The authoritarian personality

The authoritarian personality

1. Dispositional explanations

   • suggests obedience is caused by personality characteristics rather than situational factors
   • Particular personality proposed to explain obedience = Authoritarian personality
   • AP = see the world in 'black & white', enforce strict adherence to social rules & rigid thinkers who obey authority
   • California F scale
     • questionnaire that measures different components of AP
     • AP agrees to statements like: "obedience & respect are most important virtues a child should learn"
     • Altemeyer (1981)
       • refined concept of AP into Right-Wing Authoritarian personality (RWA)
       • 3 concepts: conventionalism, authoritarian aggression & authoritarian submission
         • conventionalism = adhering to societal laws, norms and values
         • authoritarian aggression = hostile to those who do not adhere to these laws
         • authoritarian submission = willing to submit to authorities they see as legitimate
   • Adorno et al (1950)
     • Authoritarian parenting style = AP
     • parents of high F scale scores tend to emphasise obedience & physically punish children
     • children with this parenting style see this system as the norm & acquire authoritarian attitudes through learning & imitation.

2. Evaluation

   • Relationship between authoritarianism & obedience
     • Elms & Milgram (1966) higher authoritarianism levels in 20 obedient participants in Milgrams study compared with 20 disobedient participants
     • further finding: obedient participants reported being less close with fathers in childhood compared to disobedient
     • But many obedient reported having good parental relations so possibly not best explanation for obedience
   • Societal context > personality factors?
     • Milgrams research showed variations in social context such as location, caused different obedience levels, argues this is better predictor of obedience than personality
     • was a specific social situation to participants that made them obe
     • Milgram argues that obedience is not best explained by dispositional factors (AP)
   • Research shown AP more obedient
     • participants suspicious of shocks real or fake
     • Dambrun & Vatine (2010) participants RWA scores correlated with the maximum shock given, even when they were told shock not real
     • P's with high RWA were most obedient, showing AP is a good explanation for obedience
   • Education may have an effect
     • Middendorp & Meloen (1990) less educated people are consistently more authoritarian than well educated people
     • but other research shown that when education levels are controlled, more obedient participants still show higher levels of authoritarianism
     • suggests education may have some influence, but authoritarianism is better explanation
   • Altemeyer = Right wing = obey more
     • people on the political right more likely to obey, so those on left less likely to obey
     • Begue et al (2014) participants who defined themselves as left wring gave lower intensity shocks
     • shows situational context does not exclude possibility of individual differences as a determining influence on obedience