Dispositional Variables

• Dispositional variables are internal factors that could affect obedience levels
• Authoritarian personality is a person that is more submissive which means they are more likely to obey people of authority.
• Characteristic of a authoritarian personality-

  Respect for authority

  Dislike people with inferior status

  Conventional attitudes towards gender
• Research for authoritarian personality:Elms and Milgram

  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.
• Findings-

  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 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.
• Finally, Elms and Milgram used Adorno’s F scale to determine levels of authoritarian personality. It is possible that the F scale suffers from response bias or social desirability where participants provide answers that are socially acceptable.
• Research that supports a common theme about authoritarian personality and the difference between disobedient and obedient people.