obedience: dispositional explanation

Question 1

what is authoritarian personality?

Answer 1

• dispositional explanation for obedience
• adorno - shows extreme respect for authority + likely to obey from sources of authority
• view society weaker than it once was - believe need strong + powerful leaders to enforce trad values
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• show contempt for those inferior status
• everything either right/wrong - uncomfortable with uncertainty
• ‘other people’ (ex.ethnic group) responsible for ills of society

Question 2

what was the aim of adorno?

Answer 2

understand anti-semitism in the holocaust - believes that high levels of obedience is psychological disorder stemmed from the personality of the individual rather than situational factors

Question 3

three characteristics of authoritarian personality

Answer 3

• extreme respect for authority
• submissive to those of higher status in social hierachy - dismissive to those beneath them
• rigid idea of right + wrong

Question 4

what are the origins of authoritarian personality?

Answer 4

• adorno et al - forms in childhood - result of harsh parenting - typically features - strict discipline, absolute loyalty - high standards + severe criticism of failings
• fears displaced onto others perceived weaker- explains hatred to inferior - central feature to obedience to higher authority

Question 5

what does adorno propose is the origin of the authoritarian personality

Answer 5

the psychodynamic explanation forms from childhood as a result of harsh parenting
resentment and hostility is created within the child but cannot be expressed due to the fear of punishment taught by their parents
therefore they displace their feelings onto those they perceive as weaker through scapegoating

Question 6

what are some features of harsh parenting experienced by those holding an authoritarian personality

Answer 6

• strict discipline
• absolute loyalty
• impossibly high standards
• conditional love
• severe criticism of perceived failings

Question 7

what was adorno et al’s procedure into authoritarian personality?

Answer 7

• studied more than 2000 middle-class, white americans + unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups
• developed several measurement scales, including F-scale (potential for fascism scale) used to measure AP
• ptp had to answer a series of questions to gain overall score

Question 8

what were adorno et al’s findings into authoritarian personality?

Answer 8

positive correlation between prejudice and authoritarianism
those who scored higher on the f-scale (prevalent authoritarian personality) had:
- extreme respect to those of higher status
- a cognitive style of thinking with distinct categorisation of people
- conscious of status
- contemptuous of the ‘weak’
- conventional attitudes to sex, race and gender
- identified with ‘strong people’

Question 9

what else did adorno et al find about those with authoritarian personality?

Answer 9

• had a certain cognitive style (way of perceiving others) - ‘black and white’ thinking between categories of people
• had fixed + distinctive stereotypes of other groups
• found strong positive correlation between authoritarianism + prejudice

Question 10

evaluate authoritarian personality

Question 11

how are milgram and elms strength of authoritarian personality?

Answer 11

• interviewed ptps who took part in first 4 milgram studies showed those that shocked to full 450v scored higher on F scale than those who refused
• supports adorno et al’s view obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have an authoritarian personality

Question 12

what is a counterpoint milgram and elms

Answer 12

• when individuals subscales analysed - number of characteristics did not share with authoritarians (did not glorify fathers, punishment in childhood etc)
• meaning link between AP + obedience complex
• ptps so unlike authoritarians - that authoritarianism unlikely to be useful predictor of obedience

Question 13

how is a lack of internal validity a limitation of adorno et al’s research into authoritarian personality?

Answer 13

• original F scale questionnaire lacked internal validity - all questions written in one direction - meaning agreeing to all questions label someone as authoritarian - could be ptps with this response bias
• may select answers viewed as socially acceptable - social desirability
• low internal validity - cause+effect not est between authoritarianism + fscale

Question 14

what is a limitation of the F-scale political wise?

Answer 14

• only measures tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology
• christie + jahoda argued F-scale politically-biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
• point out reality of left-wing authoritarianism - ex bolsh + maoism - both emphasise importance of complete obedience to political authority
• not comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across whole political spectrum

Question 15

how is authoritarian personality limited?

Answer 15

• cannot exp beh majority country pop
• prewar - millions obedient + antisemitic beh
• despite must have differed in personalities - unlikely all possess AP
• alt view = majority identified antisemitic nazi state + scapegoated jews - social identity theory approach
• limited = alt exp more realistic