Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (8 marks)

The Authoritarian personality suggests that those with such personality are more likely to obey to certain authority figures. Key features of the Authoritarian personality include the respect for submission towards acknowledged authority, the need for a strong leader with uncompromising power, and have a rigid black and white world view which resists creativity. These features can be a result of extremely strict parenting during childhood. Harsh physical punishment and submission towards acknowledged authority figures may lead to the child developing into a more obedient adult. This is because if the child follows the parent without question, the child is less likely to develop their own self-esteem and initiative and so will want the need for authority to guide their actions later on in life.

Support for this explanation is discussed by Adorno. He got 2000 middle-class Americans to complete surveys concerning their personality and childhood experience. These measures were then compiled into the F- scale, which measured how authoritarian you were. He found that those who scored higher on this scale were more authoritarian and had similar strict childhoods and submission to parental figures. This suggests those with this kind of upbringing and personality are more likely to obey due to early obedience towards their parents.However, the F- scale questionnaire was conducted only on American participants. This suggests that the basis of the authoritarian personality explanation may be culturally biased, since the F- scale questionnaires used to measure it does not take into account the measures in other cultures. This means the personality as an explanation may not be generalised to all cultures.Also, the authoritarian personality does not take into account various situational factors which also affect the extent of obedience. For example, agency theory discusses different autonomous and agentic states in which people are responsible for their actions. Since the authoritarian personality is a dispositional factor, it may not take into account various situational factors like being told if you are responsible or not for certain actions when obeying.