Social influence - dispositional explanation for obedience Flashcards
What did Adorno investigate? Why?
The authoritarian personality, Adorno (1950). Like Milgram, he was interested in understanding the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust. However, he investigated whether peoples’ personalities affecting obedience instead of situational factors
What is a dispositional explanation?
When an individual’s personality is an explanation for their behaviour - from his research he concluded high levels of obedience is a psychological disorder
Which theory does this oppose?
Milgram’s theories - namely the agentic state theory and the legitimacy of authority theory
Who made up the sample in his research?
2000 middle class, white Americans - he wanted to measure their subconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
What was the F-scale?
It was used to measure the authoritarian personality. F stands for fascism
What is fascism?
A mass political movement that emphasises extreme nationalism, militarism and the supremacy of the nation over the individual
What is the relationship between the F-scale, obedience and the authoritarian personality?
People with authoritarian learnings scored higher on the F-scale and were more obedient
What personality traits do people with an authoritarian personality have?
- They’re very conscious of their own and others’ social status, showing excessive respect and servility to those of higher status, also showing contempt for the weak
- Had a fixed cognitive style (black and white thinking) leading to stereotypes about other groups. Strong positive correlation between an authoritarian personality and prejudice
- View society as ‘going to the dogs’ and believe strong and powerful leaders are needed to enforce traditional values
According to Adorno, where does this personality type originate from?
He hypothesised that the authoritarian personality is formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting. These experiences create resentment and hostility in the child that cannot be expressed and thus these feelings are displaced onto others who are perceived as weaker, explaining a dislike for people considered inferior
What is a limitation of the authoritarian personality theory? - Based on flawed methodology
===> Greenstein (1969) described F-scale as a ‘comedy of methodological errors’. All questions are worded in the same direction - possible to get a high score for ticking same line of boxes down one side. High-scorers may have been people pleasers and scale could just be measuring peoples’ tendency to agree (acquiescence bias). Jackson (1957) created a reversed version of F-scale where all items were reversed and gave both versions to a group of ppts. Found a strong positive correlation between both - opposite of what you would expect if the scale was valid
What is a strength of the authoritarian personality theory? - Evidence to support the relationship between the 2 constructs (high obedience and authoritarian personality)
===> Milgram and Elms (1966) interviewed 20 fully obedient ppts. and 20 disobedient from Milgram’s original experiment. Positive correlation found between high levels of obedience and those with an authoritarian personality. However, some fully obedient ppts. had a good relationship with their parents opposing the theory of origin - there may be other factors involved rather than just strict parents (e.g a lower level of education)
What is a limitation of the authoritarian personality theory? - Can’t fully explain all situations of obedience
===> In pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist behaviour even though their personalities varied. An alternative explanation using social identity theory is more realistic - majority of German people identified with anti-Semitic Nazi state and ‘scapegoated’ the ‘outgroup’ of Jews, so they were obedient in spite of their personalities. Challenges the validity of the theory of the authoritarian personality
What is a limitation of the authoritarian personality theory? - Isn’t a comprehensive explanation that can measure obedience across whole political spectrum
===> F-scale measures tendency towards an extreme right wing ideology. Christie and Jahoda (1954) argue this is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality as it ignores left-wing authoritarianism. Many left and right-wing ideologies share similar concepts, including obedience to legitimate authority but this isn’t explained by the authoritarian personality theory of obedience.
