Dispositional explanation for obedience

Question 1

What do dispositional explanations propose?

Answer 1

Obedience is caused by personality characteristics.

Question 2

What is the name of the personality type that explains obedience to authority?

Answer 2

Authoritarian Personality

Question 3

What is the authoritarian personality characterised by?

Answer 3

• The belief in submission to authority
• The belief that all rules should be obeyed
• ‘Black and white’ thinking
• A dismissive attitude towards those below them in the social hierarchy.

Question 4

What does the f-scale measure and who constructed it?

Answer 4

• measures an individual’s degree of authoritarian personality.
• Adorno 1950

Question 5

what did Adorno suggest about the authoritarian personality?

Answer 5

• was shaped in early childhood by strict parenting.

Question 6

support for the authoritarian personality -

Answer 6

• It was found that participants in Milligram’s study who were highly obedient scored significantly higher on the F -scale than disobedient ppts.

Question 7

limitations of the authoritarian personality -

Answer 7

Zimmer et al 1995 reported that nazi war criminals scored highly on 3 of the 9 F-scale dimensions, therefore this research only offers limited support for the concept of AP influencing obedience.

The link between AP and obedience is correlational. There may be a third intervening factor which mediates the relationship.