Authoritarian personality and dispositional explanation

• What is a dispositional explanation of obedience?


  An explanation that is based on the characteristics of an individual. Some people are more likely to be obedient than others due to their personality traits.
• What did Adorno et al do?

  He devised a questionnaire known as the F-scale in order to measure the authoritarian personality. 2000 middle-class white Americans completed the scale.
• What are the characteristics of an authoritarian personality?

  • More obedient than others
  • Respect social hierarchies and authority figures
  • Rigid view of the world
  • Black and white opinions
  • Disdainful of anyone who shows weakness
  • Look down on those considered beneath them in the social hierarchy
  • May feel resentment or anger towards authority figures but direct these negative feelings to other lower-status people
• Where does an authoritarian personality originate from?

  Adorno suggested it forms during childhood as a result of having overbearing parents who don't encourage free will, expression or freedom of choice. Adorno thought that the child learns these behaviours and attitudes, eventually identifying with them and forming an authoritarian personality.
• Strengths of the dispositional explanation of obedience:

  • Elms and Milgram replicated the original Milgram study. They took 20 fully obedient participants and 20 disobedient participants and got them to complete the F scale test. High obedient ppts scored higher on the F scale test than the less obedient ppts. Supports Adorno's explanation.
  • F-scale questionnaire is replicable. Uses standardised questions. All answer the same questions which can be repeated with other groups.
• Weaknesses of the dispositional explanation of obedience:

  • Limited explanation. Cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country's population. e.g. pre-war Germany. Millions displayed obedient behaviour despite the fact they must have had different personalities.
  • Using questionnaire is not valid. People could lie (low-stakes, because they can), they could misremember details, could be affected by social desirability bias where they provide responses to paint them in the best light