OBEDIENCE: DISPOSITIONAL EXPLANATION Flashcards
what is the dispositional explanation of obedience?
this focuses on internal characteristics that lie within the individual that lead to them being more or less likely to follow the orders of an authority figure.
what kind of approach does the dispositional explanation take?
it is a psychodynamic explanation as the harsh parenting creates resentment in the children which they displace onto those perceived to be weaker.
when does an authoritarian personality originate from?
it develops from harsh parenting in childhood where there parents were strict with discipline, severely high standards and only provide their child with conditional love
what are some characteristics of an authoritarian personality?
excessive obedience submissiveness and respect to authority, traditional values, contempt for those perceived as having inferior social status.
how does the process of scapegoating occur?
as a child idolises their parents on the outside, but unconsciously they feel hostility and resentment towards them, they need to displace these feelings of anger onto someone else. this anger is then displaced onto a scapegoat, this is normally someone they perceive as weaker than them who are unable to defend themselves or someone that they do not like.
how does a Childs unconscious fear of their parents lead to excessive obedience to authority?
the Childs unconscious fears of their parents leads to them becoming excessively respectful to authority as they get older, this leads to them having high levels obedience towards the authority figures due to their high levels of respect towards them.
AO3: how is ‘Adornos f-scale as supporting evidence’ a strength to the dispositional explanation of obedience?
One strength to the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation of obedience is that it has supporting evidence. For example, Adornos research into 2000 middle class white Americans. This is where he investigated the cause of obedient personalities and the unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. He used the F-scale (fascist scale) where he found that the individuals who scored highly on this scale were also more obedient towards authority figures. Therefore, this supports the idea that individuals have internal characteristics that means they are more likely to follow along to orders given from authority figures.
AO3: how is ‘supporting evidence’ a strength to the dispositional explanation of obedience?
One strength to the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation of obedience is that it has supporting evidence. For example, Milgram looked into 20 participants who obeyed fully and went to 450V shocks and 20 participants who didn’t obey to his study. He found that the individuals who were more obedient scored higher on the F-scale compared to individuals who didn’t obey. Therefore, this supports the idea that individuals who have an authoritarian personality are more likely to obey to authority figures and have extreme respect for them.
AO3: how is ‘correlation not causation’ a limitation to the dispositional explanation of obedience?
One limitation to the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation of obedience is that the evidence is correlation not causation. This is because the evidence establishes a correlation between the authoritarian personality and obedience but we cant say that the authoritarian personality causes obedience. This means that although it is quite possible that that high levels of high levels of obedience cause an authoritarian personality, there may also be a third variable that causes both. Therefore, this suggests that the authoritarian personality lacks validity as there may be other variables that impact the development of this extreme personality.
AO3: how is ‘unable to explain some influences of power’ a limitation to the dispositional explanation of obedience?
One limitation to the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation of obedience is that it struggles to explain some influences of power. For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of people all displayed obedient, racist and anti-sematic behaviour. However, this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities in many different ways, suggesting that it was very unlikely that they all possessed an authoritarian personality. This means that a social learning explanation may be more appropriate as that would explain why the German people identified with the anti-sematic nazi state, using the jews as a scapegoat. This therefore suggests that Adornos theory is limited as another explanation is more realistic.
