaning that the F-scale also suffers from response bias, because it is possible to get a high score for authoritarianism just by ticking the same line of boxes on one side.
People who agree with the items on the F-scale are therefore not necessarily authoritarian, but merely ‘acquiescers’ and the F-scale is just measuring the tendency to agree to everything, as it is subject to acquiescence bias.
The measurement of authoritarian also relies on self-report (F-scale) data in itself, which may be invalid, due to social desirability bias.
What does this suggest?

Answer 39

This suggests that the authoritarian personality is not a well-founded explanation for obedience