dispostional explanation

• 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