1.6 obedience: dispositional explanations 🧡

What is dispositional explanation in psychology?

Any explanation of behavior that highlights the importance of the individual's personality.

What type of personality is described as especially susceptible to obeying authority?

Authoritarian personality.

According to Adorno, what factor contributes to developing an authoritarian personality?

Harsh parenting, particularly conditional love and high standards.

What did Adorno argue about people with authoritarian personalities regarding authority?

They are submissive to authority and dismissive of those who are inferior.

What was the purpose of Adorno's research involving over 2,000 middle-class white Americans?

To study their unconscious attitudes towards ethnic groups.

What scale did Adorno develop to measure potential for fascism?

The f-scale (potential-for-fascism scale).

What did higher scores on the f-scale indicate about a person's attitudes?

They identified with strong people and were more dismissive of the weak.

How did Milgram and Elms contribute to research on authoritarian personality?

They found that obedient participants in their studies scored higher on the f-scale than disobedient participants.

What is a major limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation for obedience?

It cannot explain obedient behavior for an entire country's population.

What criticism did Christie and Jahoda offer regarding the f-scale?

It only measures extreme right-wing ideology and fails to account for left-wing authoritarianism.

What did Greenstein suggest about the f-scale?

It is a flawed scale that allows response bias, making it easy to achieve a high score.