Obedience-Dispositional Explanations Flashcards
A01
Outline Adorno & dispositional explanations
adorno & colleagues-wanted to understand antisemitism of holocaust
>believed high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder
>causes of disorder lie in personality of individual rather than situation
its a dispositonnal explanation
Dispositional explanations for obedience suggest people obey authority figures due to their personal traits & characteristics, such as their level of self-esteem or their tendency to conform to social norms
A01
what is Authoritarian personality
Type of personality susceptible to obeying authority figures
adorno argued ppl with Ap show extreme respect for submissiveness to authority
>secondly such ppl view society as weaker than before
>believe need strong & powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love for country
both characteristics make ppl with AP likely to obey orders from source of authority
A01
Origins of authoritarian personality in childhood
Adorno believes authoritarian personality form in childhood -result of harsh parenting
>parents give conditional love depending on childs behaviour (i lilll love you if)
>argues childhood experiences create resentment & hostility in child
>child cant express feeling to adult -fear punishment
>fear is displaced onto those they perceive as weak (scapegoating)
A01
Adorno et als research
Procedure
studied 2000 MC, white americans & their unconcious attitudes to radical groups
>researchers developed a questionnaire called the F scales
>The F scale measured AP& fascist tendencies
>e.g of items in F scale ‘Obedience & respect for authority is most important virtue to learn’
Adorno et als findings
People with authoritarian learning (who scored high on F scale) identified with strong people & contemptuous of weak. They were conscious of status & showed extreme respect to authority
Adorno - AP had a cognitive style
had fixed & distinctive stereotypes about other groups.
Adorno found positve correlation between Authoritarianism & prejudice.
A03
Political bias of scale (limitation) A03
F-scale only measures tendency towards extreme form of right wing ideology
>Jahoda-argues F-scale is politically biased interpretation of AP
>say left/right wing ideologists have lot in common
>both emphasise importance of complete obedience to authority
>Adornos theory is not dispositional explanation accounting for whole political spectrum
A03
Research support for AP milgram & elms (strength) A03
Interviewed 20 obedient & disobedient ppl
Milgram & elms-interviewed sample of ppl from original study of obedience-who were fully obedient
>completed F-scale
>20 obedient p scored high in f-scale compared to 20 disobedient p
>shows 2 groups diff in terms of authoritarianism
>findings of adorno study show obedient ppl have similar characteristics to AP
counterpoint: Milgrams & Elms research was correlational thus unable to establish cause & effect relationship of whether authoritarian personality traits cause obedience , thus results should be treated with caution as they are correlational in nature
A03
Flawed evidence for F scale ( Greenstein)
Greenstein calls F scale ‘a comedy of methodological errors’-seriously flawed scale
It is possible F scale suffers from sociasl desireability , where p provide answers socially acceptable & acquiscene bias
Thus suggests findings
produced by F-scale may be lacking in validity reliability.
acquiscene bias-which describes
way respondents always responding in the same way using the scales provided, regardless of the content shown in the scales.
A03
AP ignores influence of individual differences
(poorr/educated bakcground)
Middendorp & Meleon
Middendorp & Meleon-ppl from poorer educational background more likely than well educated ppl to show traits of AP ,
this is limitation as suggests other factors aside from personality may influence obedience thus lowering validity
Adorno research lacks population valdity
The sample has low generalisability and low population validity as it only sampled white, middle-class Americans.
