Dispositional Explanation For obedience

• The Authoritarian Personality is formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting, which features extremely strict discipline and severe criticism of perceived failings.  The parents’ love for their child is conditional so depends on how the child behaves.

  These experiences create hostility and anger in the child but they cannot express this to the parent, as that would be disloyal and punishable so they displace their feelings on to weaker individuals in a process called scapegoating.  This explanation therefore uses aspects of the Psychodynamic explanation.
• Adorno et al concluded that people with an authoritarian personality are especially obedient to authority. They tend to:

  •     have exaggerated respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
  •     express contempt for people of an inferior social status.
  •   have conventional attitudes towards race and gender.
• Who authored the concept of the Authoritarian Personality?

  Theodor Adorno
• What was the aim of Adorno's study on the Authoritarian Personality?

  To understand Holocaust anti-semitism and obedience
• In what year was the study on the Authoritarian Personality published?

  1950
• What method was used to study the participants in Adorno's research?

  1. scale (fascism scale)
• What demographic was studied in Adorno's research on the Authoritarian Personality?

  White middle-class Americans
• What did the F-scale investigate in participants?

  Their unconscious attitude towards racial groups
• How many participants were involved in Adorno's study?

  More than 2000
• What was a key finding regarding participants who scored high on the F-scale?

  They identified with 'strong' people
• How did high F-scale scorers view 'weak' people?

  They were contemptuous of 'weak' people
• What behavior did high F-scale scorers exhibit towards those of higher status?

  Excessive respect and deference
• What correlation was found in Adorno's study?

  Between authoritarianism and prejudice
• What conclusion did Adorno draw about people with an authoritarian personality?

  They tend to be especially obedient to authority
• How do individuals with an authoritarian personality view leadership?

  They believe we need strong leaders
• What characteristic describes the outlook of people with an authoritarian personality?

  They are inflexible in their outlook
• What psychological disorder was investigated in relation to obedience in Adorno's study?

  Obedience as a psychological disorder
• Strength

  • There is evidence for the dispositional explanation of obedience: Elms and Milgram (1966) found that obedient pps in Milgram’s study scored higher on the F-Scale than disobedient pps.  A further finding was that obedient participants reported being less close to their fathers in childhood compared with disobedient participants. 

  However, many obedient participants also reported having good relationships, so this may not be the best explanations for obedience.
• Strength

  • Authoritarian Personality can predict behaviour:  Altemeyer (1988) found that pps with Authoritarian Personalities give themselves higher shocks when ordered to do so than non AP types.  They are therefore more obedient than non AP types which supports Adorno’s theory and findings as this is what you would predict would happen based on Adorno’s theory.
• Strength

  • The theory can be used as a practical application: Zillmer (1995) found that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on some F-Scale dimensions and this could explain why they behaved as they did in WW2.  In theory, it could therefore be possible to pre-test those in the armed forces to see whether they are likely to show destructive obedience.
• Weakness

  • There are other alternative explanations for obedience:  The social context may be more important than personality factors.  Milgram’s research showed that context, such as location, caused differences in obedience levels.  He argued that they were a better predictor of obedience than personality factors.   This reduces the validity of the authoritarian personality, as the authoritarian personality may not be the best explanation for obedience.
• Weakness

  • A further issue with methodology is that Adorno developed his Authoritarian Personality explanation through the use of the F Scale self-report questionnaire.  Questionnaires are prone to demand characteristics (where pps say what they think the researcher wants them to) and this can reduce the internal validity of the findings.  This means that Adorno’s findings may not be accurate so the authoritarian personality may not be a good explanation for obedience.
• Weakness

  • Methodology is an issue when investigating authoritarian personality: it does not matter how strong a correlation between 2 variables might be, it does not show cause and effect so Adorno cannot claim that harsh parenting caused the development of an authoritarian personality.  Adorno’s work may therefore lack internal validity because it may not have been testing what he thought it was.