SOCIAL INFLUENCE: obedience - dispositional explanation

Question 1

what is dispositional explanation?

Answer 1

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality.

Question 2

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 2

A type of personality that Adorno argues that was open to obeying people in authority.
- such people are submissive to people in higher status and dismissive to inferiors.

Question 3

what causes/shapes the authoritarian personality?

Answer 3

experiences in childhood - harsh parenting
eg strict discipline, high standards, criticism of failings
- parents give conditional love
- causes resentment and hostility in a child that they cannot express directly as they fear punishment
- fears are displaced on others who are socially inferior= causing hatred on people who are socially inferior

Question 4

Outline the procedure Adorno et al’s research (1950)

Answer 4

• more than 2000 middle-class, white americans were studied
• their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups were studied
• F- scale was used to measure Authoritarian personality
  eg ‘obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn’

Question 5

Outline the findings from Adorno et al’s research (1950)

Answer 5

• those scored highly identified with ‘strong’ people and disrespected the weak - Authoritarian findings
• people with AF were conscious of their own status and showed extreme respect to those of higher status.
• Authoritarian people have a certain cognitive way of thinking
• people with AF had distinctive stereotypes about other groups
• Adorno et al found a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.

Question 6

what are the STRENGTHS of AP?

Answer 6

+ there is evidence supporting the authoritarian personality.
Eg. Elms and Milgram 1966 - interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies and were fully obedient. The participants completed the scale. 20 obedient participants scored higher on the overall F-scale

This supports Adorno et al’s View that obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have authoritarian personality.

Question 7

what are the LIMITATIONS of AP?

Answer 7

• Elms and Milgram COUNTER POINT = when the researchers analyse the individual sub scales of the F-scale they found that the obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians. Milligrams obedient participants generally did not glorify their fathers unlike authoritarians.

This means the link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex.

• there is an alternative view that explains obedient behaviour = majority of the German people identified with antisemitic Nazis state and scapegoated the outer group of Jews, a social identity theory approach.

-F scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right wing ideology
Christie ang Jahoda 1954 argued that the F-scale is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality.
They point out that extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have a lot in common, they both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority.
This means Adornos theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.