...Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience. (12 Marks) The dispositional explanations for obedience are as follows, the authoritarian personality, in which a person is more likely to obey those in authority and dismiss of those who are considered inferior in a hierarchy. Like Milgram, Theodor Adorno wished to understand the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust and found that on the basis of their research, high levels of obedience were due to a psychological disorder, and therefor tried to find the causes of it in the personality of an individual. Adorno et al. (1950) conducted a study to investigate the causes of the obedient personality in 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes. As such, they developed several scales in which to investigate this, including the F-Scale, used to measure the authoritarian personality. An example of an item from the F-Scale is, “Nobody ever learned anything important except through suffering.”. Consequently, Adorno found that those who scored higher on the scale tended to have authoritarian personalities identifying with those with authority and being generally contemptuous for people below them. In an effort to identify the origin of the authoritarian personality, Adorno concluded that it was developed during childhood as a result of harsh parenting. This parenting involved strict disciplining, high standards, and expectations of absolute loyalty – even categorising with ‘conditional love’ where...
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...political ideology. The ‘Authoritarian Personality’ was a concept suggested in 1950 by German sociologist Theodor Adorno and colleagues following their research identifying the personality traits believed to allow an individual to be bias towards and follow a fascist ideology. Although initially met with great excitement, over time the authoritarian personality alone was seen, by many psychologists, as not sufficient to explain the potential for extreme prejudices and its popularity declined. In the early 1980’s Canadian psychologist Bob Altemeyer revived the interest in authoritarianism following revision of the original work done by Adorno et al. Altemeyer was interested in right wing political ideology only just as Adorno et al had been, both excluding the potential authoritarianism personality characteristics associated with communism from their research. (McAvoy, J. 2012). As a result of his research Altemeyer was able to address the methodological shortcomings of the original work and propose a revised concept of authoritarianism. Similarly both bodies of research utilized standardised personality questionnaires as a method to measure beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of the participants. Although the questions in Altemeyer’s Right Wing Authoritarian scale (RWA scale) differed from the Fascism Scale (F-Scale) of Adorno et al, each used a numerical scale against a fixed choice response per questionnaire statement designed to measure particular personality traits. This approach...
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...threats by outsiders and persons "not like us." It seeks order and stability at all costs. It subscribes to a command-and-obey or "top down" or hierarchical mentality. This is directly opposed to a democratic or "horizontal" mentality, characterized by openmindness, cooperation, and respect for others as equals. In the article, “The Rise of American Authoritarianism,” Amanda Taub makes three claims: First, Donald Trump is backed by authoritarians who feel threatened by social, political, and economic changes in the U.S.; Second, the GOP’s appeal to traditionalism and law-and-order has attracted “a vast and previously bipartisan population of Americans with authoritarian tendencies,” insuring there will be more Trump-like candidates in the future; and lastly, since ”Democrats, by contrast, have positioned themselves as the party of civil rights, equality, and social progress…” they can be absolved of any charge of harboring authoritarians. Furthermore, this article states that Trump supporters are rigid, fear-triggered, authoritarian personalities - it's attempting to pathologize a political viewpoint. And that itself is a dangerous step towards another form of authoritarianism. Convincing yourself that a group is irrational and driven by baser instincts like fear allows you to discredit and marginalize the person, without considering the ideas and viewpoints they espouse. It can create a group of "dangerous others" in your mind, and makes it easier to justify careful monitoring...
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...Prejudice Checkpoint Genna Lee psy/285 6/15/2014 Prejudice Checkpoint Prejudice comes from an unequal status and from other social sources including learned values and attitudes. Family has that largest impact of learning prejudice. Parents teach their children who and why they should or should not like or trust someone. Many other elements play a role in prejudices attitudes, society, emotions and cognitive processes all influence prejudice as well. Society confirms prejudicial attitudes in different ways. You have the authoritarian personality, religion, conformity and aggression. The authoritarian personality is that those who tend to hostility to a particular group usually shows the same hostility to all groups they see as different. Religion can play a role in prejudice as well because in almost every country leaders invoke religion in order to sanctify the current order of things (Exploring Social Psychology, ch.23, pg.259). An example of this is when the vote for gay and lesbian rights come into play be it adoption, marriage or tax equality you often hear the Bible verses of Leviticus spoken as an example of why it should not be accepted. Those verses are Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination" (Leviticus ch.18 verse 22). The other scripture you often hear quoted is "If a man lies with another male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their...
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...Psychology 305: Psychology of Personality Activity 3. |Key Terms | | |Aggregation and Reliability | | |Cross-Situational Consistency | | |Situationalist Critique | | |Empirical Objections | | |Theoretical Objections | | |Cross-Cultural Consistency | | |Etic Approach | | |Emic Approach | | |Temporal Stability | | |1. Rank Order Stability | | |Personality Coherence | ...
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... She wears highly decorative clothing of embroidered silk rather than a more practical linen or wool. Even her purse, an object that only has to carry belongings, is decorated with silk tassels and “perled with latoun” (line 143). The apron she wears at first suggests some sense of practicality, as she does not want to dirty the clothes beneath it, but it is described as “whit as morne milk” (line 128), which shows the opposite: that this is another ornamental object that is as unsoiled as the rest of her clothing. The unstained white of her apron and undergarments give her the outward appearance of purity, while the reader knows that internally she is far from pure. Following the account of Alison's clothing comes a brief personality description. Rather...
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...To learn about communication and being able to work with other people, you should learn each person’s learning style and personality style. There are three different learning styles: visual learners, auditory learners, and tactile/kinesthetic learners. To better understand each style we will look more closely at each individual sytle. First, lets look at visual learners. Visual learners learn best through seeing. Visual learners learn best by seeing facial expressions and by seeing body language. They also tend to sit in the front of classrooms or meetings to avoid distractions (example: people’s bodies blocking their views). Visual learners do better when they have displays they can see (example: videos, illustrated textbooks, and handouts). Visual learners usually take very detailed notes during lectures or discussions. This way they are able to take in and remember more information. The second type of learning style is auditory learners. Auditory learners learn best through listening. Auditory learners tend to talk things through, listen to lectures, listening to what other people say, and verbal discussions. Because they learn through listening, written information does not help them until it is voiced out loud. They also tend to use a tape recorder during lectures so that they can re-play the tape later and better absorb the information. The third type of learning style is tactile/kinesthetic learners. Tactile/kinesthetic learners learn best through touching, moving...
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... If he chooses Sarah, he may not be able to have her because of the way that she feels. Although Macon still feels connected to Sarah, he is more compatible with Muriel. Sarah is arguably much more normal than Macon, depending on which definition of normal is used. Sarah is more of a team player than Macon is. Macon keeps to his systems, while Sarah wants them to make decisions together. “What harm would it do to wait it out? You’d be showing some concern. You’d be telling me we’re in this together” (4). Macon replies, “I’ve got a system, Sarah. You know I drive according to a system” (4). She can come off as being over dramatic at times, and somewhat annoying, but that could possibly be because we are used to Macon’s mundane personality. Macon still feels that he might in some way be responsible for his son’s death. Sarah tries to convince him that he is not. She does not support his...
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...Laurie Ewart J3400 Reflection Paper #1 9/18/13 Secondary Research-Chapter 5 As public relations professional, research would be one of the most important aspects of your career. Research should be your first step before launching a new product or marketing plan. If you fail to do the research first, you risk wasting a great deal of time and money on your project. Researching your target marketing is a huge benefit. Secondary research is essentially a summary of data that has already been collected. If you have a question to answer you can easily access the data and analyze it in order to get the answer you are looking for. This is opposed to primary data, which you would have to conduct new research to get the information you need. While secondary research seems to take much less effort, it still had its advantages and disadvantages. One of the main advantages to secondary research is that it is cost and time effective. Since you will not have to conduct the research you would have very little money and time in simply accessing the data from another source. The amount of time you would save by not conducting research you can now spend on analyzing data or any other areas of your plan that it is needed. Another advantage to secondary research is that you have several different sources that you can utilize to find your data. There are many websites that offer this type of information. One of the largest drawbacks of secondary research is that the results are usually...
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...Summary of a Research Article Dasani Smith Psychology, 100 Professor Smith February 5, 2012 Written Summary of a Research Article Early childhood professionals have individual preferences about how they like children to behave (Eddowes, Aldridge, & Culpepper, 1994). Early childhood professionals also play a critical role in helping children accept themselves as unique (Aldridge, 1993). While students preparing to work with young children learn about cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, they often neglect to study personality development (Aldridge & Cowles, 1990). The study of personality is important because a child's temperament influences the teacher more than the child's intelligence (Lerner & Lerner, 1986). In fact, teachers often give grades and implement classroom management strategies based upon specific children's temperaments (Pullis & Cadwell, 1982). Temperament is the part of the personality with which each child is born. According to Chess and Thomas (1987) temperament refers to individual differences in physiological responsiveness. It includes the characteristic way that an individual responds emotionally to people and objects. Chess and Thomas (1977) found nine temperament categories which they believed were present at birth. These categories include the following: Activity Level. Does the child display mostly active or inactive stress? Rhythm city or Regularity. Is the child predictable or unpredictable regarding sleeping...
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...To everybody, friend plays an important part in our life, so topics which involve in friend become more and more common. There is a debate that whether people who have different interests and personalities cannot be friend. From my perspective, I agree that people should make friend with the people who have same interests and personalities. The first reason why I hold this view is that it must be easier for two people to communicate with each other when they have same interests and personalities. On one hand people always focus on what they are interested in, so they will catch all opportunities to understand it, including communication, on the other hand, the chat with tow people who have same interests and personalities can avoid the embarrassment of silent. I will take an example of myself. Once I went out with tow friends, one has the same interests and personalities to me, while the other has diverse interests and personalities from us. From my own feeling, I would like to talk with the former one better. Another aspect can never be ignore is that it is possible for two people with diverse interests and personalities to produce divergence and contradiction. In other words, two people with different interests and personalities may have two ideas to same things, so when they stand in an opposite opinion, their friendship perhaps confront with a big challenge, and this challenge possesses destructiveness. It is really possible to cause their friendship to be end. There...
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...Strategies for diverse personalities and learning styles Personalities and learning styles influence how one effectively communicate and collaborates with others. Understanding the characters of various individuals will enhance success of project completions, setting and accomplishing goals, and forming cohesive teams. Identifying learning and personality styles help one to avoid barriers that can hinder one from reaching important deadlines. Understanding diverse learning styles and personalities will allow one to develop strategies that will promote successful relationships and effective exchange of ideas. Communication is paramount in the academic arena. Individuals who discuss various topics must understand one another in order to reach a common understanding. Responding appropriately to questions is necessary to conclude a solution. Group effort is necessary and will require all parties to possess a mutual agreement in decision-making. Personality and learning style assessments are prominent in developing a successful plan for diverse individuals. Strategies to promote effective communication and collaboration for a learner who rely on body movements, lectures, and oral instructions, and quiet settings include assessment instruments, maximizing ones strengths and abilities, eliminating activities that are unfruitful in reaching goals, and developing skills to overcome challenges. According to Carter, Bishop, and Kravits (2007), maximizing learning...
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...Chapter 4 – Critical Thinking Activity How Long Will You Live? Purpose: To analyze the combined effects of genetic history, personal health habits, socioeconomic status and social and personality characteristics as influences on health and life expectancy. Audience: Explain to a person who has not been studying influences on human development, what you learned by completing this assessment and how you can use information from the class to understand biological and life style choices on life expectancy. Format: Write a short paper 1-2 pages responding to the prompt below. Cite information from your text or another credible source to support the information presented. Use APA formatting, including in-text citations and use of a reference list. Please attach your paper in the DROPBOX provided for this assignment, NOT in the box that says “Comments.” The assignment is worth 10 points. See Rubric on second page for the grading point distribution. Task: After completing the How Long Will You Live assessment (completed in class, or at the end of this document if you were not in class), describe the change in your predicted life expectancy from your beginning life expectancy. What genetic and personal health factors had the most influence on the difference between these figures? What genetic and personal health factors had the least influence? Referring to the information in chapters...
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...explores the hectic journey of the Bundrens as they seek to bury their mother, and valuable lessons are learned along the way. The origins of their journey lead the family to understand that while each person has a different personality and some personalities cooperate better than others, such a relationship cannot be forced. In this case, death is the catalyst which forces the family to embark on their tumultuous...
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...Personality Paper Joy L. Hamby PSY/405 August 14, 2013 Laraine Frajio Personality Paper Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are characteristic patterns that make a person unique. A person’s personality is what sets them apart from the rest of the world. The uniqueness that each person possesses is called personality. Although individuals may possess similar qualities no two people can share the same personality (McLeod, 2007). The term personality was originated by the Latin word persona. A persona was in reference to a theatrical mask worn by stage performers to disguise their identities. The study of individual differences among human beings is called personality psychology. Psychologists strive for the construction of logical interpretations of individuals and their major psychological processes. The theoretical approaches when studying personality include biological theories, behavioral theories, trait theories, psychodynamic theories, and humanistic theories. The term personality is not easy to define because it a composition of so many influential aspects. One’s personal morals, values and beliefs are a combination of factors that shape and mold one’s personality. There are multiple factors that influence personality a few of these includes genetics, family, friends, close intimate relationship and social interactions....
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