Dispositional Explanation Flashcards
Outline the dispositional explanation for obedience
The perception of obedience as caused by internal characteristics of individuals
Define authoritarian personality
A type of personality which predisposes an individual to obedience. It refers to a person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them.
Describe the origins of the authoritarian personality.
Forms during childhood and stems from strict disciplinarian parenting – experienced conditional love, had impossibly high standards placed upon them, expectation to be completely loyal · These experiences create hostility and despair in the child, who cannot express these feelings to their parents (through fear of punishment) – instead, these emotions are displaced onto the ‘weak’ (known as ‘scapegoating’)
State 4 likely traits of someone with an authoritarian personality
Respect and obedience to authority
Dismissive to those they deem inferior
Distinct cognitive style (‘Black and white’ thinking)
Need strong leaders to promote traditional values (love of family, religion and country)
Who developed the F-scale and what is it?
Adorno et al (1950)
Questionnaire assessing 9 personality dimensions linked to the authoritarian personality.
1 Strength and counter of dispositional explanations of obedience
Elms and Milgram (1966)
‘Obedient’ and ‘ disobedient’ participants from Milgram’s original shock experiment were issued with F-scale · Higher levels of authoritarianism were found amongst ‘obedient’ participants. They were also more likely to describe the experimenter with more positive characteristics. COUNTER - Correlational finding. Impossible to draw the conclusion that it was their authoritarian personality that causes obedience as could be other factors involved.
3 limitations of dispositional explanations and a counter
Political bias:
Measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology. Doesn’t take into account possible left-wing authoritarian when both left and right wing ideologies emphasise the importance of complete obedience to legitimate authority. COUNTER - Perhaps they are correct to link right-wing ideology with authoritarian personality. Begue (2014) replicated Milgram’s study and found those who defined themselves as left-wing less likely to obey
Flawed methodology:
Questionnaire. Every item worded in the same direction so is possible to get a high score by ticking the same line of boxes. This can lead to acquiesce bias. Therefore, those who agree with items on the F-scale are not necessarily authoritarian but “acquiescers”.
Contradictory evidence:
Elms and Milgram asked their participants about their upbringing. Many of the fully obedient participants reported having a good relationship with their parents, rather than having grown up in the overly strict environment associated with the authoritarian personality.
