Dispositional explanation for obedience – Adorno
Wanted to investigate what causes a person to have high levels of obedience, they believed it
was due to a personality disorder.
- Based on idea behaviour is caused by the internal characteristics of an individual.
- Adorno wanted to understand antisemitism of the holocaust.
- How people are brought up
Method
- Studied 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards
other racial groups.
- They were given the ‘F – scale’ which was used to measure authoritarian personality.
- 30 questions
- An example of items from the F scale are ‘obedience and respect for authority are the
most important virtues for children to learn’.
Findings
- Those who scored highly had authoritarian personalities, they identified with strong
people and were insulting towards the weak, they were very conscious of status of
themselves and others and showed extreme respect to those of higher status.
- There was a strong positive corelation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
Authoritarian personality
- Show an extreme respect to authority.
- View society as weaker than it was, so think we need strong powerful leaders to enforce
traditional values.
- Show contempt to those of inferior social status, they are uncomfortable with
uncertainty.
- Forms in childhood due to strict parenting and conditional love creating resentment
because the child can't directly express their feelings due to fear of being punished.
Feelings are displaced on others perceived as weaker (scapegoating).
- had a certain cognitive style with black and white thinking, causing them to have fixed
and distinct stereotypes about other groups.
Evaluation
Research support (Elms and Milgram)
- Used 20 obedient ppts who had shocked up to 450v and 20 disobedient ppts who
refused to continue at some point from Milgram’s study.
- All ppts completed the f scale and found obedient ppts scored significantly higher than
comparison group.
- Showing that obedient ppl show similar characteristics to those with an authoritarian
personality.
Counterpoint
Wanted to investigate what causes a person to have high levels of obedience, they believed it
was due to a personality disorder.
- Based on idea behaviour is caused by the internal characteristics of an individual.
- Adorno wanted to understand antisemitism of the holocaust.
- How people are brought up
Method
- Studied 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards
other racial groups.
- They were given the ‘F – scale’ which was used to measure authoritarian personality.
- 30 questions
- An example of items from the F scale are ‘obedience and respect for authority are the
most important virtues for children to learn’.
Findings
- Those who scored highly had authoritarian personalities, they identified with strong
people and were insulting towards the weak, they were very conscious of status of
themselves and others and showed extreme respect to those of higher status.
- There was a strong positive corelation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
Authoritarian personality
- Show an extreme respect to authority.
- View society as weaker than it was, so think we need strong powerful leaders to enforce
traditional values.
- Show contempt to those of inferior social status, they are uncomfortable with
uncertainty.
- Forms in childhood due to strict parenting and conditional love creating resentment
because the child can't directly express their feelings due to fear of being punished.
Feelings are displaced on others perceived as weaker (scapegoating).
- had a certain cognitive style with black and white thinking, causing them to have fixed
and distinct stereotypes about other groups.
Evaluation
Research support (Elms and Milgram)
- Used 20 obedient ppts who had shocked up to 450v and 20 disobedient ppts who
refused to continue at some point from Milgram’s study.
- All ppts completed the f scale and found obedient ppts scored significantly higher than
comparison group.
- Showing that obedient ppl show similar characteristics to those with an authoritarian
personality.
Counterpoint
