Lesson 8 - Dispositional Explanations to Resistance to Social Influence

Question 1

Dispositional Explanation

Answer 1

Dispositional explanations of behaviour claim that individuals’ personality characteristics determine behaviour, not situational influences in the environment

Question 2

Authoritarian Personality

Answer 2

Authoritarian personalities are more likely to obey authority figures
Have a collection of traits making them more obedient

Question 3

Authoritarian Personalities Traits

Answer 3

Servile towards people of perceived higher status
Hostile towards people of lower status (scapegoating)
Preoccupied with power
Inflexible in their beliefs and values
Conformist and conventional
Likely to categorise people as ‘us’ or ‘them’
Dogmatic (intolerant of ambiguity)

Question 4

Adorno (1950) Authoritarian Personalities

Answer 4

Thought people developed these personalities due to receiving extremely strict/rigid parenting, usually involving physical punishment
Creates feelings of hostility which are displaced onto weaker people who cannot fight back
Cannot take anger on parents as they are feared thus anger is repressed and they act in a submissive way
Submissive behaviour is extended to all authority

Question 5

Adorno (1950) F (Fascism) Scale

Answer 5

Developed questionnaire to measure authoritarian personalities
Participants asked to rate how much they agree with a statement

Question 6

Authoritarian Personality Evaluation
Miller (1975)
Positive

Answer 6

Found people who scored high on F Scale were more likely to obey an order to hold onto some electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem compared to people who scored low

Question 7

Authoritarian Personality Evaluation
Altemeyer (1981)
Positive

Answer 7

Ordered participants to give themselves increasing levels of electric shocks when mistake was made on a learning test
Significant correlation between those willing to shocks themselves and high scores on F Scale

Question 8

Authoritarian Personality Evaluation
Milgram (1974)
Negative

Answer 8

Milgram (1974) conducted several variations of original experiments with vastly different results
Obedience was 100% when Mr Wallace made no noise
Obedience was 0% when there were two authority figures who disagreed with each other
Thus situational variables may be more important

Question 9

Authoritarian Personality Evaluation
Milgram (1963)
Negative

Answer 9

Dispositional explanations cannot explain obedience in entire societies as authoritarian personalities are uncommon
Fewer than 65% of people have authoritarian personalities so it cannot be the only explanation for level of obedience in Milgram (1963) study

Question 10

Authoritarian Personality Evaluation
Middendorp and Meleon (1990) and Milgram (1974)
Negative

Answer 10

Possible that lack of education causes an authoritarian personality and obedience
Middendorp and Meleon (1990) found less educated people are more likely to have an authoritarian personality
Milgram (1974) found lower levels of education leads to more obedience

Question 11

Authoritarian Personalities Evaluation Points

Answer 11

Miller (1975) Positive
Altemeyer (1981) Positive

Milgram (1974) Negative
Milgram (1963) Negative
Middendorp and Meleon (1990) and Milgram (1974) Negative