dispositional explanations

• dispositional explanations are explanations of behaviour which highlight importance of individuals personality rather than situational influences in environments
• main dispositional explanation is authoritarian personality
• adorno claimed there was a particular personality type more likely to obey an authority - high level of obedience is seen as a psychological disorder
• adornos study procedure

  • 2000 middle class white americans - investigated their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
  • 'f' scale used to measure relationship between persons personality type and their prejudiced beliefs - used questionnaires
  • in 2nd part some individuals were interviewed rather than using questionaire
• 'f' scale stands for facist - someone who believes in totalitarian state ruled by dictator who controls everyone and treats people harshly.
• findings of adornos study into authoritarian personality

  • high score on f scale = identified with 'strong' people and had little feelings towards the 'weak' - conscious of own and others status
  • high scorers had particular cognitive style - no 'grey areas' between categories of people, have fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups, there was strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
• authoritarian personality is an explanation as to why some people require little pressure to obey
• authoritarian personality is a personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and belief in absolute obedience/submission to authority
• characteristics of authoritarian personality

  • rigid beliefs in conventional values - very traditional ideas (dislike change)
  • general hostility towards other groups - dominating and bullying manner
  • intolerant towards ambiguity - cannot tolerate behaviour that is wrong in any way
  • submissive attitudes towards authority figures.
• development of authoritarian personality

  • very disciplined upbringing - parents are harsh and show little affection and issues severe punishments
  • unconscious hostility - consciously have high opinions of their parents but unconsciously feel very aggressive towards then
  • displacement - hostility is displaced onto safer targets - those who are weaker so are unable to hurt them
  • prejudice
• evaluation points for dispositional explanations points

  • research support
  • methodological bias
  • social desirability bias/individual differences
• research support as evaluation point for dispositional explanation

  • milgram and his assistant conducted a follow up study using ptts who took part in original study
  • found those who were fully obedient and went up to charging 450v scored higher on tests of authoritarianism and lower on social responsibility scale than those who went against the experimenter
  • findings support adornos claims although only correlation could be determined
  • research support highlights reliability where adornos claims can be seen as consistent
• methodological bias as eval point for dispositional explanation

  • interviews conducted in adornos study were vulnerable to to interviewer bias
  • interviewers knew the hypothesis of study - they were aware of what info they needed
  • knowing ptts test scores also meant they knew in advance whether interviewee was likely to have an authoritarian personality
  • upon questioning interviewees their questions would be guided by added knowledge of them having an authoritarian personality - may have only recorded what they need to hear to confirm their hypothesis is correct
• social desirability bias being eval point

  • adornos procedure consisted of ptts completing questionnaire and having interviews later on
  • questionnaires have high bias rates where individuals may choose certain answers to make self look better than personal beliefs - this also occurs when in interviews
  • limitation of adornos process of establishing whether individuals have this form of personality includes research process used which seen as limiting reliability of study
  • additionally individuals can disrupt the findings - may not be fully truthful in the answers they provide