Obedience - Dispositional Explanation

Question 1

What are dispositional explanations?

Answer 1

Explanations of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality

Question 2

Authoritarian personality (AP)

Answer 2

A type of personality that Adorno (1950) argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. They are thought to be submissive to those of higher status dismissive of inferiors

Question 3

Adorno (1950) procedure

Answer 3

Studied unconscious attitudes of 2000+ middle class, white Americans towards other racial groups. Researchers developed several measurement scales including the Fascism (F) scale, measuring the authoritarian personality. P’s had to rate their agreement with a statement on a 6-point scale (1 being strongly disagree, 6 agree strongly)

Question 4

Adorno (1950) findings

Answer 4

People with authoritarian learnings (those who scored high on the F-scale) were conscious of status, generally being contemptuous of the weak and extremely respectful to those of a higher status. This cognitive style was described as ‘black and white thinking’, with fixed stereotypes about other groups

Question 5

Strengths of the AP

Answer 5

• Research support (eg. Elms and Milgram 1966 found obedient participants from the original study scored highly on the F-scale)
• Expanse of understanding from previous situational explanations (eg. Combining explanations provides a holistic understanding)

Question 6

Limitations of the AP

Answer 6

• Political bias (eg. F-scale only measures tendency towards extreme right-wing ideology)
• Response bias (eg. All F-scale statements are worded positively, thus participants who tend to acquiescence are more likely to score higher)