Dispositional Explanation

• Adorno believed that a high level of obedience was basically a patholagical disorder. They beliered the causes lie in the personality of the individual - dispositional.
• Adorno argued people with an authoritarian personality show an extreme respect for and submissiveness to authority. They view society as weaker so believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values: love of country and family. These characteristics make people with an authoritarian personality more likely to obey orders from authority.
• They would show contempt to those of lower / inferior social status: this is fuelled by their inflexible outlook on the world: for them there is only right and wrong, they're uncomfortable with uncertainty. Therefore people who are of different ethnic groups are responsible for the ills of society. These people are convenient scapegoats for authoritarians who are likely to obey orders from authority figures even when such orders are destructive.
• Adomo believed the AP personality type forms in chillhood, as a result of harsh parenting. This parenting style typically features overly strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings. These parents give conditional love.
• These childhood experiences create resentment and hostility in a child, but the child can't express these feelings to their parents directly in fear of punishment. Therefore, their feelings are displaced onto people who they believe are weaker than themselves. This explains 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.
• Adorno studied more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. The researchors developed many sales among the F-scale (potential -for - fascism scale). The F-scale is used to measure AP. F-scale items include:

  • Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn.
  • There is rarely anything lower than a person who doesn't heel great love, gratitude and respect for his parents.

  People who scored higher on the F-scale identified with ‘strong‘ people and were generally contemptuous of the weak.
• They were very conscious of status and showed extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status. All of these traits being the basis of obedience. Adorno also found that authoritarian people had a certain cognitive style; they have black of white thinking. They had fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups. Adorno found a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.