dispostional explanation

Cards (9)

  • what is the dispositional explanation:
    Focuses on internal characteristic that lie within an individual (e.g. personality) that lead them to more/less likely to follow the orders of an authority figure.
  • Investigating dispositional factors - Adorno:
    2000 middle class, white AmericansExplores their unconscious attitudes toward other racial groups
    F-scale developed
    Findings = Authoritarians scored high due to being conscious of status and found they has fixed prejudices about other groups
  • What is the authoritarian personality?
    A personality characterized by a strong preference for obedience to authority, conformity to societal norms, and hostility towards those who deviate from them.
  • characteristics of authoritarian personality:
    extreme respect and submission to authority.
    show contempt for people they perceive as having 'inferior' social status
    Believe in a need for strong & powerful leaders to enforce traditional values (e.g. love for country, religion, family, ect.)
    Inflexible outlook, everything is either right or wrong, and uncomfortable with uncertainty
  • how is the authoritarian personality developed?
    Formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting.Extremely strict discipline, expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards, and severe criticism of perceived failure.Conditional love.These experiences create resentment & hostility in the child, but they can't express their feelings to parents due to fear of reprisal
  • analysis:
    • evidence for authoritarian obedience
    • f scale is biased
    • alternative explanation
  • Evidence for authoritarians' obedience:
    Milgram interviewed 20 ppts who fully obeyed = scored higher on F scale than in the comparison of 20 disobedient ppts
    suggests obedient people share the same characteristics of people with authoritarian personality
    • but = subscale of F scale showed obedient ppts had unusual characteristics for authoritarians e.g no childhood punishment
  • F scale is biased:
    • Jahoda (1954) suggests F scale aims to measure tendency of extreme right-wing ideology
    • but right wing and left wing authoritarianism both insist on complete obedience to political authority
    • suggests Adornos theory is not comprehensive explanation as it doesn't explain left wing authoritarianism = politically biased
  • F scale methological issues:
    • people who tend to agree with statements (response bias) are scored authoritarian
    • obedience explanations based on research with F scale not valid