Explaining Obedience: Dispositional (personality) Factors Flashcards
What is Dispositional?
It is any explanation of behavior that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality.
What is an Authoritarian personality?
It is a type of personality that researcher
Theador Adorno argued was especially susceptible (more likely)
to obeying people in authority. These individuals are also said to be
submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of those who
are deemed inferior to them.
Who first proposed Authoritarian personality?
First proposed by Fromm (1941) as an attempt to explain those holding
right-wing, conservative views and is a personality type characterised by
a belief in absolute obedience. ‘Might it right.’
Aim of Adornos experiment?
Aim: Adorno et al. (1950) conducted a study using over 2,000 middle-class
Caucasian (white skinned) Americans to find out their unconscious views
towards other racial groups.
What Type of investigation Adornos experiment?
Type of investigation: Correlational study (co-variables = authoritarianism
and prejudice)
What was Adornos Method?
Method: To do this, Adorno and his colleagues developed a number of
questionnaires including one called the F-scale which measures fascist
tendencies (fascism is thought to be at the core of the authoritarian
personality).
Examples of items on the F-scale:
What were the findings of Adorno’s experiment?
People who scored high on the F-Scale identified with ‘strong’ people and
were generally disapproving of the ‘weak.’
A score of above 80 on the F-scale test indicates that the subject may be
suffering from severe psychopathology (mental health disorder).
People with high scores were conscious of their own and others’ status,
showing excessive respect, admiration and servility to those of higher
status.
Authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was no blurred
lines between categories of people- they had fixed stereotypes about other
groups.
What are the problems Adornos experiment?
Greenstein (1969) was
critical of the F-scale
because every one of it’s
items and statements is
worded in the same
direction. This means it is
possible to get a high
score for authoritarianism
just by ticking the same
line of boxes down one
side of the page.
People who agree with
the items on the F-scale
are therefore not
necessarily authoritarian
because of acquiescent
bias- tendency to agree
on every item- not an
accurate reflection.
Adorno’s conclusions
People with an authoritarian personality have the tendency to be obedient
to authority as they have extreme respect for authority and are
submissive (dutiful) to it.
They show disapproval/disrespect for anyone of a perceived inferior
status.
Have conventional attitudes towards sex, gender, and race.
Believe that we need powerful leaders to enforce values.
Inflexible on their outlook- no ‘grey areas.’
Uncomfortable with uncertainty.
Is there support for the link between authoritarian personality and obedience?
P: There is support for the link between authoritarian
personality and obedience.
E: Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed fully obedient
participants- all scored highly on the F-scale. However,
this link is just a correlation between measured
variables. We cannot conclude from this that
authoritarian personality causes obedience.
C: A ‘third factor’ may be involved. Both obedience and
authoritarian personality may be caused by a lower level
of education (Hyman and Sheatsley 1954).
I&D: Adorno believed that a high degree of
authoritarianism was similar to suffering from
psychological disorder, with the cause lying within
personality (nature) but originally caused by the
treatment they received from their parents at a young
age (nurture). Obedience is therefore determined by
out socialisation experiences and not a result of free
will.
What is a limitation of Adornos experiment?
P: A limitation is that the authority personality
explanation is limited.
E: Millions of individuals in Germany displayed
obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour- but didn’t
have the same personality. It seems unlikely the
majority of Germany’s population possessed an
authoritarian personality.
C:. Therefore, an alternative explanation is
more realistic-social identity theory. Most
Germans identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi
state and adopted its views.
I&D: This suggests that the dispositional
explanation uses a nomothetic approach to
establish general laws of behaviour relating to
authoritarian characteristics displayed by those
scoring highly on the F-scale and other
measures.
Is the methodology within Adornos experiment flawed?
P: A limitation is that the
explanation is based on a
flawed methodology.
E: Researchers knew the
participants’ test scores when
they interviewed them. So they
knew who had authoritarian
personalities. They also knew
the study’s hypothesis, which
makes biased results likely.
C: This suggests that the data
collected is meaningless and
the concept of authoritarian
personality lack validity.
