Dispositional explanation

• Not all psychologists accept that obedience can be fully explained by the influence of situational factors. They reason that personality or disposition affects the way that a person will obey.
• The authoritarian personality

  • Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying those in authority
  • Fromm proposed it to explain those who hold right wing, conservative views (believe in absolute obedience & a need for power/toughness)
  • Adorno suggested that the personality is shaped in childhood as a result of strict and hierarchial parenting (including the use of physical punishment)
• Authoritarian personality:

  • R - rigid beliefs
  • I - intolerant of ambiguity
  • S - submissive to authority
  • H - hostile to lower status/ members of an outgroup

  "RISH"
• Adorno constructed a questionnaire called the F scale to measure the authoritarian personality. It had 30 questions and measured nine personality dimensions.
• Authoritarian personality - A03

  • Elms and Milgram found that highly obedient Ps in Milgram's study were highly more obedient on the F scale than disobedient people, which supports the idea of a link between the authoritarian personality and obedience
• Authoritarian personality- A03

  • A limitatin of the F scale is that it has response bias. This is because the words are phrased in a confirming direction which means that if you agree with the words you are assumed to have an authoritarian personality.
  • "concept has no basis if methodology is flawed"
• Authoritarian personality - A03

  • A weakness of this explanation is that it is politically biased. Ps who score high on the Fscale are assumed to have right wing conservative views.
  • BUT you can be left wing and still be authoritarian
• Authoritarian personality - A03

  Other factors:

  • A strict upbrining may not be the only factor that causes people to be obedient.
  • Milgram found that Ps with lower levels of education tended to be more obedient than higher education.
  • Suggests a lack of education is a factor affecting obedience