obedience: dispositional explanations

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  • Created by: IvyVega
  • Created on: 04-05-18 17:35
a high level of obedience is pathological
Adorno et al (1950) wanted to understand the anti-semitism of the holocaust. they believed that unquestioning obedience is a psychological disorder, and tried to find its cause in the individuals personality.
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Authoritarian personality includes extreme respect for authority and contempt for inferiors
Adorno et al conducted that people wit an authoritarian personality are especially obedient to authority. they exaggerated respect, conventional attitudes towards race and gender, express contempt for people of inferior social status.
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Authoritarian personality originates in childhood.
forms in childhood through harsh parenting. it is also characterised by conditional love- parents love depends entirely on how their child behaves.
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hostility towards/ fear of parents is displaced onto those who are socially inferior.
these experiences create resentment and hostility in the child, but they cannot express these feelings directly against their parents. displaced onto those who are seen as weak. hatred of people seen as socially inferior, a psychodynamic explanation.
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procedure- part 1
the study investigated unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups of more than 2000 middle class white americans
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procedure- part 2
several scales were developed, including the potential for fascism scale.
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findings- part 1
Authoritarians identified with strong people and were contemptuous of the weak. they were conscious of their own and others status, showing excesive respect and deference to those of higher status
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findings- part 2
Authoritarian people also had a cognitive style where therewas no fuzziness between categories of people, with fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups.
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strength 1- support for the link
Elms and Milgram (1966) interviewed fully obedient participants. however, this link is just a correlation between measured variables. cannot conclude from this that authoritarian personality causes obedience.
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limitation 1- explanation is limited
Millions of individuals in Germany displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour- but didn't have the same personality. it seems unlikely the majority of Germany's population possessed an authoritarian personality.
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limitation 2- F-scale is politically biased.
Christie and Jahoda (1954) suggest the F-scale aims to measure tendency towards extreme right- wing ideology. but both wing authoritarianism both insist in complete obedience to political authority
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Adorno et al conducted that people wit an authoritarian personality are especially obedient to authority. they exaggerated respect, conventional attitudes towards race and gender, express contempt for people of inferior social status.

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Authoritarian personality includes extreme respect for authority and contempt for inferiors

Card 3

Front

forms in childhood through harsh parenting. it is also characterised by conditional love- parents love depends entirely on how their child behaves.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

these experiences create resentment and hostility in the child, but they cannot express these feelings directly against their parents. displaced onto those who are seen as weak. hatred of people seen as socially inferior, a psychodynamic explanation.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

the study investigated unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups of more than 2000 middle class white americans

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