Dispositional Explanation For Obedience 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
state four likely traits of somebody with an authoritarian personality
- Respect and obedience to authority
- Dismissive to those they deem inferior
- ‘Black and white’ thinking
- Need strong leaders to promote traditional values
Describe the origins of the authoritarian personality
- forms during childhood and stems from strict disciplinarian parenting, experienced conditional love, had impossible 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 scapegoats)
What is the F-scale
Questionnaire assessing nine personality dimensions linked to an authoritarian personality
State who developed the F-scale
Adorno et al. (1950)
Name and describe a study which shows support for the authoritarian personality leading to 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
Describe an issue with the study with Elms and Milgram’s study
It is correlational- does not show a causal link between obedience and authoritarian personality
Outline why the authoritarian personality known as a dispositional explanation for obedience
It focuses on an individual’s personality traits (disposition) which could lead to obedience
Outline one methodological issue with the F-scale
It is a questionnaire based on level of agreement or disagreement which can lead to acquiescence bias
