obedience: dispositional explanations

authoritarian personality
1. Adorno wanted to understand the Holocaust
  1. high levels of obedience was because of a psychological disorder
2. procedure
  1. Adorno
    1. obedient personality study
      1. 2000 middle class white Americans
        looked at their unconscious attitudes towards racial groups
3. the potential for fascism scale
  1. f scale
    1. measures authoritarian personality
4. findings
  1. high score = condescending of the weak, conscious of others status
    1. they also had fixed stereotypes for people
      1. there was a strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
5. authoritarian characteristics
  1. authoritarian personality are more obedient to authority
    1. submissive to authority
      1. prejudice to those of lower social status
        prejudice about sex race and gender
        need strong authority to enforce traditional values
6. origin of authoritarian personality
  1. formed in childhood from harsh parenting
    1. this creates resentment in the child but the child can't take it out on the parents
      1. so takes it out on the inferior as they see the parents do - scapegoating
        this is a psychodynamic explanation
evaluation
1. research support
  1. Milgram
    1. interviewed people with a high score on the f scale
      1. 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
2. limited explanation
  1. millions of Germans showed high obedience and were racist
    1. they couldn't all have had the same personality
      1. social identity explains obedience
        Germans identified with Nazis and scapegoated the Jews
3. political bias
  1. f scale measures an extreme form of right wing ideology
    1. Christie & Jahoda
      1. it is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
        it shows importance of complete obedience of legitimate political authority
evaluation +
1. methodological problems
  1. the f scale is based on flawed methodology
    1. Greenstein
      1. 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
  2. researcher bias
    1. Ardono interviewed the people and knew their scores and he knew the hypothesis
2. correlation not causation
  1. high authoritarian was linked to prejudice against minority
    1. however does not show cause and effect
      1. so harsh parenting styles may not have cause authoritarian personality

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obedience: dispositional explanations

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	Created by Daisy U about 8 years ago