Factors affecting obedience: Personality and Gender

Question 1

Authoritarian Personality

Answer 1

• Adorno et al suggested that people who were raised very harshly would develop a personality that makes them submit to authority
• This personality are fostered by parents who have a psychological need for domination and who harshly threaten their child to compel obedience
• This leads to the child being frustrated from this upbringing follows the rules, social status and is more obedient to those above them
• This also develops into a distaste for those who don’t fit into the established social hierarchy and its convection
• The person learns to be harsh and oppressive to those who they see as inferior

Question 2

Internal Locus of Control

Answer 2

• Someone with a high LOC would believe that they are personally the ones in control
• They tend to take more responsibility for their actions
• Less obedient as they are more likely to show dissent and defy orders as they believe they are in control and what happens to them

Question 3

External Locus of Control

Answer 3

• Someone with a high LOC would believe that they have no control over the world, that it is external factors and chance factors that lead to their behaviour
• They tend to take less responsibility and blame other for their action
• More obedience as they feels what happens to them is governed by other people