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Explain dispositional explanations of obedience (16)
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“Explain dispositional explanations of obedience.”A dispositional influence is any explanation of human behaviour that highlights the
importance of the individual’s personality, their disposition, on the decision to exhibit
behaviour. Adorno was interested in understanding the antisemitism of the Holocaust, and
conducted research into personality types that could aid understanding of such events. The
authoritarian personality was derived from such research. The authoritarian personality is a
type of personality that demonstrates extreme respect for, and extreme submissiveness to
authority. They are equally dismissive to those viewed to be inferior within social hierarchies,
and are very uncomfortable with uncertainty in such positions.
The authoritarian personality is suggested to arise from childhood as the result of harsh
parenting, that features extreme discipline and conditional love. These childhood
experiences result in resentment and hostility within a child- but as the child cannot express
these feelings directly against the parents as they fear punishment, they are instead displaced
onto those who they perceive to be weaker. This psychodynamic explanation can explain why
individuals with such a personality feel such an extreme disdain for those who they feel to be
below them. In relation to obedience, individuals with an AP are likely to obey orders from
those with greater authority with enthusiasm, and will be likely to obey orders despite them
being destructive.
Research support towards the authoritarian personality was committed by Milgram.
Milgram interviewed participants that had been fully obedient within his baseline study, and
they completed the F-scale. These participants scored highly on the F scale compared to a
group of disobedient participants, which provides research support for the authoritarian
personality in explaining obedience, and increases the validity of the claims made by the
theory.
However, a limitation of authoritarianism is that it is unable to explain obedient behaviour in
the majority of a country’s population. For instance, in pre-war Germany, millions of
individuals demonstrated obedient and antisemitic behaviour, despite the fact that they all
have different personalities. Therefore, it is unlikely that they could all possess an
authoritarian personality, which limits the realism of dispositional explanations. It is more
likely that situational variables interacted with disposition to generate such behaviour.
Another limitation of authoritarian personality is that it is impossible to establish a casual
relationship. It is impossible to conclude that an authoritarian personality causes obedience,
as a third factor may be causing an increase in both factors, e.g, low IQ.
Adorno developed the potential-for-fascism scale, the “F-scale” in an attempt to measure
authoritarian personality. Those who score highly on the F scale have authoritarian leanings,
and identify with “strong” people and are contemptuous of “weak”. They were very conscious
of status and showed extreme respect and servility to those of a higher status. They had fixed
and decisive stereotypes about other groups.
A limitation of the F scale as a device of measuring authoritarian personality is that it only
measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology. The F-scale may be
politically biased, and neglects the influence of extreme left-wing authoritarianism despite
shared characteristics such as complete obedience to authority. Therefore, Adorno’s theory
may not be a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to
authority across the whole political spectrum.
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