Dispotional explanation:

• STRENGTH:

  • evidence from Milgram supporting the Authoritarian Personality
  • Milgram and Elms 1966 interviewed 20 people who had participated in the original obedience studies and been fully obedient
  • All completed the F-scale as part of the interview
  • These 20 obedient pp scored significantly higher on the overall F-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient pp
  • The two groups were clearly quite different in terms of authoritarianism.

  This finding supports Adorno et al's view that obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have an Authoritarian Personality.
• COUNTERPOINT

  • When the researchers analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale, they found that the obedient pp had a number of characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians.
  • IE: unlike authoritarians, Milgram's obedient pp generally did not experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood and did not have particularly hostile attitudes towards their mothers

  Means that the link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex

  The obedient pp were unlike authoritarians in so many ways that authoritarianism is unlikely to be a useful predictor of obedience
• LIMITATION

  • Authoritarianism cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a countrys population
  • IE pre-war Germany millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour
  • This was despite the fact they must have differed in their personalities
  • It unlikely that they could all possess an Authoritarian Personality
  • An alternative view is that the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state and scapegoated the outgroup of Jews a social identity theory approach

  Is limited because an alternative explanation is much more realistic