Dispositional Explanations of Obedience

What is a dispositional explanation?

• A dispositional explanation of obedience is one which is based on the characteristics of an individual, e.g.

  • Some people are more likely to be obedient than others due to their personality traits

What did Theodor Adorno believe?

Adorno, like Milgram, wanted to understand the anti-Semitism behind the Holocaust. 

Adorno and his colleagues concluded that obedience is a psychological disorder, and believed the cause could be located in the personality of the individual. 

What is the The Authoritarian Personality?

a distinct personality pattern characterised by strict respect to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority

The identification of a particular personality type,  the Authoritarian Personality, provided a possible explanation for why some people require very little pressure in order to obey 

What is the origin of the Authoritarian Personality?

What is the Development of the Authoritarian Personality?

• A very disciplined upbringing 

  • Parents (particularly the father) are harsh and show little affection and issue severe punishments

•  Unconscious Hostility 

  • They consciously have very high opinions of their parents but unconsciously feel very aggressive towards them  

• Displacement 

  • This hostility is displaced (moved on to) onto safer targets, namely those who are weaker and so are unable to hurt them 

• Prejudice 

  • This results in prejudice views and discriminatory behaviour

What is the associated behaviour for the Characteristics of an Authoritarian Personality: General hostility towards other groups?

Has a dominating and bullying manner

What is the associated behaviour for the Characteristics of an Authoritarian Personality: Rigid beliefs in conventional values

Very traditional ideas – dislike of change and disorder

What is Adornos research?

Adorno et al. (1950) studied over 2000 white, middle-class Americans and their unconscious attitudes toward ethnic and religious minorities, political views and moral standards.

They did this using several rating scales, including the F-scale (fascism scale) and interviewing the participants. 

What was Adornos findings?

People with authoritarian leanings…

•  identified with ‘strong people’ and were contemptuous of the ‘weak’

• were very conscious of their own and others’ status, showing excessive respect, deference and servility to those of higher status

• had a cognitive style with fixed and distinctive stereotypes of other groups

There was a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Research Support - Dispositional Explanation

Elms & Milgram asked 20 obedient and 20 disobedient participants to complete personality questionnaires, including the F-scale. The obedient participants scored higher on the F-scale in comparison to disobedient participants. Interviews with the participants also revealed that obedient participants were less close to their fathers during childhood, and they admired the experimenter in Milgram’s original experiment.

However, this data is only correlational. There may be a third variable which is the cause of the authoritarian personality and the high level of obedience.

Limited Explanation - Dispositional Explanation

An explanation that is related to individual personality will find it hard to explain obedience for large populations. For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic views. It is unlikely that they all possessed an authoritarian personality. 

It is argued that social identity offers a better explanation for obedience.

What is the issue and debate?

nature vs nurture

Milgram argues that social context is the most important factor in understanding/explaining obedience. Focuses on the role of nurture.

The dispositional explanation suggests that personality is more important than social context. Our personality can be predisposed (nature).