Social influence - dispositional factors of obedience Flashcards
situational
focus on influences that stem from the environment
dispositional
focus on influence of personality
authoritarian personality
collection of traits developed from strict parenting. conformist and obedience to people of perceived higher status
who proposed the F scale and when?
Adorno in 1950
what was the F scale?
developed after WW2, studying the holocaust. a questionnaire, F is for fascism. personality traits predispose people to be more likely to be prejudicial. stricter parents = scoring higher on F scale
what are traits of someone with an authoritarian personality?
black and white thinking
respect and obedience to those in authority
belief in aggression to those with different views to them
project their own feelings of inadequacy onto other ‘weaker’ groups
strengths of the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience
+ 1966 interviewed fully obedient participants in Milgram’s study and they found that more obedient pts meant a higher score on the F scale
+ gives a dispositional explanation for obedience rather than situational (explains why some people turn evil in evil places and others don’t)
limitations of the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience
- authoritarianism can’t explain obedience in the majority of a country’s population (Nazi Germany)
- the F scale is biased and only measures right wing ideology but strong right and left wing views are similar and they both value obedience to authority figures.
- many people have a difficult childhood but don’t have authoritarian personalities
- not a definite cause and effect between authoritarian personality and obedience in Milgram’s study
what is the agentic state?
when someone acts on behalf of the authority figure, feeling no responsibility for their actions or themselves
how does someone enter the agentic state?
an agentic shift
