dispositional explanation of obedience

dispositional explanation

any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality (their disposition)

authoritarian personality

• a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority

• such individuals are also thought to be submission of those oh higher status and dismissive of inferiors

what did Theodor Adorno aim to explore about obedience?

• he set to explore the anti-semitism of the holocaust

• they believed being obedient was a psychological disorder and means that individual factors control obedience not the situation

Adorno et al. (1950) authroitatrian personality experiment- procedure

• studied more than 2000 middle class white Americans, explored their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups

• they used the potential for fascism scale (F scale), this is still used to measure authoritarian personality

• they used questions eg obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn, participants had to say how much they agreed

Adorno et al. (1950) authroitatrian personality experiment- findings

• people who scored high on the F scale are classed as having an authoritarian personality and identify with 'strong' people, judgmental of the weak, are conscious of status and show extreme respect to people with a higher status

• they have a fixed way of thinking of others, their cognitive style is black and white with no grey areas between groups of people, distinct stereotypes about certain groups especially those 'beneath' them

• strong correlation between authoritarian personality and prejudice

what is the link between obedience and authoritarian personality?

• Adorno thought an authoritarian personality creates extreme respect for authority as they see society as weaker than it used to be so we need strong leaders to promote traditional values, makes them more likely to obey authority

• they show contempt for people of inferior social status, things are either right or wrong and people in a different social group to them are responsible for how poor society has become, why they often obey orders which will harm the others

where does authoritarian personality come from?

• Adorno suggested its formed from harsh parenting in childhood: strict discipline, impossibly high standards, conditional love, severe criticism etc

• this creates resentment and hostility, the child can't talk about how they feel as they fear punishment so displace their fears onto other people they think are weaker- scapegoating

• psychodynamic explanation

strength of dispositional explanation of obedience- research support

• Milgram & Elms (1966) interviewed a sample of 20 of their fully obedient participants in the original Milgram experiment

• they completed the F scale, they scored significantly higher on the F scale than a control of 20 disobedient participants

• supports the idea that obedient people may have an authoritarian personality

weakness of dispositional explanation of obedience- research support counterpoint

• analysis of each sub scale of the F scale found obedient participants weren't fully authoritarian, they didn't glorify their fathers, experience unusual levels of punishment as a child or have hostile attitudes towards their mothers

• suggests that the link between obedience and authoritarianism isn't black and white and authoritarianism isn’t a useful predictor of obedience

weakness of dispositional explanation of obedience- limited explanation, can’t explain a whole countries behaviour

• pre war Germany had millions obeying to anti-semitic behaviour, they had different personalities and probably not all authoritarian

• unlikely that the majority of Germany’s population had an authoritarian personality, more likely they identified with the Nazi state

• social identity theory would suggest the Germans identified with the anti-semitic views of the Nazis and segregated the Jews, may be a better explanation

weakness of dispositional explanation of obedience- political bias

• hristie & Jahoda (1954) suggest the F-scale suggests that right wing ideology is authoritarian and negative and aims to measure tendency towards it

• Russian behaviourism was a left wing policy with clear authoritarian views, extreme left and right wing ideologies share their view of obedience to authority, not explored in F scale

• so theory isn’t a comprehensive dispositional explanation as it doesn't explore obedience to left wing authoritarianism

weakness of dispositional explanation of obedience- flawed evidence

• F scale used in many research studies allowed for discussion of personality in obedience but is flawed

• if someone selects all 'agree' answers are scored as authoritarian but they may have done it for speed, to conform or to please the researcher (demand characteristics)

• therefore obedience explanations based on the F scale may not be valid