OBEDIENCE PART 2.

Dispositional.

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality (i.e. their disposition). Often contrasted with situational explanations (external factors such as proximity, location, uniform)

Authoritarian personality.

A type of personality that Adorno argues was especially susceptible to obeying authority. Also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.


ADORNO.

  • Investigated the causes of obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.


  • They developed the potential for fascism scale (F-scale) to measure authoritarian personality

  • Adorno wanted to understand anti-Semitism displayed in WW2, unlike Milgram who suggests we are all capable of extreme obedience. Adorno argued high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder linked to personality.
  • In the 1950s Adorno studies personality with questionnaires. The Qs were designed to show unconscious feelings towards minority groups. After studying over 2000 Americans he developed the F scale (F for facism)


  • One of the nine factors the questions set out to measure was Authoritarian Aggressions: Tendency to be on the lookout for, and to condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional values.
  • Such as “most of our social problems would be solved if we could somehow get rid of the immoral, crooked and feebleminded people
  • People who scored highly on the F scale showed high respect for people with higher social status.
  • They had fixed stereotypes for other groups.
  • They identified ‘strong’ people and disliked ‘weak’ people.
  • They were inflexible with strong, clear ideas of right and wrong

FINDINGS.

  • People with authoritarian learning identified with strong people and were generally contemptuous of the ‘weak’.
  • They were very conscious of their own and others status.
  • They showed excessive respect of those with higher status than themselves.
  • Authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was no ‘fuzziness’ between the categories of people i.e. they are quick to stereotype.
  • There was a strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.

AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY TYPE.

  • Blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and wrong.
  • Respect for submission to acknowledged authority.
  • Belief in aggression toward those who do not subscribe to conventional thinking, or who are different.
  • A negative view of people in general - i.e. the belief that people would all lie, cheat or steal if given the opportunity
  • A need for strong leadership which displays uncompromising power.
  • A belief in simple answers and polemics - i.e. The media controls us all or The source of all our problems is the loss of morals these days.
  • Resistance to creative, dangerous ideas. A black and white worldview.
  • A tendency to project one's own feelings of inadequacy, rage and fear onto a scapegoated group.
  • A preoccupation with violence and sex.