Dispositional Factors of Obedience Flashcards
what do dispositional factors refer to
the most important thing is someones personality in prediciting how obedient they are
what scale did they use to measure how authoritarian you are
F SCALE
created by Adorno et al (1950)
what is an authoritarian personality
is a collection of traits/dispositions developed from strict/rigid parenting
what are the traits of someone with an authoritarian personality
-rigid thinker
-conformist
-conventional (adheres to whats normally done)
-dogmatic (strict to what they believe)
-obedient to those perceived to have higher status
-harsh towards to those perceived to have lower status
who researched dispositional factors effect on obedience
ELMS AND MILGRAM (1966)
what was the aims of elms and milgrams research
to investigate dispositional factors of obedience
what was the procedure of elms and milgram’s research into the dispositional factors of obedience
20 obedient p.t and 20 defiant p.t taken form milgrams original study
they all completed the MMPQ (perosnality test) and F scale test and answered opened and closed questions about:
-relationship with parents
-views of the experiment
-views of the learner during study
what were the findings of elms and milgrams research into the dispositional factors of obedience
-MMPI = no difference between p.t in personality
-relationship to parens = obedient were more distant with their fathers
-view to experimenter= obedient p.t thought they were admirable
-view of the learner = obedient thoguht little of the learner
what did elms and milgram conclude from their research
authoritarian personality is a strong predictor for identifying obedience
Strength of elms and Milgrams research into the dispositional factors effect on obedience
P: there is research support for the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation of obedience
E: elms and milgram conducted interviews with p.t who were fully obedient in milgrams original study
E: it was found that obedient p.t scores higher on the F scale in comparison to the disobedient p.t
L: concluded that obedient p.t in milgram’s original research displayed more characteristics of the authoritarian personality
weaknesses of dispositional factors effect on obedience
P: the F-scale uses a self report method
E: people are given a list of statements and have to rate how much they agree or disagree witht hem
E: people may not give truthful answers
L:this means the F-scale is unreliable test as responses may not be a true reflection of the individual
P:This explanation can only explain obedience in individuals, not entire societies
E: THere are historical examples of whole societies obeying
E: e.g nazi germany, large amounts of german soldiers obeyed the orders of superiors
L: its unlikely every soldier had an authoritarian personality so other explanations of obedience may be more appropriate
