explanations of obedience- dispositional

Question 1

what is authoritarian personality

Answer 1

a collection of traits/dispositions developed from strict/rigid parenting

Question 2

who wanted to understand the anti-semitism within the holocaust

Answer 2

theodor adorno and his colleague

Question 3

what did adorno et al come to the conclusion of

Answer 3

obedience was due to a psychological disorder

Question 4

what do they believe caused the disorder

Answer 4

personality of the individual rather than situation

Question 5

what did adorno et al argue people with AP do

Answer 5

show extreme respect and submissiveness to authority
view society as weaker than it once was
believe we need strong leaders to enforce traditional views
more likely to obey
show contempt for those of lower social status

Question 6

where does adorno et al believe AP stems from

Answer 6

harsh parenting in childhood

Question 7

what does he believe AP parenting include

Answer 7

• extremely strict discipline
• expectation of absolute loyalty
  -impossibly high standards
  -severe criticisms of perceived failings

Question 8

what does this parenting style do to the child

Answer 8

creates hostility and despair within the child

Question 9

what is a psychodynamic explanation of AP

Answer 9

child cant express feelings to parents due to a fear of punishment so their fears are displaced on to those who are socially inferior

Question 10

in Adorno’s study what was the procedure

Answer 10

measured over 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes to other ethnic groups
used F- scale (fascist scale)

Question 11

what were the findings for those with Authoritarian leanings in adornos study

Answer 11

identified with strong people and contemptuous of weak people
very conscious of status and showed extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status
had a certain cognitive style- positive correlation between AP and prejudice

Question 12

whats a criticism of the f-scale

Answer 12

relies on self-report data which may be invalid due to social desirability bias

Question 13

what other bias could be a result of using the f-scale

Answer 13

acquiescence bias- tendency to just agree

Question 14

who supported the acquiescence bias

Answer 14

greenstein 1969 as he referred to the f-scale as “a comedy of methodological errors”- you could tick all boxes on one side and score as highly authoritarian

Question 15

as a strength whose research supported this

Answer 15

milgram 1966

Question 16

what research did milgram do

Answer 16

conducted interview with a small sample of obedient participants who scored highly on f-scale

Question 17

what were results of milgrams study

Answer 17

obedience was due to fascist beliefs but this was a correlation

Question 18

what was a limitation of milgrams research

Answer 18

impossible to draw conclusions as it was correlational research so cant conclude obedience was caused by dispositional factors
third variable problems like education levels

Question 19

what criticism did hyman and sheatsley 1954 find

Answer 19

AP is more likely to exist in those who are of low economic social status and are less well educated which is inconsistent with the dispositional explanation

Question 20

whats a final criticism

Answer 20

evidence proves situation plays a role in milgrams extensive research
milgrams experiments were controlled adorno’s f scale was less reliable as its a self-report