individual differences

• Personality factors affecting obedience - authoritarian personality

  • Adorno (1950) explained the high levels of obedience in terms of a person's disposition and called this the authoritarian personality
  • Adorno believed that a harsh style of parenting leads children to develop personality traits such as toughness, destructiveness and cynicism - all of which he termed 'authoritarianism'
  • he measured this trait using the F-scale
  • adorno believed this parenting style was rife in germany in the first part of the 20th century - many adult germans had personalities that were submissive to authority but harsh to those seen as subordinate
  • a more permissive style of parenting, centred around unconditional love might mean that children grow into adults who score low on F-scale and are more likely to show resistance to destructive orders
• Personality factors affecting obedience - internal and external LOC

  • Rotter (1966) proposed the idea that some people tend towards an internal locus of control, meaning they take greater responsibility for their actions as they believe they are in control of what they do and what happens to them
  • by contrast, other people tend towards an external LOC - they take less responsibility for their actions and feel that what happens to them is governed by other people and by chance factors.
  • 'internals' are more likely to show dissent and defy orders, wherear 'externals' are more likely to be obedient.
  • Miller (1975) demonstrated this in a study where a high or low status experimenter told participants to grasp live electric wires.
  • externals obeyed the high status experimenter more than the low status experimenter, while internals were unaffected by status.
• Evaluation of authoritarianism - strength

  • strength = supportive research
  • Elms and milgram (1966) used the F-scale with participants from Milgram's studies, testing 20 fully obedient participants and 20 who were not
  • obedient participants scored higher on the F-scale and also reported other characteristics of the authoritarian personality, such as less closeness to their fathers
  • these findings suggest that obedience is related to the personality characteristic of authoritarianism
• Evaluation of authoritarianism - weakness

  • Hyman and Sheatsley 1954
  • we cannot claim that there is a causal relationship between childhood experiences and authoritarianism /obedience becayse there are correlations.
  • other factors may be involved, for example, both obedience and authoritarian personality may be caused by a lower level education
• Evaluation of LOC

  • Schurz (1985) -weakness
  • in a study similar to Milgram's study, austrian participants were instructed to give painful doses of ultrasound to a female student.
  • those participants who were fully obedient did not differ significantly from those participants who resisted in terms of their scores on a questionnaire measuring LOC
  • suggests that personality may have little impact on obedience
• Personality factors affecting obedience - application

  • research can be applied to the field of human resources
  • some jobs require higher or lower levels of obedience
  • for example, organisations that require employees to follow procedures may prefer people who are obedient. To select suitable applicants the HR department might use a scale accessing LOC
  • the use of personality tests as part of the recruitment process may result in more successful matching of people and jobs, leading to greater productivity and job satisfaction.
• Heroes of the Rwandan genocide

  • in 1994 the African country of Rwanda was devastated by genocide. An estimated one million people were killed in just 100 days, at the hands of ordinary townsfolk who began attacking their neighbours. There were some who risked their own lives to protect others. Eg, Paul Rusesabagina protected more than a thousand people in his workplace. Similarly, Sister Felicite Niyitegeka provided refuge for 45 Tutsis in her workplace, defying Hutu order. When she was captured, she was told she would be spared as she was also a Hutu, but she said she would rather die with the Tutsis she had sheltered
  • (svoboda 2017)