Discuss the authotarian personality as an explanation for obedience
A01
Adorno
- Adorno measured middle class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes to
racial groups
- Adorno used the F scale to measure authotarian personality, on one end of the F scale it
showed strong people that were disrespectful of the week and showed higher respect
for higher status.
Characteristics
- People who had authotarian personality were obedient to respected authority and
didn’t care for those who were lower status, they believed that we need strong and
powerful leaders to enforce traditional values, for example love to our country and
people who were inflexible with outlook and changing their opinions as their
uncomfortable with uncertainty
Origins of the authotarian personality
- Origins are formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting and strict discipline,
parents have severe criticism or possible failing, they provide conditional love for the
children, because the child cant express their feelings to the parent their fears are
displaced onto others that they believe are weaker (scape goating).
A03
Research support for the F-scale
- Milgram did interviews with previous obedient participants from his study and found
that those with the highest obedience were equally high on the F-scale
Limited explanation
- Many of the people pre the war was racist and obedient, but didn’t all have the same
personality, for example, many Germans identified with the antisemitic Nazi state and
scape goated onto the jews, social identity theory (looking at individual identity)
explains obedience more realistically.
Causation unclear
- When measuring the authotarian personality on the F-scale correlations are used the
correlation cant conclude anything as. There could be a third factor affecting the link, for
example the participants may not have had a tough childhood
A01
Adorno
- Adorno measured middle class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes to
racial groups
- Adorno used the F scale to measure authotarian personality, on one end of the F scale it
showed strong people that were disrespectful of the week and showed higher respect
for higher status.
Characteristics
- People who had authotarian personality were obedient to respected authority and
didn’t care for those who were lower status, they believed that we need strong and
powerful leaders to enforce traditional values, for example love to our country and
people who were inflexible with outlook and changing their opinions as their
uncomfortable with uncertainty
Origins of the authotarian personality
- Origins are formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting and strict discipline,
parents have severe criticism or possible failing, they provide conditional love for the
children, because the child cant express their feelings to the parent their fears are
displaced onto others that they believe are weaker (scape goating).
A03
Research support for the F-scale
- Milgram did interviews with previous obedient participants from his study and found
that those with the highest obedience were equally high on the F-scale
Limited explanation
- Many of the people pre the war was racist and obedient, but didn’t all have the same
personality, for example, many Germans identified with the antisemitic Nazi state and
scape goated onto the jews, social identity theory (looking at individual identity)
explains obedience more realistically.
Causation unclear
- When measuring the authotarian personality on the F-scale correlations are used the
correlation cant conclude anything as. There could be a third factor affecting the link, for
example the participants may not have had a tough childhood
