Dispositional Explanation For Obedience

Question 1

Define authoritarian personality

Answer 1

-internal explanation (obedience is due to a person’s personality type)
- They have extreme respect for authority and
black and white thinking. They obey people ‘higher’ than them and direct anger at those ‘lower’ than them
- This personality type is developed in childhood due to strict parenting and being shown little love
- Adorno measured this personality type using the F Scale questionnaire

Question 2

R2S - Authoritarian personality

Answer 2

P- conducted by milgram et elms
E- interviewed ppts from milgram’s experiment and asked them to complete the f scale questionnaire to measure their levels of authoritarianism
E- they found higher levels of authoritarianism among those ppts classified as obedient (who gave electric shocks up to 450V) compared to those classified as defiant.
L- therefore suggesting that authoritarianism is associated with obedience, supporting the dispositional explanation of ap as an eoo

Question 3

Weakness 1 - authoritarian personality

Answer 3

P- research conducted by adorno et al
E-can be critiscised for social desirability as ppts may have exaggerated their fascist views on the f scale questionnaire to present themselves in the best possible light. As when they completed the questionnaire just after the second world war they may have wanted to maximise any fascist views to look more obedient.
L- reduces internal Validity

Question 4

Weakness 2 - authoritarian personality

Answer 4

P- critiscised for being a limited explanation
E- difficult to use personality as an explanation for obedience in most of a country’s population.
E- for example, in pre-war germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-semitic behaviour. It is likely that all these individuals would have differed somewhat in their personalities and very unlikely that they all possessed an authoritarian personality
L- thus, casting doubt on the ap eoo