Dispositional explanations of obedience

Question 1

authoritarian personality

Answer 1

• more likely to obey authority figures
• developed due to extremely strict/ rigid parenting, usually involving physical punishment
  = creates feelings of hostility –> displaced onto weaker others who cannot fight back
• repress anger for parents + submissive towards them
  = extend this to all authority figures

traits:
- servile towards people of perceived higher status
- hostile towards people of lower status
- dogmatic
- inflexible in their beliefs + values

Question 2

F scale

Answer 2

• a questionnaire to measure authoritarian personalities = F (Fascism scale)
• parts are asked to rate how much they agree with statements e.g. rules are there to follow, not to be changed

Question 3

ads of authoritarian personality

Answer 3

• arithmetic problem + F scale
• learning task + F scale

Question 4

disads of authoritarian personality

Answer 4

• situational variables
• not applicable in entire societies
• lack of education

Question 5

arithmetic problem + F scale - ads of authoritarian personality

Answer 5

• Miller found that people who scored high on the F scale were more likely to obey an order to hold onto some electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem, than those who scored low on the F scale

Question 6

learning task + F scale - ads of authoritarian personality

Answer 6

a psych ordered parts to give themselves increasing levels of electric shocks when they made a mistake on a learning task
= there was a high significant correlation between those willing to shock themselves + high scores on the F scale

Question 7

situation variables - disads of authoritarian personality

Answer 7

• situational variables may be more important than dispositional ones
• Milgram conducted several variations of his original experiments w/ vastly different results
• obedience was 100% when Mr Wallace made no noise
• HOWEVER obedience rate was 0% when there were two authority figures who disagreed w/ each other (one wanted to stop, other wanted to continue)

Question 8

not applicable in entire societies - disads of authoritarian personality

Answer 8

• dispositional explanations cannot explain obedience in entire societies
  = authoritarian personalities are not common
  = cannot be the only explanation for the level of obedience found in the original Milgram study

Question 9

lack of education - disads of authoritarian personality

Answer 9

• a lack of education could cause authoritarian personality, therefore AND obedience
• psychs found that less educated people are more likely to have authoritarian personality
• Milgram found that parts w/ lower levels of education were obedient