DISPOSITIONAL EXPLANATIONS

• What is the authoritarian personality?

  a type of personality that is believed to be especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. These people are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors
• what is a dispositional explanation?

  any explanation that highlights the importance of the individuals personality
• Who suggested the Authoritarian personality?

  Adorno et al
• where does the authoritarian personality originate from?

  childhood, through harsh parenting, extremely strict discipline, expectation of absolute loyalty. Also categorised by conditional love
• How did Adorno et al investigate the authoritarian personality?

  investigates unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups with 2000 white middle class Americans. The F-scale was produces.. Authoritarians scored high on the F-scale. They had fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups
• Strength of The authoritarian personality

  Research Support that Authoritarians are obedient - Milgram and Elms conducted interviews a with fully obedient participants who scored high on the F-Scale, correlation between obedience and Authoritarian personality
• Limitation of Authoritarian Personality

  cant explain a whole countries behaviour - eg Pre War Germany, millions displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour, it is impossible to generalise an entire country, could be something else causing obedience
• Limitation of F-Scale

  Politically biased, Christie and Jahoda suggest it aims towards extreme right-wing ideology, but left-wing authoritarianism also insists on complete obedience to political authority, therefore Adornos theory is not a comprehensive explanation as is doesn’t explain left-wing