APD Flashcards
Research support-
Research to support the dispositional explanation of obedience comes from Adorno et al (1950) who developed 9 dimensions (scales), including the “ F-scale”
(potential for fascism)- which had items such as “obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn”. The F-scale involved the participants rating their agreement with each item on a 6-point scale from “disagree strongly” to “agree strongly”. Adorno found that people who scored highly on the F-scale (strong authoritarian traits) identified with “strong” people and were hostile to the “weak”. There was also a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice. He also found that those with authoritarian personality types had a cognitive style where there was no fuzziness between categories of people, with fixed stereotypes about other groups. This provides support to the theory that those with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be highly obedient to authority.
methodological criticisms
A limitation of research support for authoritarian personality is the methodology used. Adorno and his colleagues measured a range of variables and found many significant correlations between them. However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, this does not mean that one causes the other. Therefore, although authoritarianism and obedience may be linked, the link is limited and we cannot conclude that an authoritarian personality causes high level of obedience. This means that this link is only correlational so this makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that an authoritarian personality causes obedience, just that there is a relationship.
