The authoritarian personality

AO1

Dispositional explanations of obedience focus on internal personality characteristics within humans that contribute to obedience

one explanation focuses on authoritarian personality which was proposed by Adorno

he believed that the foundations for an authoritarian personality were laid in early childhood because of harsh and strict parenting

this creates resentment within the child as they grow up and since they cannot express it at the time, the feelings are displaced onto others who are seen as ‘weak’ or ‘inferior’ - according to Adorno this personality type is correlated with prejudice and discrimination as well as obedience.

AO1 - adorno findings

Adorno et al conducted a study using 2000 middle class caucasian Americans to find out their unconscious views towards other racial groups by developing a number of questionnaires using the F scale, which measured facist tendencies

those who scored high on the F scale were status-conscious, more obedient to authority figures and showed an extreme submissiveness and respect. they also believe that society requires strong leadership to enforce rigid, traditional values, hence their dispositional preference for obedient behaviour.

AO3 - research support

research support for the Authoritarian personality as an explanation fro obedience

Milgrim and Elms 1966 conducted a post- experimental interview with participants who were fully obedient in Milgrim’s study, to see if there was a link between high levels of obedience and an authoritarian personality

it was found that obedient particpants scored higher on the F scale in comparison to the disobedient participants. Furthermore, the obedient ppts were less close to their fathers during childhood and admired the experimenter in Milgrims study, which was quite the opposite for disobedient ppts.

it was concluded that the obedient participants in Milgrim’s original research displayed more characteristics of the authoritarian personality.

AO3 - counterargument - education is a mediating factor

However, there may have been individual differences that contribute to the development of the authoritarian personality

research by Middendorp and meleon has found that less-educated people are more likely than well-educated people to display authoritarian personality characteristics.

if these claims are correct, then it is possible that it is not authoritarian personality characteristics alone that lead to obedience, but also other factors including levels of education.

AO3 - methodological issues

there may be methodical criticisms associated with the measures used to determine authoritarian personality traits, it is possible that the F-scale suffers from response bias or social desirability bias, where ppts provide answers that are socially acceptable rather than the whole truth

For example, ppts may appear more authoritarian because they believe that their answers are socially correct and consequently they are incorrectly classified as authoritarian when they are not

this therefore reduces the internal validity of the questionnaire research method used in determining the degree of authoritarianism, suggesting that other factors/explanations may be responsible for obedient behaviour.