Obedience: Dispositional Explanations A01&3

Question 1

Limitation

Answer 1

P-authoritarian personality explanation is limited
E-millions of individuals in Germany displayed obedient anti-Semitic behaviour, but didn’t have the same personality
E-an alternative explanation is more realistic, most Germans identified with the anti semitic Nazi state and adopted its views
L-seems unlikely the majority of Germanys population possessed an authoritarian personality

Question 2

Limitation

Answer 2

P-f scale is politically biased
E-Christie and Jahoda suggest the f scale aims to measure tendency towards extreme right-wing ideology
E-right wing and left wing authoritarianism both insist on complete obedience to political authority
L-Adorno’s theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation of obedience to authority because it doesn’t explain obedience to left wing authoritarianism

Question 3

Strength

Answer 3

P-support for the link between authoritarian personality and obedience
E-elms and milgram interviewed fully obedient participants, all scored highly on the f-scale
E-a ‘third factor’ may be involved. Both obedience and authoritarian personality may be caused by a lower level of education
L-however, this link is just a correlation between measured variables, we cannot conclude from this that authoritarian personality causes obedience

Question 4

Limitation

Answer 4

P-further limitation is that much of the research uses correlations
E-Adorno measured many variables and found significant correlations between them
E-no matter how strong a correlation between variables is, it does not mean that one causes the other
L- therefore, Adorno could not claim that harsh parenting style caused development of an authoritarian personality