the dispositional explanation for obedience

Question 1

what kind of explanation is it ?

Answer 1

an internal explanation

Question 2

what does the explanation suggest ?

Answer 2

it suggests that certain personality types are more likely to be obedient

Question 3

who investigated this explanation ?

Answer 3

Adorno

Question 4

what did Adorno investigate ?

Answer 4

the authoritarian personality

Question 5

what did Adorno say that a person with an authoritarian personality does ?

Answer 5

• submits to the authority of those in higher position ( high status or power )
• is authoritarian to those of lower status or power
• characterized by excessive and blind obedience to authority
• have strict parents with a harsh parenting style

Question 6

when did Adorno investigate the authoritarian personality ?

Answer 6

1950

Question 7

what did Adorno develop in his investigation ?

Answer 7

Adorno developed an attitude questionare which measures different aspects of personality

Question 8

what was the questionnare known as ?

Answer 8

the f - scale (fascist)

Question 9

state Adorno’s research

Answer 9

he studied over 2000 middle class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups using the potential to fascism scale and other measurement scales.

Question 10

state Adorno’s findings

Answer 10

• people with authoritarian leanings (those who scored high marks) identified with strong people and were generally contemptuous of the weak. They were very conscious of status and these traits are the basis of obedience.
• found that authoritarian people had a certain cognitive style, where there is no fuzziness between categories of people. they had a fixed distinctive stereotype about other groups

Question 11

between what did he find a strong positive correlation ?

Answer 11

strong positive correlation between authoritarian and prejudice

Question 12

Evaluation -
limited explanation

Answer 12

authoritarian cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a countries population
e.g in pre war Germany millions of people displayed obedient, racist and anti-semetic behavior eventhough they must have differed in personality and it seems very unlikely that the majority of german people possessed the authoritarian personality

Question 13

what is an alternative view for pre-war germany ?

Answer 13

that the majority of the german people identified with the anti-semetic nazi state and scapegoated the outgroup of jews.

Question 14

Evaluation
- political bias

Answer 14

the F-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right wing ideology
the f-scale has a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality. in fact extreme right wing and left wing ideologies have a lot in common which means Adorno’s theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.

Question 15

Evaluation
- research support

Answer 15

Elm’s and Milgram’s research support the AP explanation for obedience because it shows that the obedient people show similar characteristics to people who have an authoritarian personality

Question 16

counter argument for research support

Answer 16

the link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex as the obedient p’s were unlike authoritarians in so many ways that authoritarianism is unlikely to be a useful predictor of obedience

Question 17

Evaluation of theory
- harsh parenting style

Answer 17

harsh parenting style does not always produce obedient children / individuals
e.g rebellious children

Question 18

more evaluation of theory ?

Answer 18

• some obedient people do not conform tot he authoritarian personality type
• does not explain why people are obedient to certain groups but not others
• the AP does not explain how whole social groups (e.g Nazi’s) can be obedient

Question 19

evaluation of procedure
- the F-scale

Answer 19

the f-scale is limited because it is difficult to answer the statement using the scale
- it is too open to interpretation ( the difference between slightly agree and agree somewhat is ambiguous) and it is hard to interpret the statement