Discuss dispositional explanations of obedience (16 marks)
A dispositional explanation refers to the characteristics of someone’s personality that affects
how they behave, for example how obedient they are. The authoritarian personality is a
possible explanation as to why some people have higher levels of obedience than others. It
is characterised by a strict adherence to conventional values, hostility to those deemed
‘inferior’, and a belief in absolute obedience to authority. The psychodynamic explanation is
that it is a direct result of a harsh and punitive upbringing leading to a fear and hatred of
one’s parents that is then displaced into excessive respect for authority and a dislike of
minorities.
Adorno et al (1950) investigated authoritarian personalities in a study of more than 2000
middle class white Americans, developing the F-scale as a means of measuring this. He
found that people who scored highly on the scale identified with ‘strong’ people and were
contemptuous of the ‘weak’. They were also conscious of their own status as well as others’,
showing extreme respect to those they deemed ‘higher up’ (the basis of obedience). He also
found a correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
However, the interviews completed by Adorno were vulnerable to interviewer bias. As the
interviewers knew the hypothesis of the study, they were aware of what information they
needed to confirm it. They also knew the participants' test scores meaning that they were
aware in advance whether the interviewee was likely to have an authoritarian
personality. Therefore, their questioning could have been guided by this knowledge and
may even have recorded only the information they needed to confirm their hypothesis.
The F-scale also doesn’t explain nationwide attitudes. For example, in pre-war Germany,
millions of Germans displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour despite the fact it
is extremely unlikely that they all possessed an authoritarian personality. Social identity
theory better explains it, suggesting that the majority of German people identified with the
Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews. Therefore, Aldorno’s explanation is
limited as there are other, more realistic ones.
On the other hand, there is evidence from other studies supporting the authoritarian
personality. Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed a sample of the participants who were
fully obedient in Milgram’s original study on obedience. They completed the F-scale and it
was found that the 20 most obedient scored higher on the F-scale than the 20 most
disobedient – the two groups were different in terms of authoritarianism. This finding
supports Adorno’s view that obedience correlates with an authoritarian personality.
Although, when Elms and Milgram analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale they
found that the obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were unusual for
authoritarians, for example they generally didn’t glorify their fathers of have feelings of
hostility towards their mothers. Therefore, the link between obedience and
authoritarianism is complex and it is unlikely to be a useful predicator of obedience.
A dispositional explanation refers to the characteristics of someone’s personality that affects
how they behave, for example how obedient they are. The authoritarian personality is a
possible explanation as to why some people have higher levels of obedience than others. It
is characterised by a strict adherence to conventional values, hostility to those deemed
‘inferior’, and a belief in absolute obedience to authority. The psychodynamic explanation is
that it is a direct result of a harsh and punitive upbringing leading to a fear and hatred of
one’s parents that is then displaced into excessive respect for authority and a dislike of
minorities.
Adorno et al (1950) investigated authoritarian personalities in a study of more than 2000
middle class white Americans, developing the F-scale as a means of measuring this. He
found that people who scored highly on the scale identified with ‘strong’ people and were
contemptuous of the ‘weak’. They were also conscious of their own status as well as others’,
showing extreme respect to those they deemed ‘higher up’ (the basis of obedience). He also
found a correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
However, the interviews completed by Adorno were vulnerable to interviewer bias. As the
interviewers knew the hypothesis of the study, they were aware of what information they
needed to confirm it. They also knew the participants' test scores meaning that they were
aware in advance whether the interviewee was likely to have an authoritarian
personality. Therefore, their questioning could have been guided by this knowledge and
may even have recorded only the information they needed to confirm their hypothesis.
The F-scale also doesn’t explain nationwide attitudes. For example, in pre-war Germany,
millions of Germans displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour despite the fact it
is extremely unlikely that they all possessed an authoritarian personality. Social identity
theory better explains it, suggesting that the majority of German people identified with the
Nazi state and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews. Therefore, Aldorno’s explanation is
limited as there are other, more realistic ones.
On the other hand, there is evidence from other studies supporting the authoritarian
personality. Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed a sample of the participants who were
fully obedient in Milgram’s original study on obedience. They completed the F-scale and it
was found that the 20 most obedient scored higher on the F-scale than the 20 most
disobedient – the two groups were different in terms of authoritarianism. This finding
supports Adorno’s view that obedience correlates with an authoritarian personality.
Although, when Elms and Milgram analysed the individual subscales of the F-scale they
found that the obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were unusual for
authoritarians, for example they generally didn’t glorify their fathers of have feelings of
hostility towards their mothers. Therefore, the link between obedience and
authoritarianism is complex and it is unlikely to be a useful predicator of obedience.
