Dispositional Factors Flashcards
Dispositional
An explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of an individuals personality
Authoritarian personality definition
Type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Individuals are said to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of those deemed inferior to them.
Authoritarian personality
- proposed by Fromm (1941) as an attempt to explain those holding right-wing conservative views
- Adorno (1950) saw people of this type as having insecurities which led them to be hostile and believe in power/toughness
Adorno (1950)
- created f-scale to create a standardised way to quantify a persons authoritarian tendencies and gain an idea of how this personality type forms and how its linked to prejudice
Aim
Conducted a study of 2,000 middle class Caucasian Americans to find out their unconscious views towards other racial groups
Type of investigation
Correlational study with co variables= authoritarianism and prejudice
Method
Adorno and colleagues developed a number of questionnaires including the f scale (measures fascist tendencies)
Findings
- people who scored high identifies with strong people and disapproving of the weak
- score above 80 indicates the subject may be suffering from severe psychopathology
- people with high scores were conscious of their own and others status. Show respect, admiration and servility to those of higher status.
- authoritarian people had a cognitive style so they had fixed stereotypes about other groups.
Conclusions
- people with authoritarian personality have the tendency to be obedient to authority and are submissive/have extreme respect for it
- disapproval of anyone of a perceived inferior status
- conventional attitudes towards sex, gender, race
- inflexible
Problems with the items
- greenstein (1969) criticised the f-scale as the items are worded in the same direction. So its possible to get a high score by ticking the same line of boxes
- possible acquiescent bias - people agreeing with every item
Origin of authoritarian personality
- formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting and conditional love
- creates resentment that can’t be expressed to parents due to fear of punishments so these fears are displaced onto others
- based on psychodynamic assumptions as frustrations are unconsciously displaced onto others
Strength - RESEARCH SUPPORT
P - support for the link between authoritarian personality and obedience
E - elms and milgram interviewed fully obedient participants and they al scored highly on the f scale. However, the link is just a correlation.
I&D - Adorno said the cause is due to personality (nature) but originally caused by treatment they received from their parents at a young age (nurture). Therefore, obedience oils determine by our socialisation experiences and not a result of free will.
C -a third factor may be involved like a lower level of education which was argued by Hyman and sheatsley.
Limitation - LIMITED EXPLANATION
P - authoritarian personality explanation is limited
E - millions of individuals in Germany displayed obedient/anti-semitic behaviour but didn’t have the same personality. Unlikely the majority of Germany’s population possessed an authoritarian personality.
I&D - dispositional explanation uses a nomothetic approach to establish general laws relating to authoritarian characteristics displayed by those scoring highly on the f-scale.
C - an alternative explanation is more realistic like the social identity theory. Most Germans identified with the nazi state and adopted its views.
Limitation -FLAWED METHODOLOGY
P - explanation is based on flawed methodology
E - researchers knew the participants test scores when they interviewed them so hey knew who had authoritarian personalities. They also knew the studies hypothesis which makes biased results likely.
C - suggests data collected is meaningless and the concept of an authoritarian personality lacks validity.
Limitation - GREENSTEIN
P - greenstein criticised the f-scale and said there were problems with the items
E - acquiescent bias
C - lacks validity/reliability
