dispositional explanation for obedience

Question 1

authoritarian personality

Answer 1

• a personality type which Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people of authority
• such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status & dismissive of inferiors
• they view society as ‘weaker’ than it once was & so believe we need strong/powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of country and family
• ‘other’ personality types are seen as responsible for the ills of society

Question 2

origin of the AP

Answer 2

• Adorno concluded that this personality type was formed in childhood, due to harsh parenting, especially in those who experiences extremely struct discipline
• he argued that this parenting style creates resentment & hostility in a child which is displaced onto others who are perceived as weaker > a process called ‘scapegoating’

Question 3

procedure

Answer 3

• Adorno et al. investigated the causes of the obedient personality and the unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups in a study of over 2000 middle class, white Americans
• they used the potential for fascism scale (F-scale) which is still used to measure AP
• e.g. to what extent do you agree that ‘nobody ever learned anything really important except through suffering’?

Question 4

findings

Answer 4

• those who scored high on the F scale identified w/ strong people & were generally disdainful of the ‘weak’
• they were very conscious of their own & others’ status, showing excessive respect to those of higher status (both important in the formation of obedience)
• no ‘fuzziness’ between categories of people, w/ fixed & distinctive stereotypes about others
• strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice