Dispositional Explanations to obedience

Question 1

What is a dispostional explanation

Answer 1

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance Of the individuals personality

Question 2

Who study the authoritarian personality

Answer 2

Adorno et al

Question 3

What was the procedure of adorno st al study

Answer 3

Investigated the causes of obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconcious attitudes towards other racial groups 
Made the f scale which measures authoritarian personality

Question 4

What are the findings for adornos study and the authoritarian personality characteristics

Answer 4

Those who scored high on the f scale idenitfied with string people and were contemptuous of the weak
The were very conscious of their own and others status and showed excessive respect to those of higher status
He found authoritarian people has a cognitive style with fixed and distinctive stereotypes

Question 5

What are more authoritarian characteristics

Answer 5

Especially obedient to authority
Extreme respect to authority
Show contempt to people with inferior social statu s
Highly controversial attitudes to sex and race
Believe we need strong leaders to enforce traditional values
Inflexible in their outlook

Question 6

What was the origin of authoritartian personality

Answer 6

Formed in childhood from harsh parenting
Parenting style is exteremely strict discipline with impossibly high standards and has conditional love
These experiences create resetment and hostility in the child but they can’t express this because they fear their parents so the fears are displaced onto others who are Percived to be weaker

Question 7

What type of explanation is explaining the origin of the authoritarian personality

Answer 7

Psychodynamic explanation

Question 8

Why can’t you draw conclusions that authoritarian personality causes obedience

Answer 8

It is only a correlation that links obedience and authoritarian personality
There may be a third factor eg both are associated with low levels of education

Question 9

Why is authoratiarian personality a limited explanation

Answer 9

Due to it being in terms of individual personality it’s hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of the country’s population
So an alternative explanation may be better

Question 10

What is a political problem with the authoritarian personality

Answer 10

It’s not a comprehensive disposition all explanation that can account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum as the f scale only measures the tendnact towards an extreme form of right wing ideology