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Authoritarian personality 16 marks
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AQA psychology essay
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Discuss the authoritarian personality explanations of obedience. (16 marks)Ao1:
Authoritarian personality refers to a personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to
conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority.
Adorno investigated the causes of obedience personality and wanted to understand the
causes of antisemitism in the Holocaust. He studied causes of obedient personality by using
over 2000 white middle-class American males tested on their unconscious attitudes towards
other racial groups. He developed a potential fascism scale (F-scale) which measures the
authoritarian personality. He found that those who scored highly on the F-scale identified
with 'strong people' and disliked the 'weak', they were conscious of their own status and
others. Showed particular obedience to those with a higher status and had fixed stereotypes.
Adorno found a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice. He thus
concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially
obedient to authority. Adorno believes this is formed in childhood due to harsh parenting
which creates resentment and hostility in the child that they can't express to the parent for
fear of consequences. The fears are displaced onto other weaker individuals also known as
scapegoating.
Ao3:
Milgram interviewed his fully obedient ppts and found that obedient ppts scores higher on
the F scale in comparison to the disobedient ppts. The obedient ppts were less close to their
fathers during childhood. This suggests a correlation between authoritarian personality and
obedience, but we do not know that it causes obedience, limiting the explanation of the
authoritarian personality.
Dambrun and Vatine replicated Milgram's study using virtual reality, using actors in place of
confederates. Ppts were aware that the experiment was a simulation however they still
responded as if it was real. There was a significant correlation between ppts' Right Wing
Authoritarianism scores and the maximum voltage shock administered. This suggests those
with an authoritarian personality are more likely to obey the most.
Christie and Jahoda (1954) argued that the F-scale is a politically biassed interpretation of
authoritarian personality. This is because both right and left wing ideologies have much in
common as both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to legitimate political
authority (e.g Nazism and Russian Bolshevism). This however, is not taken into account and
thus cannot be a comprehensive explanation for obedience across the whole political
spectrum.
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