dispositional explanation

Question 1

authoritarian personality and obedience

Answer 1

Adorno et al - extreme respect for authority and obedience to it

• inflexible outlook, contempt for inferiors

Question 2

origins of AP

Answer 2

harsh parenting - conditional love - results in hostility but cannot be expressed so displaced onto weaker others (scapegoating)

Question 3

adorno et al’s research

Answer 3

adorno et al studied over 2000 middle-class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes to ethnic groups - developed several measuring scales eg F-scale

Question 4

the f-scale

Answer 4

agree / disagree with items

eg obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn

High f-scale linked with identification with the strong, contempt for the weak, deference to higher status

Question 5

authoritarian personality

Answer 5

A type of personality that adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority

such people are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors

Question 6

dispositional explanation

Answer 6

any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality

such as explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations

Question 7

research support

Answer 7

P - strength is from Milgram and Elms
E - interviewed small sample of people who participated in original obedience studies and had been fully obedience
E - 20 obedient participants scored significantly higher on f-scale than comparison group of disobedient participants - two groups clearly quite different in authoritarianism
L - findings support adorno et al’s view that obedient people may well show similar characteristics to those who have ap

P - researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale
E - found obedient participants had a number of characteristics unusual for authoritarians
E - eg did not glorify fathers or hostile towards mother
L - link is complex - obedient participants unlike authoritarianism in many ways to unlikely to be useful predictor

Question 8

limited explanation

Answer 8

P - limitation as cannot explain obedient behaviour in majority of a country’s population
E - eg pre war germany - millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-semitic behaviour
E - all different in personality and upbringing so unlikely all had authoritarian personality - instead identified and scapegoated -social identity theory
L - adorno’s theory is limited because alternative explanations are more realistic

Question 9

political bias

Answer 9

P - limitation is F-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology
E - Christie and Jadoha - F-scale is politically-biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
E - reality of left-wing authoritarianism eg chinese maoism - both extreme right and left wing have a lot in common as emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority
L - adorno’s theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum