Dispositional explanations

• Dispositional explanation

  Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality (i.e. their disposition). Such explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations
• Context

  Like Milgram, Theodor Adorno and his colleagues wanted to understand the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust. ​Their research led them to draw very different conclusions from Milgram’s. ​A high level of obedience = a psychological disorder (i.e. pathological). ​They believed that the causes of such a disorder lie in the personality of the individual rather than in the situation, i.e. it is a dispositional explanation.
• Characteristics of authoritarian personality

  • extreme respect for authority
  • contempt for inferior social status
  • inflexible outlook- right or wrong, no 'grey' areas
  • scapegoating of 'other' groups
  • obedience to destructive authority
• Origins of authoritarian personality

  Develops in childhood due to harsh parenting characterized by strict discipline, demands for absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards, severe criticism of failures, conditional love. Adorno et al. argued that these experiences create resentment and hostility in the child, but fear of punishment prevents them from expressing these feelings towards their parents. Instead, these emotions are displaced onto weaker individuals or groups through scapegoating, leading to hatred of those seen as socially inferior or different.
• Adorno et al's procedure

  Adorno et al. (1950) studied more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans & their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups. ​The researchers developed several measurement scales, including the F-scale. ​Two examples of items from the F-scale are: ​

  • ‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn’ ​
  • ‘There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel great love, gratitude and respect for his parents’
• Adorno et al's findings

  A high F-Scale score reflects an authoritarian personality, marked by identifying with the strong, respecting higher status, and having rigid "black and white" thinking. Authoritarians hold fixed stereotypes about other groups and show a strong link between authoritarianism and prejudice.
• Strength (dispositional explanation- AP)

  P- research support

  E- Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed the fully obedience participants in Milgram’s study and found that they all scored highly on the F-Scale. This supports the idea of obedience due to the authoritarian personality. ​

  CA- only correlation between variables and not certain AP caused

  T- evidence
• Limitation (dispositional explanation- AP)

  P- cannot explain all obedient behaviour

  E- millions of people in Germany displayed anti-semitic behaviours and obeyed the Nazi’s, but it is unlikely that all of these had the authoritarian personality. Alternative view is social identity theory.

  T- not universal explanation
• Limitation(F-scale)

  P- political bias- F-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme right-wing ideology. ​

  E- Christie and Jahoda (1954) argue this. They point towards left-wing authoritarianism e.g. Chinese Maoism, and how this also involves complete obedience to political authority

  T- theory not comprehensive enough to account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.​
• Limitation (F-scale)

  P- flawed methodology

  E- Greenstein (1969) calls the F-scale a ‘comedy of methodological errors due to its flaws. ​Possible to get a high score just by selecting ‘agree’ answers. Anyone with this response-bias will be seen as having an authoritarian personality.​

  T- challenge validity