dispositional explanation eval

• limitation of AP to do with correlation not causation

  Correlation not causation

  Adorno and his colleagues measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them

  For instance, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups

  However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it doesn't follow that one causes the other.

  Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an AP.
• strength of AP to do with education and research support

  Education may determine authoritarianism and obedience

  Research has found that less-educated ppl are consistently more authoritarian than the well-educated

  Milgram found that participants with lower levels of education tended to be more obedient than those with higher levels of education

  This suggests that instead of authoritarianism causing obedience, lack of education could be responsible for both authoritarianism and obedience
• limitation of AP to do with limited explanation

  Limited explanation- any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviors in the majority

  For e.g, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour.

  This was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities in all sorts of ways. Seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an AP. This is a limitation of Adorno's theory bc it's clear that an alt explanation is much more realistic- that social identity explains obedience.

  The majority of the German ppl identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the 'outgroup' of Jews.
• strength of AP to do with research support

  Research support: Elms and Milgram carried out a follow-up study using participants

  who previously took part in one of Milgram's study. Selected 20 obedient participants (continued to final shock) and 20 defiant (those who refused to continue)

  Each participant completed the F-scale to measure levels of authoritarianism

  Found higher levels of authoritarianism among obedient, compared with defiant

  This finding supports Adorno et al's view that obedient ppl may show similar characteristics to people who have an AP