dipositional explanation

• research support 


  P: strength - research support from Milgram

  E: interviewed a small sample of fully obedient ppts who scored highly on f - scale

  E: 20 obedient ppts scored higher than 20 disobedient ppts - both groups different in terms of authoritarianism

  L: therefore obedient people have similar characteristics to those with an authoritarian personality
• What is the authoritarian personality?

  A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
• What are authoritarian characteristics?

  - Tendency to be especially obedient to authority.

  - Extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.

  - Show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status.

  - Have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
• What is the origin of criminal personality?

  - Formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting.

  - Parenting style= strict discipline, expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.

  - Parenting also characterised by conditional love.
• counterpoint

  P: obedient ppts had different characteristics to authoritarians

  E: milgrams ppts did not glorify their fathers

  E: milgrams ppts did not experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood or hold hostility towards mothers

  L: therefore the link between obedience and authoritarianism complex
• what does harsh parenting lead to?

  hese experiences create resentment and hostility in the child

  but the child can't express these emotions directly against parents due to well-founded fear of reprisals

  Fears are displaced onto others who are perceived to be weaker (scapegoating)
• what does harsh parenting explain about criminal personality?


  Explains central trait of obedience to higher authority and dislike/hatred for socially inferior groups = Psychodynamic explanation.
• limited explanation 


  P: limitation - limited explanation

  E: pre-war Germany, many people displayed obedient and anti-semitic behavior

  E: alternatively majority of Germans identiified with the anti-semitic Nazi state and scapegoated Jews

  L: therefore alternative explanation more realistic
• political bias

  P: limitation - f - scale measures tendency towards right-wing ideology

  E: extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies similar

  E: e.g. both emphaise importance of complete obedience to political authority

  L: therefore theory not comprehensive