obedience: dispositional explanations

obedience: dispositional explanations

1. authoritarian personality

   • Adorno wanted to understand the Holocaust
     • high levels of obedience was because of a psychological disorder
   • procedure
     • Adorno
       • obedient personality study
         • 2000 middle class white Americans
           • looked at their unconscious attitudes towards racial groups
   • the potential for fascism scale
     • f scale
       • measures authoritarian personality
   • findings
     • high score = condescending of the weak, conscious of others status
       • they also had fixed stereotypes for people
         • there was a strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
   • authoritarian characteristics
     • authoritarian personality are more obedient to authority
       • submissive to authority
         • prejudice to those of lower social status
           • prejudice about sex race and gender
             • need strong authority to enforce traditional values
   • origin of authoritarian personality
     • formed in childhood from harsh parenting
       • this creates resentment in the child but the child can't take it out on the parents
         • so takes it out on the inferior as they see the parents do - scapegoating
           • this is a psychodynamic explanation

2. evaluation

   • research support
     • Milgram
       • interviewed people with a high score on the f scale
         • he thought there was a link between obedience and authoritarian personality
           • just a correlation between 2 measurable variables
             • don't know cause and effect - may be a third factor involved
   • limited explanation
     • millions of Germans showed high obedience and were racist
       • they couldn't all have had the same personality
         • social identity explains obedience
           • Germans identified with Nazis and scapegoated the Jews
   • political bias
     • f scale measures an extreme form of right wing ideology
       • Christie & Jahoda
         • it is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
           • it shows importance of complete obedience of legitimate political authority

3. evaluation +

   • methodological problems
     • the f scale is based on flawed methodology
       • Greenstein
         • every question is worded in the same direction
           • if you ticked all down one row you would get a high score
             • may be measuring the tendency to agree with everything
     • researcher bias
       • Ardono interviewed the people and knew their scores and he knew the hypothesis
   • correlation not causation
     • high authoritarian was linked to prejudice against minority
       • however does not show cause and effect
         • so harsh parenting styles may not have cause authoritarian personality