Dispositional Explanation of Obedience

• dispositional explanation

  explanations of behaviours, empahsising them being caused by an individual's personal characteristics rather than situational influences within the environment
• f-scale

  a measure of authoritarian traits or tendencies
• authoritarian personality

  a distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority
• right wing authoritarianism

  a cluster of personality variable that are associated with a right wing attitude to life
• Ardono et al f-scale

  • the causes of the obedient personality in a study of over 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their conscious attitudes towards racial groups
  • potential for fascism scale
  • people with authoritarian leanings identified with strong people and were generally disdainful of the weak (high on the f-scale)
  • they were also conscious of their own and others statuses, showed excessive respect, deference and servility to those of higher status
  • authoritarian people had a cognitive style with no blurred lines between categories of people, with fixed and distinct stereotypes about other groups
  • a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
• authoritarian characteristics

  • obedient to authority
  • respect to authority and submissiveness to it
  • disrespect to people they see as having inferior social status
  • conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender
  • believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values like love of country, religion and family
  • inflexible in their outlook with no grey areas
  • uncomfortable with uncertainty
• right wing authoritarianism

  • high RWA contains a cluster of three important characteristics that predispose them to obedience
  • conventionalism - adherence to conventional norms and value
  • authoritarian aggression - aggressive feelings to those who violate those norms and values
  • authoritarian submissions - uncritical submission to legitimate authorities
  • a personality type to describe someone who is highly submissive to their authority figures, acts aggressively in the name of these authorities and is conformist in their thoughts and behaviours