Lesson 9- Dispositional (internal) explanation for Obedience- Authoritarian Personality (Obedient to Authority): Flashcards
Who proposed the authoritarian personality & when did they do so?
Adorno (1950) proposed authoritarian personality
What are the traits of the authoritarian personality?
1) Willing to serve (servile) people of ⬆️ status
2) Hostile towards people of ⬇️ status
3) Preoccupied with power- want/believe it’s important
4) Conformist & conventional (follow rules)
5) Likely to categorise people as ‘us’/‘them’
Why do ppl develop the authoritarian personality?
- Extremely harsh discipline- parents- childhood 👶- usually involving physical punishment
- Creates feelings of hostility towards weaker individuals who ✖️ fight back
- anger towards parents displaced towards weaker individuals
- ✖️ take anger out on parents- fear them- act in submissive way- submissive 🏃♂ extends to all authority figures
What did Adorno develop to measure the authoritarian personalities?
Adorno developed F (fascism) Scale- measure authoritarian personalities- agree/disagree to series of statements- multiple choice … closed questions
What are the evaluation points of the authoritarian personality?
👎- flawed methodology- all questions (items) on questionnaire- worded same direction (leading questions) - easy to get ⬆️ score- closed questions- ✖️ explanation
Adorno knew questionnaire scores before interviewing pps about 👶hood … showed interviewer bias
👍- research support- Elms and Milgram (1966)- Milgram (1963) asked pps to give⚡️ shocks to confederate (Mr Wallace) when he got ❓ ✖️- 65% pps shocked confederate up to 450 volts
1) Elms and Milgram (1966)- follow up study using previous pps- selected 20 obedient pps (delivered⚡️ to 450 volts) & 20 disobedient pps (refused ✖️to 450 volts)
2) Each pps completed MMPI scale (measures personality traits) & F scale
3) Pps- asked open-ended question about relationship with parents & attitude to experimenter & learner during the previous experiment
4) Little difference between obedient & disobedient pps in MMPI scale
5) BUT ⬆️ levels of authoritarian traits among obedient pps- obedient pps- ⬆️ likely- report being ⬇️ close to fathers & describe them in ➖ terms- ALSO ⬆️ likely to perceive experimenter (authority figure) as admirable
6) Study shows … authoritarian personality 💪 dispositional explanation of obedience to authority & provides good research support
👎- limited explanation- all ✖️ have authoritarian personality- Social Identity Theory more relevant explanation- German ppl identified with Anti-Semitic Nazis & their hatred for Jews
