Dispositional explanation for obedience:The authoritarian personality Flashcards
What is an authoritarian personality ?
Adorno et al. (1950)-extreme obedience is a psychological disorder,he tried to find its causes in the individual’s personality.Adorno et al. concluded that people with an Authoritarian Personality are especially obedient to authority.
How do people with an authoritarian personality behave ?
-Have exaggerated respect and submissiveness for authority
-Dislike people of inferior social status.
-view other groups as responsible for society’s ills.
How does an authoritarian personality form?
In childhood through extremely strict parenting(conditional love). This create hostility in the child,they can’t express these feelings directly against their parents because they fear reprisals.Feelings are displaced onto others who are weaker-scapegoating. This is a psychodynamic explanation.
What was the procedure of Adorno et al(1950)?
Investigated unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups of 2000 middle-class white Americans.The for-fascism scale (F-scale)was used.Examples from the F-scale (rated on scale 1 to 6 where 6 = agree strongly):
-‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn.’
-‘There is nobody lower than a person who does not feel great love, gratitude and respect for his parents.’
What were the aims of adorno et Al (1950)
He wanted to prove that some people have an inherit trait to obey authority figures and it’s not just due to environmental factors.
What were the findings of Adorno et al(1950)?
Authoritarians (who scored high on the F-scale and other measures) identified with ‘strong’ people not the ‘weak’.They were conscious of their own and others’ status, showing excessive respect to those of higher status. Authoritarian people also had a cognitive style where they had fixed and distinctive stereotypes (prejudices) about other groups.
What evidence is there that authoritarians are obedient?
Elms and Milgram
(1966) interviewed 20 obedient participants from Milgram’s original obedience studies. They scored significantly higher on the F-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants. This suggests that obedient people may share many characteristics of people with an Authoritarian Personality.
What’s a counterpoint to the evidence that authoritarians are obedient ?
Results of the F-scale showed obedient participants had characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians. E.g. they didn’t experience high levels of punishment in childhood.This suggests that authoritarianism is not a useful predictor of obedience.
Why can’t authoritarianism explain a whole countries behaviour?
Millions of individuals in Germany displayed obedient and antisemitic behaviour - but all couldn’t have had the same personality. It’s unlikely the majority of Germany’s population had an Authoritarian
Personality. A more likely explanation is that Germans identified with the Nazi state. Social identity theory may be a better explanation.
Why could it be argued that the F scale is politically biased ?
Christie and Jahoda
(1954)-the F-scale aims to measure tendency towards extreme right-wing ideology.Right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism both insist on complete obedience to political authority,Adorno’s theory is not an ideal dispositional explanation,it doesn’t explain obedience to left-wing authoritarianism(politically biased).
Why can the F scale be labelled as “flawed”?
F-scale has been used in many research studies that have led to an explanation of obedience based on the Authoritarian personality.The F-scale is flawed, e.g. people tend to agree to the statements (response bias) are scored as “authoritarian”Therefore, explanations of obedience based on research with the F-scale may not be valid.
