obedience: dispositional explanations

• authoritarian personality: a type of personality that adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying authority. such individuals are thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors
• AP and obedience

  adorno et al described AP as extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it, disrespect for inferiors
• origins of AP

  harsh parenting creates animosity that cannot be expressed against parents so is displaced onto scapegoats
• adorno et al's research: procedure

  used f-scale to study unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
• adorno et al's findings

  APs identify with 'strong' people, have fixed cognitive style, and hold stereotypes and prejudices
• research support

  obedient participants had high F-scores (elms and Milgram)

  counterpoint

  but obedient participants also unlike authoritarians in many ways, complex
• limited explanation

  can't explain obedience across a whole culture (social identity theory is better)
• political bias

  authoritarian equated with right-wing ideology, ignores left-wing authoritarianism (christie and jahoda)
• evaluation extra: flawed evidence

  F-scale is basis of AP explanation, but has flaws (e.g response bias) and so not useful (greenstein)