Explanations for obedience

Question 1

Situational

Answer 1

Suggest as external explanation for obedience, caused by environment

E.g. uniform. Location, proximity of authority figure

Question 2

Social-psychological explanation

Answer 2

Neither situational or dispositional

E.g. agentic state, legitimacy of authority figure

Question 3

Dispositional

Answer 3

Suggest an internal explanation for obedience, caused by persons personality characteristics

E.g. authoritarian personality

Question 4

Authoritarian personality

Answer 4

Adorno - identified authoritarian personality which makes it more likely for person to obey

Question 5

Shared traits AP

Answer 5

Highly conventional - views on society, cons political beliefs

Aggressive and hostile - esp towards lower status, minority groups, unconventional lifestyles

Unquestioning respect for authority - belief in importance of power, more likely to obey

Question 6

F-scale

Answer 6

AP measured using f-scale, questionnaire including 30 questions to assess a persons conventional beliefs, their hostility and respect for authority

Question 7

AP cause

Answer 7

Experiencing harsh parenting inc physical punishment,

causing an unquestioning respect for authority (making them more likely to obey)

and creates anger (unconsciously directed at others)

Question 8

Eval of f-scale 1

Answer 8

Only establishes correlation

Meaning it is not possible to conclude that having an AP cause high levels of obedience. A third factor could explain both behaviours, for example Middendorp and Meloen (1990) found

Less educated people are more consistently authoritarian and were more likely to obey to higher levels in milgrams research

This suggests that education could be an important factor that explains both authoritarianism and obedience.

Question 9

Limit f-scale 2

Answer 9

Low internal validity

Which is when the procedure does not measure what it intended

This is because critics argue the f-scale words items in the same direction so the scale may simply measure participants tendency to agree. Furthermore, researchers knew the participants scores before follow up interviews

This may mean the results don’t accurately measure authoritarianism and the researchers may have unintentionally biased the data meaning the research evidence and authoritarianism may not be a valid explanation of obedience.