dispositional explanations of obedience

Question 1

adorno et al authoritarian personality study - procedure

Answer 1

Developed the F-scale (fascism scale) to measure authoritarian personality. Tested unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups

Question 2

findings

Answer 2

Those who scored high on the F-scale identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptous of the ‘weak’. Showed excessive respect to those of a higher status. Had distinct stereotypes of other groups and there is a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.

Question 3

authoritarian characteristics

Answer 3

people with an authoritarian personality tend to be especially obedient to authority. extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
Highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
Believe we need strong and powerful leaders in society.

Question 4

Origin of the authoritarian personality type

Answer 4

Adorno thought that the authoritarian personality type is formed in childhood from harsh parenting - strict discipline, impossibly high standards, conditional love.
These create resentment and hostility in the child but they cannot express this.
So the fears are displaced onto others who are perceived to be weaker in a process called scapegoating.
This explains a central trait of obedience to higher authority, which is dislike of those who are socially inferior or belong to other social groups.

Question 5

research support (milgram)

Answer 5

Milgram interviewed a small sample of people who scored highly on the F-scale, believing there may be a link between obedience and authoritarian personality.
However this is merely a correlation and there may be a third factor involved.

Question 6

limitations of authoritarian personality (germany)

Answer 6

In pre-war germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-semitic behaviour. This cannot be explained in terms of indvidual peronality as they all must have differed in their personalities - unlikely they all had authoritairan personalities.

Question 7

limititaion (political bias)

Answer 7

F scale measures the tendency towards right wing ideology however this is a politcally biased interpretation of authoritarian personality. there can also be left -wing authoritarians who show obedience to authority.

Question 8

limitation of F scale (methodological problem)

Answer 8

based on a flawed methodology. it is possible to get an high authoritarian score just by ticking the same line of boxes down one side of the page. Acquiescence bias.