SOCI 3006

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SOCI 3006 Collective Behaviour May 2007 Lecture
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• 1. Administrative
• password for website is cjrocks

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches
• crowds do not create behaviour because of some
  effect of
• being in a group
• instead, some types of people, possessing
• certain personality characteristics, are drawn
  to crowd situations,
• and what we see is these individual personality
  characteristics
• being demonstrated in a permissive situation
• convergence theories if the individual does
  not already have
• the tendency, the crowd situation will not make
  it magically
• appear instead, the crowd allows people with
  similar
• tendencies to converge, with what appears to
  be group action
• taking place
• p. 72 in text

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• for example a riot is more likely to occur at a
  soccer game than
• at an opera, because of the types of individuals
  drawn to a
• soccer game (young males, drinking)
• since the individuals making up each group have
  different
• characteristics, the group behaviour will be
  different
• chief assumptions of convergence theory
• a) individuals are rational
• b) even in a crowd, individuals act according to
  their
• individual personality disposition
• c) individuals with certain types of personality
  dispositions will
• be attracted to certain types of crowd
  situations
• d) collective behaviour is the mass release of
  individualistic
• predispositions

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Allports Theory (1924)
• there is no psychology of groups which is not
  the psychology
• essentially and entirely a psychology of
  individuals
• if someone engages in violent behaviour in a
  crowd, it is
• because they already had violent tendencies
  (predisposition)
• dispositions explain why certain people gather
  in certain types
• of crowd situations (at a Stompin Tom concert
  versus a
• Billy Talent concert) predispositions have a
  lot to do with
• explaining why people converge where and when
  they do
• (e.g. soccer hooligans)

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Allports Theory
• two types of innate human responses avoidance
  versus
• approach all human behaviour is a learned
  modification
• of these two responses
• those least inhibited act first in group
  situations acting as
• a model for others through this process
  social facilitation
• occurs
• humans are conditioned to submit to the will of
  the majority
• hence the facilitation aspect of group
  behaviour

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Allports Theory
• rationalization process
• - even if I get caught, they cant punish
  everybody
• - such large numbers of people cant be wrong
• since so many will benefit from this act, I am
  doing
• a good thing in fact

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Miller and Dollard (1941)
• responsible for what they called Learning
  Theory
• rather than assuming the source of human
  behaviour is innate,
• instead most behaviour is a learned response to
  different
• innate drives (nature versus nurture)
• drive response reward
• stimulus

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Miller and Dollard (1941)
• we learn on the basis of our experience with
  behaviour and
• reward/punishment
• frustration (leading to violence) is caused when
  drives are
• blocked from being satisfied known as the
• Deprivation - Frustration Aggression
  Hypothesis
• Dollard and Miller focused on violent crowds
• people in a crowd behave about as they would
  otherwise, only
• more so

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Miller and Dollard (1941)
• drive stimuli refers to the state of
  excitation an individual
• experiences
• crowd stimuli refers to the state of
  excitation created by other
• crowd members
• these two stimuli interact, modify one another
• collective behaviour is a situation when
  individuals act in
• concert with one another in unusual ways,
  often violent
• p. 78

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Miller and Dollard (1941)
• crowd stimulus varies by
• interstimulation (excitement created by others
  e.g. milling)
• proximity (influence increases the closer people
  are)
• numbers (as size increases, protection,
  permissiveness
• increases)
• anonymity (increases with size)
• prestige factor (greater the prestige of the
  leader, greater
• the crowd stimulation)
• still, no matter how influential the crowd, it
  cannot evoke behaviour
• the individual does not already have a
  predisposition for

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Hogg and Abrams (1988) Social Identity
  Theory
• much of our behaviour reflects our self-image,
  and the roles
• we occupy, and how we have learned to play
  these roles
• (e.g. the aggressive swimming coach, versus
  the devoted
• mother)
• whatever role we are playing will determine how
  we behave
• collective behaviour is the result of the
  formation of a group
• identity within a crowd, and individuals orient
  their behaviour
• according to this new identity

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Hogg and Abrams (1988) Social Identity
  Theory
• social acceptance as a strong need to be met,
  and crowd situations
• can be very influential in this regard
• society as a web of social categories (social
  statuses of different
• levels of power and influence)
• identity based on ones social categories
  (status) there is no
• innate self, but rather a learned self based on
  our personal
• identifications and our social
  identifications that emerge from
• interpersonal relationships
• in crowds, a group social identification
  forms, defining what is
• or is not appropriate behaviour

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• gt Hogg and Abrams (1988) Social Identity
  Theory
• referent informational influence takes place
  in the crowd, and
• group members learn the critical attributes
  necessary to fit
• in as members (e.g. norms)
• individuals can decide in advance to be members
  of a group
• crowd behaviour is driven by a new identity
  crowd member, to
• which individual identities are subjugated
• p. 83

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• 2. Individualistic Approaches (contd)
• Criticisms
• teleology (the event occurred because of the
  individualistic
• tendencies of the members or, if a person
  behaves violently,
• it is because they have a predisposition toward
  violence)
• do people really have to be predisposed always?
• danger of branding those in crowds as certain
  types of people,
• as radicals, nuts or uniformed