Dispostional explanation for obedience Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic explanation?
Suggests that our behaviour is due to repressed childhood experiences that have shaped our personality and adult behaviour is influenced by defence mechanisms (e.g. your boss shouts at you so you go home and shout at your roommate)
What are characteristics of the authoritarian personality?
Rigid views of beliefs, extreme respect for authority, submissive attitudes toward authority, shows contempt for those with inferior social status, conventional values, bullying and intolerance of ambiguity
What are the origins of the authoritarian personality?
Strict parenting and conditional love
What is the result of authoritarian personality?
Anger, hostility and resentment towards parents which is all repressed
What is the defence mechanisms of the authoritarian personality?
Displacement of anger into inferior people.
Why do rigid beliefs make someone more likely to obey?
They accept social hierarchies which links to legitimacy of authority
Why does intolerance of ambiguity make people more likely to obey?
The follow orders so they don’t need to think about how to behave if someone tells you what to do which links to agentic state
What does submissive attitudes to authority link to?
Legitimacy of authority and uniform
What was Adorno et al.’s research?
2000 middle-class white americans were studies for their unconscious attitudes to ethnic minorities using the F-scale with agree and disagree
What were Adorno’s finding?
Hgh F-scale scores linked with identification with the ‘strong’ and contempt for the ‘weak’
What is research support for the authoritarian personality?
Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed a small sample of fully obedient people by completing the F-scale as part of the interview. The fully obedient particpants scored significantly higher on the F-scale compared to a group of disobedient participants.
What are limitations of the authoritarian personality?
Social identity theory may be a better explanation, political bias and flawed ways of measuring the AP due to response bias
