Obedience: dispositional explanation Flashcards
What are dispositional explanations?
Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality
What are the characteristics of people with authoritarian personalities?
1) show extreme respect & submissiveness to authority
2) view society as weaker- so need strong political leader to enforce traditional values
3) show contempt for those of inferior status 4) inflexible outlook on the world
5) people who are ‘other’ are responsible for ills insociety
Origins of the authoritarian personality
- forms in childhood as result of harsh parenting -strict discipline
- parents give conditional love
What happens as a result of harsh parenting?
-creates resentment & hostility in child
-child cannot express feelings due to fear of punishment
-fears are displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker (scapegoating)
Adorno’s research procedure
-studied 2000 m/c white American & their unconscious attituded towards other racial groups
-researchers developed the F-scale to measure AP
Adorno’s research findings
strong correlation between AP & prejudice
Those who scored high on the F-scale:
-identified with the ‘strong’ and contemptuous of the ‘weak’
-showed extreme respect to those of higher status -had a certain cognitive style
-fixed & distinctive stereotypes
How do Elms & Milgram support the AP explanation?
-interviewed a small sample of fully obedient participants from Milgram’s original study
-They all completed the F-scale
-20 obedient pp’s scored significantly higher on F-scale than comparison group of 20 disobedient participants
Counter argument for Elms & Milgram
Link is merely a correlation
-impossible to draw conclusions between abusive childhood, AP & obedience
-may be a third factor involved, some suggest lower levels of education are associated with obedience & AP
Why is the AP explanation limited?
-cannot explain obedient behaviour in a population
-pre war Germany, millions showed antisemitic behaviour
-personalities must have differed in many ways>unlikely that they all possessed AP
-alternative explanation=social identity theory (Germans identified with antisemitic Nazi state)
What methodological problems are there with Adorno’s research?
flawed methods, all items are worded in the same direction
-e.g. can get a high score by just selecting agree answers
-Acquiescence bias , respond in a way that agrees regardless of content
- This means response bias= AP
Why is the F-scale politically biased?
-only measures tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology
-Christie & Jahoda argue extreme right wing & left wing ideologies fairly similar
-both emphasise importance of obedience
..does not account for obedience across whole political spectrum
