obedience: dispositional explanation

• what are characteristics of AP?

  People who have an authoritarian personality show respect and submissiveness to authority. view society as weak so we need powerful leaders to enforce traditional values. more likely to obey orders from a source of authority. show contempt for those of inferior social status. There is no fuzziness and everything is either right or wrong and they are uncomfortable with uncertainty. People who are ‘other’ are responsible for ills of society. obey orders even when they could be destructive
• what was adornos study?

  2000 American white middle class men and their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups.He measured this using the f scale.he found that those who scored high on the f scale identified with string people and were contemptuous of the weak. They also had fixed stereotypes about other groups.
• what are the strengths for dispotional factors ?

  Milgram and Elms collected 20 obedient participants from the original study and made them complete the f scale. They scored highly compared to the 20 disobedient participants.People who are obedient have similar characteristics to those as authoritarians
• counterpoint?

  However those obedient people had unusual characteristics that authoritarians would have(not glorifying their fathers)Therefore the link between obedience and authoritarians is complex.
• limited explanation?

  in pre war Germany many people showed anti semitic behaviour. It is highly unlikely that they all have an authoritarian personality. Social identity theory works better as they could have identified with the anti semitic views. Alternative explanation is more realistic.
• political bias?

  Christie and Jahoda argued that the f scale is a politically biased interpretation.They point out reality left wing authoritarianism in the form of russian bolshevism and chinese maoism. In fact extreme right wing and left wing ideologies have a lot in common. They both show that you should obey political authority.  It does not account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum