Dispositional factors on Obedience

Question 1

Describe what is meant by dispositional factors

Answer 1

Neglects situational factors and says that the most important thing in somebody’s personality is predicting how obedient they are

Question 2

How can obedience be measured / predicted?

Answer 2

The F Scale (F for Fascist) was created by Adorno et al (1950) to measure how authoritarian you are. The higher on the scale, the more authoritarian you are and therefore more obedient

Question 3

Outline some traits of an authoritarian personality

Answer 3

Rigid Thinker -unable to consider alternatives
Conformist - copy others behaviours
Conventional - adhere to what is normally done
Dogmatic - states principles as undoubtedly true
Obedient towards people of higher perceived status
Harsh towards people perceived as lower status

Question 4

Who researched into dispositional factors on obedience?

Answer 4

Elms and Milgram (1966)

Question 5

What was Elms and Milgram (1966)’s aim?

Answer 5

To investigate dispositional factors on obedience

Question 6

What was Elms and Milgram (1966)’s procedure?

Answer 6

20 obedience participants and 20 defiant participants were taken from Milgram’s experiment and they completed:
The MMPI (personality test)
The F-scale
Answered a series of open and closed questions about:
Relationship to their parents
View of the experimenter
Views of the learner during the study

Question 7

What were Elms and Milgram (1966)’s results?

Answer 7

MMPI - No differences between participants
F-Scale - Obedient participants had higher scores
Relationship to parents - Obedient were more distant with fathers
View to experimenter - Obedient were more admirable
View of learner - Obedient thought little of learner

Question 8

What was Elms and Milgram (1966)’s conclusion?

Answer 8

Authoritarian personality is a strong predictor for identifying obedience

Question 9

Strengths of Dispositional factors

Answer 9

Research to support from Elms and Milgram (1966) showing there is a relationship between authoritarianism and obedience

SCOUT

Usefulness - Understanding certain characteristics / behaviours

Question 10

Limitations of Dispositional factors

Answer 10

Situational factors may have a greater role on obedience

Difficulty establish cause and effect as the research is correlational

This explanation cannot explain obedience in entire societies

F-Scale test is unreliable as it is self report