obedience-dispositional explanation

• who proposed the authoritarian personality theory

  Adorno (1950)
• Adorno's claim about parenting

  over-strict parenting results in a child being socialised to obey authority unquestioningly because they learn strict obedience
• what is authoritarian personality

  a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obedience to authority

  such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors
• the result of strict parenting

  create prejudice

  strict parenting creates a feeling of constraint ,creating aggression

  hostile to people they see as weak or inferior to them, usually minority groups
• what side of the nature vs nurture debate is it part of

  nurture

  believes that external factors influence personality/ behaviour e.g. upbringing, environment
• why does strict-parenting cause hostility towards inferiors

  the children receive conditional love ('I will love you if..')

  Adorno argues this creates resentment and hostility

  they fear punishment so can't express their anger towards they parents

  so displace their feats onto those who are perceived as weak- scapegoating
• Adorno's procedure

  studied more than 2000 middle class white Americans

  researched their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups

  developed the F-scale (fascism scale)
• what does the F-scale measure

  used to measure authoritarian personality

  1= strongly disagree

  6= strongly agree
• example questions of the F-scale

  nobody ever learned anything really important except through suffering

  obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn
• findings of Adorno's research

  people with authoritarian learnings (high score in F-scale) identified with 'strong' people and were generally contemptuous of the 'weak'
• Adorno's findings of authoritarian people

  had a certain cognitive style in which there was no 'fuzziness' between categories of people

  fixed and distinctive stereotypes

  more obedient

  respect social hierarchies

  disdainful of anyone who shows 'weakness'

  resentment and anger towards authority
• strengths of Adorno's authoritarian personality theory

  research support (Milgram and Elms)

  F-scale is standardised (replicable)
• Milgram and Elms (1966) research

  interviews a small sample of people whop and been fully obedient in Milgram's study

  pps completed the F-scale

  the 20 obedient pps scored significantly higher on the overall F-scale than 20 disobedient pps
• Milgram and Elms conclusion

  supports Adorno's view that obedient people may show similar characteristics to people who ahem an authoritarian personality
• limitations of Adorno's theory

  limited explanation- can't explain all obedient behaviour

  political bias- f-scale only measures extreme right-wing ideology

  questionnaires aren't 100% valid