Dispositional explanations

• What is a dispositional explanation?

  Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality (their disposition). Such explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations
• What did Adorno want to understand?

  The anti-semitism of the Holocaust, they believed that high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder (pathological), they believed that the causes of a disorder like this lie in the personality of the individual rather than the situation ie. its a dispositional explanation
• What are characteristics of an Authoritarian personality?

  -Show extreme respect for authority

  -View society as 'weaker' than it once was

  -Believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values

  -More likely to obey to orders from a source of authority

  -Show contempt for those of inferior status

  -Inflexible outlook on the world, everything is right/wrong and are uncomfortable with uncertainty
• What are origins of an Authoritarian personality?

  -Harsh childhood, with strict parenting

  -Strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings

  -Childhood experiences create resentment and hostility, but children cant express their feelings because they fear punishment

  -Fears are displaced onto others- scapegoating

  -Hatred towards people considered to be socially inferior or belong to other social groups

  -Psychodynamic explanation
• What was the aim of the study into dispositional explanations?

  To investigate the unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups of Americans
• What was the procedure of the study into dispositional explanations?

  200 middle class white Americans

  Several scales developed, including the potential-for-facism scale (F-Scale). Examples from the F-scale are rated on a scale from 1-6 where 6=strongly agree

  Examples:

  Obedience and respect for authority are the most important values for children to learn

  There is hardly anything lower than a person who doesnt feel great, love, gratitude and respect from parents
• What were the findings of the study into dispositional explanations?

  Authoritarians (who scored high on the F-scale and other measures) identified with 'strong' people and were contemptuous of the weak

  They were conscious of their own and other peoples status showing excessive respect and difference to those of higher status.

  Authoritarians also had a cognitive style where there was no 'fuzziness' between categories of people with fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups
• What was the conclusion about the study into dispositional explanations?

  Those with an authoritarian personality had more negative views towards ethnic groups and Americans
• AO3- Supporting evidence for the authoritarian personality

  E- Milgram and Elms (1966) interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies and had been fully obedient. They all completed the f-scale as part of the interview, 20 obedient participants scored significantly higher on the overall f-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants- the two groups were different in terms of authoritarianism

  E/L- Supporting Adorno's view that obedient people may show similar characteristics to people who have an Authoritarian personality. Backing up, making it more reliable
• AO3- Contradicting evidence

  E- When the researchers analysed the individual subscales of the f-scale, they found the obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians. EG/ milgram's obedient participants didnt glorify their fathers, didnt experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood and didnt have hostile attitudes towards their mothers

  E/L- This means the link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex. The obedient participants were unlike authoritarians in so many ways that authoritarianism is an unlikely predictor of obedience. Undermining the usefulness, reducing the validity
• AO3- Alternative explanation- authoritarianism cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country's population

  E- In pre-war Germany millions displayed obedient and anti-semitic behaviour. This was despite that they must have differed in their personalities in multiple ways. Its unlikely that they could all possess the Authoritarian personality, an alternative view is that the majority of German people identified with the anti-semitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the 'outgroup' of Jews, a social identity theory approach.

  E/L- Adorno's theory is limited because an alternative explanation is more realistic, need to take into account the alternative explanation as it may be more complex than originally proposed reducing the validity
• AO3- Politically biased- the f-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology

  E- Christie and Jahoda (1954) argued that the f-scale is politically-biased because they point out the reality of left-wing authoritarianism is the shape of Russian Bolshevism or Chinese Maoism. Extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have a lot in common, eg/ they both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority

  E/L- Adorno's theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum. Undermining
• AO3- F-scale is methodologically flawed

  E- Greenstein (1969) calls the f-scale 'a comedy of methodological errors' because its flawed. Its possible to get a high score just by selecting 'agree' answer. This means anyone with this response bias is assessed as having an authoritarian personality simply because they havent thought through their response.

  E/L- Research studies that use the f-scale may not be measuring authoritarian personality and therefore research using it and supporting the explanation of authoritarian personality, lacking validity