Obedience: Dispositional explanation Flashcards
Adorno wanted to understand…
the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust
Adorno’s research led them to draw very similar/different conclusions to Milgram’s
different
Adorno believed that a high level of obedience was…
a psychological disorder
Adorno believed that the cause of high levels of obedience lie in…
the personality of the individual
True/False: Adorno believed that the causes of high levels in obedience was due to situational factors
False, dispositional factors
Who did Adorno study?
More than 2000 middle-class white Americans
Adorno studied what about 2000 middle-class white Americans?
Their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
What is the measurement scale developed by Adorno called?
F-scale
What is the full name for the F-scale?
Potential-for-fascism
What is the F-scale used to measure?
Potential-for-fascism / Authoritarian Personality
True/False: “Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn” is an example of an F-scale item
True
What is “There is hardly anything lower than a person who doesn’t feel great love, gratitude and respect for his parents” an example of?
An F-scale item
Adorno found that people with _____________ ________ identified with ‘strong’ people
authoritarian leanings
Adorno found that people who scored high/low on the F-scale identified with ‘strong’ people
high
True/False: Adorno found that people who scored low on the F-scale identified with ‘weak’ people
False: ‘strong’ people
True/False: Adorno found that people who scored high on the F-scale were generally contemptuous of the ‘weak’
True
Adorno found that people with authoritarian leanings were very conscious of what?
Status
True/False: Adorno found that people who scored highly on the F-scale were very conscious of their own status, but not the status of others
False: their own and others
True/False: People with authoritarian leanings showed extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status
True
Showing extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status are traits of what?
Obedience
What is meant by ‘cognitive style’?
Way of perceiving others
Adorno found that authoritarian people had no ‘fuzziness’ between what?
Categories of people
Adorno found that authoritarian people had no ‘fuzziness’ between categories of people because…
they had fixed distinctive stereotypes about other groups
Adorno found that authoritarian people had no ‘fuzziness’ between categories of people, also known as…
‘black and white’ thinking
There is a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and p________
prejudice
Adorno argued that people with what type of personality show an extreme respect for and submissiveness to authority?
Authoritarian personality
Adorno argued that people with an authoritarian personality show an extreme respect for and submissiveness to what?
authority
Adorno said that people with an authoritarian personality view society as weaker than it once was, so…
believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love for country and family
Give an example of a traditional value that someone with an authoritarian personality may want enforced
Love for country/family
Adorno argued that people with an authoritarian personality view society as ‘stronger’/’weaker’ than it once was
‘weaker’
Adorno argued that people with an authoritarian personality view society as weaker than it once was, so we need what?
strong and powerful leaders
Adorno argued that characteristics make people with an authoritarian personality more/less likely to obey orders from a source of authority
more
Adorno suggested that people with an authoritarian personality show what for those of inferior social status?
contempt
Adorno suggested that people with an authoritarian personality showed contempt for those of inferior social status, fuelled by…
their inflexible outlook on the world
Adorno argued that for people with an authoritarian personality, there are no ‘____ areas’ and everything is…
grey, either right or wrong and they are very uncomfortable with uncertainty
Adorno argued that people with an authoritarian personality are very uncomfortable with u__________
uncertainty
Adorno said that people with an authoritarian personality believe people who are ‘other’ are…
responsible for the ills of society
When Adorno refers to people who are ‘other’ in the views of someone with an authoritarian personality, who does he mean?
People who are different - for example belonging to a different ethnic group
Adorno suggested that who are convenient targets for authoritarians blaming people for being responsible for the ills of society?
‘other’ such as people who belong to a different ethnic group
Authoritarians are likely to obey orders from authority figures, even when…
orders are destructive, as in Nazi Germany
Adorno believed that authoritarian personalities form at what stage of a person’s life?
Childhood
Adorno believed that authoritarian personalities form mostly as a result of…
harsh parenting
Adorno believed that authoritarian personalities form mostly as a result of harsh parenting, typically featuring…
extremely strict discipline
Give 2 examples of extremely strict discipline within harsh parenting that Adorno suggested is likely to form an authoritarian personality
Any 2 from expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings
“I will love you if…” is an example of what?
Conditional love
Adorno suggested that harsh parenting is likely to form an authoritarian personality within a child, including parents giving conditional love. What does this mean?
Their love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves. “I will love you if…”
Adorno suggested that harsh parenting creates what in a child?
Resentment
Although Adorno suggested that harsh parenting creates resentment in a child, the child cannot express these feelings directly against their parents because…
they feat punishment
As a result of fear of punishment, how did Adorno suggest that children who are victims of harsh parenting and therefore develop an authoritarian personality express their feelings?
Their fears are displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker - scapegoating
Displacing your fears onto someone who you perceive to be weaker than you is a trait of an authoritarian personality. What is this called?
Scapegoating
The fear of expressing feelings directly against your parents because of a fear of punishment and instead displacing them onto someone who you perceive as weaker explains authoritarian’s hatred towards…
people considered to be socially inferior or who belong to other social groups
Hatred towards people considered to be socially inferior or who belong to other social groups is a central feature of…
obedience to a higher authority
True/False: The fear of expressing feelings directly against your parents because of a fear of punishment and instead displacing them onto someone who you perceive as weaker explains authoritarian’s hatred towards people considered to be socially inferior. This is a humanistic explanation
False, a psychodynamic explanation
True/False: Milgram’s evidence supports the Authoritarian Personality
True
Milgram interviewed a small sample of __ people who had participated in the original obedience studies and been fully obedient
20
Milgram interviewed a small sample of __ people who had participated in what?
The original obedience studies
Milgram interviewed a small sample of 20 people who had participated in the original obedience studies and been…
fully obedient
In Milgram’s interviews of a sample of people who had been fully obedient, he asked them to do what?
Complete the F-scale and other measures as part of the interview
When Milgram interviewed people who were fully obedient and asked them to do the F-scale, he found that…
They scored significantly higher on the overall F-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants
Milgram interviewed a group of 20 fully obedient participants and a group of 20 disobedient participants. The two groups were clearly quite similar/different in terms of authoritarianism
different
Milgram’s interviews of 20 fully obedient and 20 disobedient participants in his study supports Adorno et al/’s view that…
obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have an authoritarian personality
Researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale and found that obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were usual/unusual for authoritarians
unusual
When researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale, it was found that unlike authoritarians, Milgram’s obedient participants generally did/didn’t glorify their fathers
didn’t
When researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale, it was found that unlike authoritarians, Milgram’s obedient participants generally did/didn’t experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood
didn’t
When researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale, it was found that unlike authoritarians, Milgram’s obedient participants generally did/didn’t have particularly hostile attitudes towards their mothers
didn’t
The link between obedience and authoritarianism is simple/complex
complex
When comparing Milgram’s obedient participants and authoritarians, the obedient participants were similar/dissimilar to authoritarians in so m any ways
dissimilar
When researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale, they found that obedient participants in Milgram’s study were unlike authoritarians in so many ways. This suggests that…
authoritarianism is unlikely to be a useful predictor of obedience
The F-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of what type of ideology?
Right-wing
Researchers argued that the F-scale is a ___________-biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
politically
How do researchers argue that the F-scale is a politically-biased interpretation of authoritarian personality?
They point out the reality of left-wing authoritarianism
Why do extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have a lot in common?
Both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority
Why is Adorno’s theory not a comprehensive dispositional explanation?
It doesn’t account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum
Authoritarian personality cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of…
a country’s population
In pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed what despite the fact they must have differed in their personalities in all sorts of ways?
Obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour
The fact that millions of individuals in pre-war Germany displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour despite the fact that they must have different in their personalities in many ways suggests that it is extremely unlikely that…
they could all possess an Authoritarian Personality
What is an alternative explanation to the reason why so many people in pre-war Germany displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour?
The majority of German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews - social identity theory approach
The majority of German people identifying with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoating the ‘outgroup’ of Jews is an example of what?
Social identity theory approach
Adorno’s theory is limited because an alternative explanation is…
much more realistic
