A03

• limitation- reductionist explanation

  • provides a limited explanation which could be considered reductionist. In pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist, and anti-Semitic behaviour, they cannot all had the personality which also suggests the explanation lacks ecological validity.
  • Research has now proposed a variety such as proximity, uniform, and agentic state. This shows the theory has limited explanation for some examples of obedience- some situational factors more suited
• limitation- methological issues, adorno et al 

  • the scale uses self-reporting which could be vulnerable to social desirability bias where certain individuals don’t want to portray discriminatory views as know it is not socially acceptable thus also reducing validity of findings.
  • Additionally, all American sample, individualistic, culture bias, imposed etic, lacks generalisability.
• research support- elms and milgram

  • Small sample of ppts from Milgram’s original study completed the F-scale. 20 obedient participants scored higher than the 20 disobedient participants. Therefore, increases reliability of theory individuals with AP are more obedient. 
  • However, when individual sub scales of answers analysed, obedient participants had characteristics unusual for AP e.g., no harsh parenting. Therefore, not all results increase reliability and could be considered an inconclusive explanation, unlikely people will match all traits of the AP, extreme categories.
  • all male sample