Dispositional explanations

• What is dispositional explanation?

  Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual's personality
• What are dispositional explanations often contrasted against?

  Situational explanations
• What did Adorno and his colleagues want to understand?

  The anti-semitism of the Holocaust
• What did Adorno conclude about obedience?

  That a high level of obedience was basically a psychological disorder - the causes of the disorder lie in the personality of the individual rather than in the situation
• what two things did Adorno argue about those with an Authoritarian personality?

  that people with an Authoritarian personality:

  1. show an extreme respect for authority and secondary these people view society as 'weaker' than it once was

  
  

  2. so they believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of country and family
• what do these two characteristics make those with an authoritarian personality more likely to do?

  obey orders from a source of authority
• what do those with authoritarian personalities show?

  disrespect for those of inferior status
• what is the disrespect for those of inferior status fuelled by?

  their inflexible outlook on the world - for them there are no grey areas and everything is either right or wrong and they are very uncomfortable with uncertainty
• what do those with authoritarian personalities believe about other people?

  that other people (e.g. those of a different ethnic group) are responsible for the ills of society - other people are therefore a convenient target for authoritarians who are likely to obey orders from authority figures even when such orders are destructive
• when does Adorno believe the authoritarian personality is formed?

  in child as a result of harsh parenting
• what does Adorno believe causes the Authoritarian personality?

  harsh parenting - this parenting style typically features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings
• what does Adorno argue about these childhood experiences?

  that they create resentment and hostility in a child - but they cannot express these feelings directly against their partner because they fear punishment
• why can't the child express their feelings of resentment and hostility against their parents?


  because they fear punishment
• what happens to the fears of punishment?

  they are displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker, known as scapegoating
• what does this displacement on the scapegoats explain?

  the hatred towards people considered to be socially inferior or who belong to other social groups, a central feature of obedience to a higher authority
• What type of explanation is the authoritarian personality?

  psychodynamic
• what was Adorno's procedure of his study?

  - studied more than 2000 middle class, white american and their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups

  
  

  - he developed several measurement scales such as the F scale (potential-for-fascism scale)
• what 4 things did Adorno find from his study?

  - people with authoritarian learnings (those who scored highly on the F-scale) identified with 'strong' people and were generally disrespectful of the 'weak'

  
  

  - they were very conscious of status and showed extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status - these traits are the basis of obedience

  
  

  - he also found that authoritarian people had a certain cognitive style in which there was no blurred lines between categories of people - they had fixed and distinctive stereotypes of other groups

  
  

  - he found a strong positive correlations between authoritarianism and prejudice
• strength - evidence from Milgram supporting the Authoritarian personality

  - Milgram and Elms interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies and been fully obedient

  
  

  - they all completed the F scale as part of the interview

  
  

  - these 20 obedient ppts scored significantly higher on the overall F scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient ppts

  
  

  - the two groups were clearly quite different in terms of authoritarianism

  
  

  this findings support Adorno's view that obedient people may well show similar characteristics of people who have an authoritarian personality
• limitation - authoritarianism cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country's population

  - fore example, in pre war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour

  
  

  - this was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities in all sorts of ways

  
  

  - it seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality

  
  

  - an alternative view is that the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic nazi state, and scapegoated the 'out group' of Jews - a social identity theory approach

  
  

  therefore, Adorno's theory is limited because an alternative explanation is arguably more realistic
• limitation - the F scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right wing ideology

  - Christie and Jahoda argued that the F-scale is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality

  
  

  - they point out the reality of left-wing authoritarianism in other societies

  
  

  - extreme right wing and left wing ideologies are very similar as they both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority

  
  

  this means that Adorno's theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum