3 Factors Affecting Obedience : Individual Differences

Question 1

What factors affect obedience ID? FAO : ID

Answer 1

• Authoritarian Personality (Adorno et al, 1950)
• Internal and External Locus of Control (Rotter 1966)

Question 2

What is the Authoritarian Personality? FAO : ID

Answer 2

AP is the idea that harsh parenting causes children to develop AP traits (toughness, destructiveness, cynicism). It is measured using the F-scale test (fascism).
This parenting style was common in early 20th century Germany, which could help explain nazism (Hitler’s dad was strict and abusive).

• Conditional love (strict parents) lead to high F-scale scores OBEDIENT
• Unconditional love (not strict) leads to low F-scale scores DISOBEDIENT

Question 3

What is the Internal and External Locus of Control? FAO : ID

Answer 3

Internal :
- People who take greater responsibility for their actions, and believe they are in control.
- More likely to be disobedient.

External :
- People who take less responsibility for their actions, and believe others are in control.
- More likely to be obedient

Question 4

What is a strength of FAO : ID? (hint - (hint - milgram & F-scale!) FAO : ID

Answer 4

The authoritarian personality (Adorno) has research support from Elms and Milgram (1966).
They used the F-scale to test 20 fully obedient and 20 disobedient participants, and obedient participants scored higher (which backs up Adorno’s AP).

• This research evidence suggests that obedience is related to authoritarianism.

Question 5

What is a weakness of FAO : ID? (hint - LOC sucks) FAO : ID

Answer 5

The LOC does not predict defiance. In a Milgram-esque task, participants were asked to blast students with harmful ultrasound (Schurz 1985).
Both fully obedient and disobedient participants had similar LOC scores.

• This means that either LOC does not predict obedience, or that it has no effect on it.

Question 6

What is an application of FAO : ID? (hint - human resources HR) FAO : ID

Answer 6

FAO can be used in the field of Human Resources. Companies often want obedient workers to follow their orders. They could use an F-scale test to assess applicants suitability.

• This means that FAO can help companies assess for better workers.