Obedience: Dispositional explanations

Question 1

Who created the dispositional explanation?

Answer 1

Theodor Adorno (et al.)

Question 2

What is the function of the F-Test?

Answer 2

It measures the unconscious tendiencies to fascism.

Question 3

Who was the first person to propose the authoritarian personality explanation?

Answer 3

Fromm (1941).

Question 4

Why did Adorno (1950) investigate the personality?

Answer 4

He wanted to find out the conditions that had allowed Nazism to grip Europe following Hitler’s rise to power in the early 1930’s.

Question 5

Why did Fromm (1941) initially propose the personality?

Answer 5

To explain those holding right wing, conservative views.

Question 6

What characterises an authoritarian personality?

Answer 6

A belief in absolute obedience and submission to authority.

Question 7

Who created the F-Test?

Answer 7

Theordor Adorno (1950).

Question 8

What does the F-Test stand for?

Answer 8

Fascism-test, it measures an individuals tendencies to fascism.

Question 9

How many people did Adorno use the F-Test on?

Answer 9

2,000 white, middle-class, Americans

Question 10

What is Fascism?

Answer 10

A radical and dictatorial scheme.

Question 11

What was scapegoating?

Answer 11

Placing the blame of actions on an ‘inferior’ group.

Question 12

Put simply, what did Adorno say caused this personality type?

Answer 12

A very strict upbringing by critical and harsh parents.

Question 13

What is an example of real-life scapegoating seen in history?

Answer 13

The Nazi’s placing blame on the Jews for their actions during the Holocaust.

Question 14

What were Adorno’s findings from his studies with the F-Test?

Answer 14

• Association with the ‘strong’ and contemptuous of the ‘weak’.
• Highly conscious of status in hierarchies, showing excessive respect to those of higher status.
• Fixed cognitive style with no ‘grey areas’.
• Strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.

Question 15

A high score on the F-Test would show what?

Answer 15

An authoritarian personality.

Question 16

What was the cognitive style of an authoritarian person?

Answer 16

They have fixed and rigid stereotypes with no exceptions allowed and no blurred boundaries (‘grey areas’).

Question 17

How does an authoritarian person respond to someone lower than them in a hierarchy?

Answer 17

Authoritative towards those of a lower status, somewhat disciplinary.

Question 18

How does an authoritarian person respond to someone higher than them in a hierarchy?

Answer 18

They show excessive respect, deference and servility to those of higher status.

Question 19

What sort of attitudes do authoritarian personalities towards things such as sex, race and gender?

Answer 19

Highly conventional attitudes.

Question 20

Describe the morals of people with an authoritarian personality:

Answer 20

They have inflexible outlooks, clear ideas of right and wrong and there are no ‘grey areas’ in their eyes.

Question 21

Explain how a strict upbringing by harsh parents can lead to an authoritarian personality:

Answer 21

High expectations from the parents and demands of absolute loyalty mean the child receives severe criticism for failure. The child cannot show their hostility towards their parents as they would be punished, therefore they displace their anger.

Question 22

AO3 - Statistical infrequency.

Answer 22

In a normal distribution, most people fall on or around the mean lines with very few people at either extreme. It is highly unlikely that a majority of hte population (of Nazi Germany) were in the extreme right.

Question 23

AO3 - Researcher bias and retrospective validity.

Answer 23

After the F-Test, Adorno interviewed participants about their childhood. This introduces researcher bias as Adorno may have only written data to support his hypothesis, memory in this context is also unreliable as it is retrospective data.

Question 24

AO3 - Political bias.

Answer 24

The F-scale measures the tendency towards right-wing ideology, Christie and Jahoda (1954) argued that this is a politically biased interpretation of the personality. This is a limitation of Adorno’s theory as it is not comprehensive enough to use on the whole political spectrum.

Question 25

AO3 - Methodological errors.

Answer 25

Greenstein (1969) described the F-Test as a “comedy of methodological errors”, this is due to the many faults such as same direction phrasing and patterned ticking. This introduces acquiescence bias which lowers the internal validity of the test.

Question 26

AO3 - Correlation, not causation.

Answer 26

Adorno measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them, however, there is no way to determine is these are a result of causation or merely a correlation.

Question 27

What is a right-wing stance and what are typical values of this position?

Answer 27

Conservative

• Traditional
• Hierarchical
• Privatisation

Question 28

What is a left-wing stance and what are typical values of this position?

Answer 28

Labour

• Equality
• Progression
• De-privatisation

Question 29

AO3 - Opposing research.

Answer 29

Zilmer (1995) studied if there was a Nazi personality, he studied 16 Nazi soldiers on 9 different scales. He found they scored highly on 3 of 9 scales which oppose the authoritarian personality.