Lesson 8 - Dispostional Explainations Of Obedience

Question 1

What is a Dispositional explanation of obedience? Who was it proposed by?

Answer 1

• Adorno (1950)
• Dispositional explanations of behaviour claim that an individuals personality characteristics determine their behaviour

Question 2

What are Authoritarian Personalities?

Answer 2

• Authoritarian personalities are more likely to obey authority figures
• They have a collection of traits that make them more obedient.

Question 3

What traits make an authoritarian personality obey?

Answer 3

• Servile towards people of perceived higher status
• Hostile towards people of lower status
• Preoccupied with power
• Inflexible in their beliefs and values
• Conformist and Conventional
• Categorical (us and them)
• Dogmatic (intolerant of ambiguity)

Question 4

Why do people have authoritarian personalities?

Answer 4

• Recipients of strict/rigid parenting, involving physical punishment (abuse)
• Creating feelings of hostility towards parents
• Feelings displaced onto weaker others or feelings are repressed
• Cannot take anger out on parents so act submissive
• The submissive behaviour is extended to all authority figures

Question 5

What is the questionnaire that measures authoritarian personalities?

Answer 5

• The F-Scale (Fascism)
• Participants rate how much they agree/disagree with a statement
  Such as: ‘obedience and respect for authority are important virtues children should learn’

Question 6

Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality

Answer 6

+ People that scored high on The F-Scale were more likely to obey an order to hold onto a piece of electric wire whilst answering an arithmetic problem.
+ Participants were told to give themselves rising shocks when they made a mistake on a task. Those willing to shock themselves had a high score on The F-Scale
+ Less educated people are more likely to have an authoritarian personality (Middendorp, Meleon 1990). Participants with lower levels of education obeyed more (Milgram)

• Situational Factors may be more important than Dispositional Factors: Milgram brought obedience up to 100% when Mr W made no noise, and lowered obedience to 0% when two authority figures argued with each other.
• Dispositional Factors cannot explain obedience in entire societies because authoritarian personalities are not common. (65% obeyed in Milgram)