Explanations for Obedience - Dispositional

Question 1

What is the authoritarian personality type?

Answer 1

Refers to a person who has extreme respect and submissiveness towards authority.

Question 2

What are the characteristics of an authoritarian personality?

Answer 2

• rigid beliefs in conventional values
• hostile and disapprove of those lower in social status
• fixed outlook - no grey areas

Question 3

Who came up with the
authoritarian personality trait?

Answer 3

First identified by Adorno (1950).

Question 4

What did Adorno argue?

Answer 4

The authoritarian personality type forms in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.

Question 5

What effect does this parenting style have on children?

Answer 5

The child struggles to express themselves directly and represses these feelings, displacing them by either being excessively respectful, or showing hostility towards others.

Question 6

How did Adorno measure the authoritarian personality?

Answer 6

Adorno & his team developed the F-scale, which found a strong positive correlation between authoritarian personality and prejudices.

Question 7

Evaluate the authoritarian personality.

Answer 7

Strength:
* empirical research to support - Elms and Milgram found that 20 obedient ppts scored higher than 20 disobedient ppt on the
F scale.
Weakness:
* heavily relies on psychic determinism, overlooking free will and situational factors.