Dispositional Explanations of Obedience

Question 1

What is the key theory for obedience within dispositional explanations?

Answer 1

The Authoritarian Personality

Question 2

What does the authoritarian personality say about obedience?

Answer 2

It says obedience is a kind of psychological personality disorder

Question 3

What characterises the authoritarian personality?

Answer 3

Extreme respect for authority
Submissiveness
Contempt for inferior social status

Question 4

What is the cause of the authoritarian personality?

Answer 4

Strict and harsh parenting creating the impression of conditional love - fear of parents is displaced onto those that are socially inferior

Question 5

Who proposed the idea of an authoritarian personality?

Answer 5

Adorno et al in 1950

Question 6

What measuring scale did Adorno use to measure the authoritarian personality?

Answer 6

The F-scale
Those who scored highly on the F-scale identified with strong people and showed disrespect to the ‘weak’, they were very status conscious, they tended to have more stereotypical views so were more prejudiced also.

Question 7

What are the evaluation points for the dispositional explanations of obedience?

Answer 7

+ Research support for AP - obedience link - Milgram did study again this time measuring ppls APs - AP = more obedient

• Limited explanation - Nazi Germany, can’t all have had APs
• F-scale is politically biased - measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology - politically biased
• Correlation doesn’t mean causation