DISPOSITIONAL EXPLANATIONS

• dispositional explanation for obedience

  explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the person's personality
• ardono et al

  • wanted to understand the anti-semetism of the Holocaust
  • high level of obedience is a psychological disorder
  • cause of it is found in the personality
• procedure Adorno used

  1. 2000 middle class white Americans
  2. measured by the unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
  3. measured by the F-scale (facism)
  4. ('obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues a child can learn')
  5. ('there is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel great love, gratitude and respect for their parents')
• findings of Adorno

  • high scores on the F-scale means that people identified with strong people and were generally contemptuous of the weak
  • conscience of their own and others' status, showing excessive respect for those with higher status
  • positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
• authoritarian personality

  • obedient to authority
  • extreme respect for authority and are submissive
  • contempt for people with lower social status
  • highly conventional views towards sex, race and gender
  • we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional views
  • inflexible in outlook
  • uncomfortable with uncertainty
• origin of authoritarian views

  • formed in childhood
  • result of harsh parenting
  • strict parents with an expectation of loyalty
  • create resentment in the child - but cannot express these feelings as scared of consequences
  • so fears displaced onto others
• 1. a limit of dispositional explanations is that the direction of causation is unclear

  • Adorno et al
  • measured an impressive range of variables
  • and found many significant correlations
  • no matter how strong the correlation is between variables
  • it doesn't cause one another
• 2. (limit of dispositional factors - causation) this is a problem as

  • Aldorno's research that strict parenting causes an authoritarian personality
  • likely these 2 factors don't cause one another but just linked
  • multiple other factors that could cause the authoritarian
• 3. (limit of dispositional factors - causation) therefore it is argued that

  • dispositional explanation of obedience do not clarify if strict parenting causes authoritarian personality
  • or if is linked to harsh parenting with other factors included
• 1. a strength of dispositional explanations of obedience is that it is supported by evidence from

  • Milgram + Elms
  • used Adorno's F-scale and a personality test (MMPI) to compare
  • 20 obedient and 20 disobedient pps from Milgram's study
• 2. (strength of dispositional explanation - evidence) the results indicated that

  • no general personality differences existed between the two groups
  • obedient group were shown to be more authoritarian as measured by the F-scale
• 3. (strength of dispositional explanation - evidence) in addition

  • Altmeyer
  • measured authoritarianism using a more reliable scale (RWA)
  • positive correlation between authoritarianism and the levels of shock pps were willing to give
• 4. (strength of dispositional explanation - evidence) this suggests that

  • there is a link between the authoritarian personality and the level of obedience displayed by people
• 1. a limitation of dispositional explanations of obedience is that

  • it is restricted in its explanation
• 2. (limit of dispositional explanation - restricted) this is a problem as

  • explaining obedience in terms of individual personality cannot apply to a population as a whole
  • there must be different aspects to all those personalities
  • unlikely an entire population consists of an authoritarian personality
• 3. (limit of dispositional explanation - restricted) however

  • alternative explanations are more realistic (social identity)
  • suggests that majority of people in a population identify with the social group
  • following the beliefs and behaviours
  • (Germans identifying with the Nazi state)
• 4. (limit of dispositional explanation - restricted) therefore it can be argued that

  • relying on an explanation of obedience based purely on authoritarianism
  • lacks flexibility to account for other explanations