Authoritarian Personality Evaluation Flashcards
1
Q
How does the authoritarian personality have good research support?
A
Milgram and Elms study
2
Q
What is the main problems with the research into authoritarian personality?
A
Correlation, not causation:
. Merely a correlation between obedience and authoritarian personality, could have a third factor involved
. Can’t claim harsh parenting styles CAUSED an authoritarian personality
3
Q
How is this Dispositional explanation of obedience limited?
A
. Can’t use personality to explain obedience across a whole country e.g in Nazi germany as there is no way all the Nazis had this authoritarian personality
. There is a much more realistic alternative explanation - social identity. The majority of Germans identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state
