(7) 🧑🧑🧒🧒 dispositional explanation for obedience Flashcards
who’s name is associated with this topic
Adorno
what was Adorno’s motivation for researching the dispositional explanation and what was proposed?
Adorno sought to understand the anti-Semitism of WW2 and proposed high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder linked to personality.
outline Adorno et al.’s (1950) procedure into the authoritarian personality
• over 2000 white, MC Americans used the F-scale questionnaire to measure AP traits
• Ps rated their level of agreement to various Qs on a likert scale.
those who scored high on the F-scale showed more AP characteristics, name three of these characteristics.
• show extreme respect for those in authority so susceptible to obeying them
• crave strong leaders who enforce traditional values (e.g. love for family, country and religion)
• conscious of social status so submit to those in higher status; dismiss and blame perceived inferiors for societal ills
what are the two distinct cognitive styles of the authoritarian personality?
• absolutist thinking
• stereotypes about other groups
where did Adorno et al. predict the origin of the authoritarian personality to stem from?
harsh parenting
name 4 parenting styles that can cause this personality.
• strict discipline
• severe criticism of perceived failures
• high standards
• conditional love
what approach did Adorno et al. use to explain the AP? explain how.
psychodynamic approach
this upbringing creates hostility in child; they cannot directly express their feelings against their parents (fear of punishment), so fears are displaced onto individuals they perceive as weak, known as scapegoating.
✅ research support - Milgram and Elms (1967)
evidence:
• investigated whether obedient Ps in Milgram’s study displayed more authoritarian traits than disobedient ones.
• compared 20 obedient Ps (administered 450 volts) to 20 disobedient Ps (refused to continue). Ps completed Adorno’s F scale; were interviewed about thoughts on confederates in OG experiment, and their parent relationships
• found obedient Ps scored higher on F scale; admired the experimenter, and had distant relationships with fathers, contrasting with disobedient Ps.
explain: in line with Adorno’s predictions
❌ - limited explanation for the majority of a country’s population
evidence: millions displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour in pre-war Germany. extremely unlikely they all had an AP.
explain: more realistic explanations of real-life events (social identity theory) than arguing they all shared same personality.
• instead, likely the majority of the Germans identified with the Nazi party as their ingroup, and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
❌ - Christie and Jahoda (1954) proposed the F-scale is politically bias
**evidence: argued the Qs are biassed towards extreme right-wing ideologies when in reality, extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have much in common - eg: obedience to political authority
evidence: Adorno’s explanation doesn’t fully explain why people obey authority across political spectrum.
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for a03, there are 2 studies mentioned. after naming the researcher, summarise their study.
• strength - Milgram and Elms (1967)
> comparison of obedient and disobedient Ps and correlation to AP (+ interviews to emphasise status and parental relationship)
• limitation - Christie and Jahoda
> politically bias towards towards extreme right wing ideologies
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what was the last a03 point that didn’t include a study?
• limitation - limited explanation for majority of a country’s population
> eg of millions who displayed obedient & anti-Semantic behaviour. better explanation like social identity theory: ingroup and outgroup (scapegoated)
