dispositional explanations of obedience

• Psychologists have examined dispositional (internal) factors that also contribute to obedience. One particular characteristic is the authoritarian personality, which has been associated with higher levels of obedience.
• Authoritarian personality is a personality type, as argued by Adorno, that is characterized by a strong belief in authority, obedience to authority figures, and a tendency to accept the views of others. They are thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
• Adorno et al. believed that the authoritarian personality is formed in childhood, mainly caused by harsh parenting. Adorno argued that childhood experiences create hostility and resentment, but a child cannot express these feelings directly to a parent due to fear of punishment. So their fears are displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker (scapegoating).
• Adorno et al. (1950) developed a questionnaire called the F-Scale (fascist scale) to test whether someone had an authoritarian personality. He studied more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. Some examples from the F-Scale are:

  • Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn
  • Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished 
• Findings

  • Those who scored high on the F-Scale identified with strong people, had contempt for the weak, admired high-status individuals and exhibited 'black and white' views
  • There were strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
• EVALUATION OF AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY:

  Milgram et al (1966) conducted interviews with a small sample of fully obedient participants. They scored highly on the F scale demonstrating a correlation between obedience and authoritarian personality.Counter: This is a correlation between two measured variables as so we cannot be sure that there is causation, there may be a third factor involved such as lower levels of education.
• EVALUATION OF AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY:

  people in pre-war Germany displayed obedient & racist behaviour. It's unlikely that all these people have an authoritarian personality. Another explanation is the social identity theory. Goldhagen: the majority of Germans identified with the Nazi state. the theory says people are categorised into social groups by shared features like race, gender, and religion. The groups provide a sense of social identity & belonging, which shapes their attitudes, beliefs etc.