The Effect of Dispositional Factors on Obedience (OCR GCSE Psychology): Revision Note

The authoritarian personality

• Theodor Adorno (1950) developed the concept of the authoritarian personality to explain why some people are more likely to obey authority figures

• People with an authoritarian personality tend to:

  • see the world in ‘black and white’ terms, believing there is a clear right and wrong

  • believe in absolute obedience to authority figures

  • discriminate against those they see as inferior

  • be rigid, conformist, and respectful of rules

• Adorno suggested this personality type develops through strict, harsh parenting, where children are expected to obey without question and are punished for disobedience

• As adults, these individuals may displace their anger towards weaker people while showing strong obedience to those in positions of power

Research evidence

• Adorno created the F-scale (F for Fascism) to measure authoritarian traits

• He found that those scoring high on the F-scale were more likely to show obedient behaviour and respect authority figures

• Milgram and Elms (1966) followed up on Milgram’s obedience research and found that participants who had been most obedient scored significantly higher on the F-scale than those who had disobeyed

The influence of the brain on dispositional factors

• Research has shown that biological factors can influence personality traits, which in turn affect how likely someone is to conform or obey

• Two key brain areas linked to dispositional factors are the:

  • hippocampus

  • prefrontal cortex

Hippocampal volume and self-esteem

• The hippocampus plays an important role in emotion regulation and stress control

• Argoskin et al. (2014) found a positive correlation between self-esteem and grey matter volume in the hippocampus

  • People with low self-esteem were found to have less grey matter, suggesting they may struggle to manage stress and feel less confident in their decisions

• This makes them more prone to conformity or obedience, as they may rely on others to guide their behaviour

• These findings suggest there is a biological basis for conformity, as brain structure can affect confidence and independence

Prefrontal cortex and morality

• The prefrontal cortex is involved in decision-making, impulse control, and moral reasoning

• Anderson et al. (1999) studied two individuals who suffered damage to the prefrontal cortex as babies

  • As they grew up, both showed difficulty distinguishing right from wrong and engaged in antisocial behaviour similar to that seen in psychopaths

• This suggests that when the prefrontal cortex is damaged or underdeveloped, people are less able to judge the morality of their actions or question the orders they are given

• These findings suggest there is a biological basis for obedience, as brain structure can affect moral reasoning

Criticisms of dispositional factors

• Too focused on the individual

  • Dispositional explanations place too much emphasis on personality traits, morality, or upbringing and ignore the powerful influence of the situation

  • This makes it difficult to predict when conformity, obedience, or crowd behaviour will occur, since context (e.g. group size, anonymity, authority) also matters

• Reductionist

  • These explanations oversimplify complex behaviour by reducing it to internal factors such as self-esteem or personality type

  • They fail to recognise how dispositional and situational factors often interact — for instance, someone with low self-esteem might only conform in certain environments

    • E.g. Milgram’s findings showed that ordinary people, not just those with authoritarian personalities, could obey harmful orders

• Cultural bias

  • Much dispositional research (e.g. Adorno, Kohlberg) was based on Western, middle-class samples, meaning results may not apply to collectivist cultures

  • People in collectivist societies may show higher conformity and pro-social crowd behaviour due to valuing group harmony, while obedience may be expressed differently

• Gender bias

  • Kohlberg’s theory of moral development was developed using male participants, so it may not reflect female moral reasoning

  • Carol Gilligan argued that women focus more on empathy and relationships, while men emphasise rules and justice

  • This means dispositional theories may only partially explain differences in moral reasoning, conformity, or obedience between genders