Dispositional Explanation for Obedience (Authoritarian Personality)

Question 1

What type of obedience is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 1

It is a Dispositional explanation for obedience

Question 2

What did Adorno propose in 1950?

Answer 2

A Dispositional explanation for obedience - people’s personalities determine their behaviour

Question 3

What is obedience?

Answer 3

A type of social influence which causes a person to act in response to an order from a figure with perceived authority

Question 4

What collection of traits did Adorno say that people with an Authoritarian Personality have?

Answer 4

Service towards people of higher status
Hostile to people of lower status
Preoccupied with power
Inflexible with beleifs and values
Conformist and Conventional (rule following)
Categorise people as “us” or “them”
Dogmatic (don’t like to be confused)

Question 5

What did how did Adorno suggest people developed the authoritarian personality?

Answer 5

Harsh disciple from parents - physical punishment
Can’t take anger out on parents due to fear so act submissive towards them which extends to all authority figures

Creates feelings of hostility directed to weaker others that can’t fight back

Question 6

What did Adorno develop?

Answer 6

A questionnaire called the F Scale

Question 7

What is the F scale?

Answer 7

A questionnaire which measures if you have an authoritarian personality

Question 8

How did Adorno test his F scale?

Answer 8

Tested 2000+ middle-class white Americans and their attitudes towards other racial groups

Found correlation between high score on F Scale and having an Authoritarian Personality

Question 9

What were the general questions in the F Scale?

Answer 9

How much they agree with statements

Question 10

What are the Strengths of the Authoritarian Personality?

Answer 10

RS1 - Elms & Milgram (1966) - pps from Milgram’s experiment

RS2 - Millger (1975) - holding a wire

RS3 - Altemeyer (1981) - shock themselves

Question 11

What did Elms & Milgram’s study involve?

Answer 11

Chose 20 obedient and disobedient participants from Milgram’s earlier experiment

Found that obedient participants scored higher on F Scale - suggesting authoritarian personality

NOT MUCH DIFFERENCE IN MMPI SCALE (general personality quiz)

Question 12

What did Miller’s Study (1975) involve?

Answer 12

Asking participants to hold electric wiring while completing a test

More obedient participants had higher score on F Scale = authoritarian personality

Question 13

What did Altemeyer’s study (1981) involve?

Answer 13

Asked participants to shock themselves whenever they made a mistake on a learning task

Those who were obedient score higher on F Scale = authoritarian personality

Question 14

What are the weaknesses of the Authoritarian Personality?

Answer 14

Reductionist

Methodological problems

Based on correlational data

Question 15

How is the Authoritarian Personality reductionist?

Answer 15

Doesn’t account for situational factors

Milgram showed obedience levels changed based on 3 situational variables - suggests obedience not only affected by dispositional factors

Reduces explanatory power as it fails to account for these variables

Question 16

How is the authoritarian personality based in correlational data?

Answer 16

• Adorno & Elms & Milgram only showed a relationship between authoritarian traits & obedience - No proof of cause & effect

Cannot be certain that an authoritarian personality causes obedience - research has found it may in fact be low education causing higher F-scale scores

May not be complete explanation - reduces explanatory validity

Question 17

How were there methodological problems with the authoritarian personality?

Answer 17

Questions on F Scale are worded in same direction - LEADING QUESTIONNAIRE - easy to get a higher score

People who tend to agree with statements in general are more likely to scorer an authoritarian personality regardless of beliefs - May not measure personality but tendency to agree

Means suporting studies may not have been valid, reducing overall validity of the theory