Dispositional explanations

Question 1

Authoritarian personality

Answer 1

• high obedience = pathological, Adorno, investigate antisemitism, find the cause of obedience
• extreme respect for authority, contempt of inferior, conventional views of race + gender
• harsh parenting, loyalty, discipline, high standards, criticism, conditional love
• hostility to parents, fear reprisal, displaced to weaker, explain the hatred of inferior (psychodynamic explain)

Question 2

Adorno’s Study

Answer 2

• unconscious attitudes to race, 2000 US men, middle class
• f scale (fascism), obedience +respect authority, lack love/gratitude to parents
  authoritarians identify strong people, contempt weak, conscious of status, excessive respect,
• ha cognitive style, no fuzziness between categories, fixed/distinct stereotypes

Question 3

positive and negative evaluation:

support for the link with obedience - correlation not link

Answer 3

• elms + Milgram, interview high f-scale people
• however link just correlation of variables, cant conclude authoritarian cause obedience
• a 3rd factor may be involved, could be because low education

Question 4

negative evaluation:

the explanation is limited (SIT better) - most Germans

Answer 4

• most Germans, show anti-semitic, different personalities

- unlikely all germans authoritarian, SIT better as most just identified

Question 5

negative evaluation:

based on a flawed method - questions worded

Answer 5

• Greenstein, F-scale, methodical errors, questions worded the same, instead measures agreement
• knew test scores + hypothesis before the interview,
• suggests data collect meaningless, authoritarian concept lacks validity

Question 6

negative evaluation:

much research was correlations - Adorno measure variables

Answer 6

• Adorno, measure variables, correlations, (authoritarian links to prejudice with minorities)
• cant guarantee correlation between variables/ cant claim harsh parenting causes authoritarianism