Dispositional Explanation

Question 1

What does dispositional explanation mean

Answer 1

It is any behaviour hat highlights the importance of the individuals personality

Question 2

What type of personality is within the dispositional explanations of obedience

Answer 2

Authoritarian personality

Question 3

Who researched the authoritarian personality

Answer 3

Adorno

Question 4

Why is the authoritarian personality a dispositional explanation rather than a situational explanation

Answer 4

Because Adorno believed that the cause of the disorder lied in individual personality rather than the situation

Question 5

What did Adorno claim was a more likely reason to obey an authority

Answer 5

A particular personality type

Question 6

What type of disorder is a high level of obedience?

Answer 6

Psychological disorder (pathological)

Question 7

What are the characteristics that Adorno concluded those with an authoritarian personality to have when being obedient

Answer 7

● Have exaggerated respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
● Express contempt for people of inferior social status.
● Have conventional attitudes towards race and gender.

Question 8

How does Authoritarian personality form in childhood years

Answer 8

● Harsh parenting, extremely strict discipline, expectations of absolute loyalty, high standard (impossible) and severe criticism.
● It is based on conditioned love (love depends on how they behave)

Question 9

Who is hostility usually displaced onto?

Answer 9

Those who are socially inferior

Question 10

Why can’t children who have experiences that create resentment and hostility not express their feelings directed to their parents

Answer 10

Because of fear of reprisals- act of retaliation

Question 11

Since children can’t express their resentment and hostility to their parents, where are there feelings displaced to?

Answer 11

○ To those who are weaker - scapegoating
○ This explains hatred of people who are socially inferior (psychodynamic)

Question 12

What is the F-scale by Adorno

Answer 12

measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism

Question 13

What does the F in F-scale stand for

Answer 13

Fascist

Question 14

What does fascist mean

Answer 14

someone who believes in a totalitarian state rule by a supreme leader (dictator) who controls everything possible and treats people harshly

Question 15

What was the aim of Adornos research

Answer 15

He wanted to investigate the cause of an obedient personality within personalities

Question 16

How many people did Adorno investigate

Answer 16

More than 2000

Question 17

What type of people did Adorno do his study on

Answer 17

Middle aged Americans

Question 18

What did Adorno research about his participants

Answer 18

Their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups

Question 19

What did Adorno research about his participants

Answer 19

Their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups

Question 20

What was the role of the F-scale

Answer 20

measure the relationship between a person’s personality type and prejudiced beliefs

Question 21

What did those who scored highly on the F-scale identify with

Answer 21

they identified with strong people and were generally contemptuous of the ‘weak’

Question 22

what was the cognitive style of the high scorers on the F-scale

Answer 22

.no ‘grey areas’ between categories of people
.fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups
.strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Question 23

what are the 2 main limitations of dispositional explanations

Answer 23

.Explanation is limited
.the research uses correlations

Question 24

why is ‘limited explanations’ a limitation of dispositional explanations

Answer 24

because millions of individuals in Germany displayed obedient and anti-semitic behaviour - but did not have the same personality which shows that it seems unlikely the majority of Germany’s population possessed and authoritarian personality

Question 25

why is ‘using correlation research’ a limitation of dispositional explanations

Answer 25

Adorno measured many variables and found significant correlations between them (authoritarianism correlated with prejudice against minority groups.
No matter how strong a correlation between two variables is, it does not mean one that one causes the other.
Therefore Adorno could not claim that harsh parenting style caused development of an authoritarian personality.

Question 26

What is the strength of dispositional explanations

Answer 26

There is support for the link between authoritarian personality and obedience.
Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed fully obedient participants - all scored highly on the f-scale.

Question 27

what is the counterpoint of the strength of dispositional explanations

Answer 27

However, this link is just a correlation between measured variables. We cannot conclude from this that authoritarian personality causes obedience.
A ‘third factor’ may be involved. Both obedience and authoritarian personality may be caused by a lower level of education