Strength

• P: There is research support for authoritarian personality as an explanation
• B: Milgram and Elms (1966)

  Milgram and Elms (1966) found that fully obedient participants in Milgram's study scored highly on the F-scale,

  demonstrating that there may be a link between obedience and authoritarian personality. The ppts were less close to their father in childhood and admired the experimenter in Milgram's research, showing respect for authority.
• S: This demonstrates that obedient ppts in the experiment displayed more characteristics of authoritarian personality and therefore suggests it can explain why people may obey.
• Elms and Milgram (1966) wanted to see if the obedient participants in Milgram’s research were more likely to display authoritarian personality traits, in comparison to disobedient participants.
• Their sample consisted of 20 obedient participants, who administered the full 450 volts and 20 disobedient participants, who refused to continue.
• Each participant completed several personality questionnaires, including Adorno’s F scale, to measure their level of authoritarian personality.
• In addition, participants were also asked open-ended questions about their relationship with their parents and their relationship with the experimenter and learner, during Milgram’s experiment.
• Elms and Milgram found that the obedient participants scored higher on the F scale, in comparison to disobedient participants.
• In addition, the results also revealed that obedient participants were less close to their fathers during childhood [all of the participants in Milgram’s original experiment were male] and admired the experimenter in Milgram’s experiment, which was the opposite for disobedient participants.
• Elms and Milgram concluded that the obedient participants in his original research displayed higher levels of the authoritarian personality, in comparison to disobedient participants.