authoritarian personality

dispositional explanation

suggests that obedient behaviour is due to internal traits such as personality type, rather than situational factors

what does an authoritarian personality mean

• they are particularly susceptible to obeying authority

what kind of explanation is the authoritarian personality

psychodynamic explanation

what is the cause of an authoritarian personality

• develops from harsh parenting

• impossibly high standards

• conditional love= how they behave

• creates resentment and causes child to displace anger onto inferiors

profile of an authoritarian personality

• extreme respect for authority and obedience to it

• black and white thinking

• contempt for inferiors (harsh and hostile)

EVALUATION: fscale study suggesting explanation of obedience to authority by ADORNO

• adorno et al

• used f scale questionnaire on 2000 middle class Americans

• found high scores on f scale links to identification with strong

• contempt for the weak

• black and white thinking

• deference to those of higher status

• this can explain a reason for obedience

EVALUATION: milgram and elms suggesting correlation between AP and obedience

• milgram and elms

• interviewed fully obedient p’s and compared to disobedient

• obedient had a high AP score on Fsacle

• were also less close to fathers, they admired experimenter but learner was less admirable

• supports AP as explanation as obedient p’s had more AP traits than those who disobeyed

EVALUATION: AP can’t explain effect of situational variable on obedience

• milgram found that social context (ie his variable) had major effect on levels of obedience

• we cannot fully explain this in terms of AP

• this suggests a full explanation of obedience needs to take into account situational and dispositional factors which AP doesn’t do.

EVALUATION: AP is a deterministic approach to explaining obedience

• AP explanation= all children who experience harsh parenting + use defence mechanisms will become highly obedient individuals to the point of extreme obeying (holocaust)

• does not fit perceptions of free will and control over destinies

• problem: this suggests intergenerational cycle of obedience cannot be broken which we know is not true in some cases