According to the British Encyclopaedia, the term “collective behaviour” is basically a sociological term which covers different types of activities that are engaged in by comparative size but also loosely organized groups of different types of people (Kaptalan, Szabo, Szasz, & Neda, 2011). Actions such as riots, revolts, revolutions, rebellions, civil right, lynches, or social reform movements, disaster cycles, emergence of panic, social epidemics, religious, campus unrest, nationalistic movements, terror, emergence of fads, propaganda, crazes, gossip, rumour, memes, hearsay or media hypes can all be categorized under “collective behaviour”.
The 'collective behaviour' expression was initially used by Robert Park mainly as an alternative for crowd behaviour. He developed a theory which revolved around actions of various groups. His theory later on was called as the 'Collective Behaviour' and it gradually became a trend of almost every sociological course to follow it (Kaptalan, Szabo, Szasz, & Neda, 2011). At the very moment of its birth, collective behaviour was considered as the only theory which was designed for the explanation of different aspects of both contemporary society as well as the process linked with social change. In time, its expression has become a collector notion covering a huge area of sociology.
Several concepts such as crowd aggregation, dispersion as well as self–organized movement are observed and studied in several disciplines like physics, ethology, sociology, social and behavioural psychology (Bandini, Manzon, & Sartori, 2009). In this regard, the growing interest towards crowd behaviour, which is an inter-related term of collective behaviour, has been motivated by a wide range of relevant applicative con...
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...ods, and hence let the things continue to diminish and break.
Conclusion
Riots are basically a reaction against some non-existent opportunities for influencing the society and also one’s own situation. In most of the cases, participation is simply a form of some huge political activity. A combination of several factors motivates individual rioters to come out and give rise to violence. Riots might also be very much politically relevant but only in certain cases. As discussed in the paper, riots are contagious and arise due to some unwanted political or government laws. In addition, they are also caused as a result of discrimination or some injustice favours. Without a doubt, riots are nothing but acts/movements to fight for one’s rights and also incidences which violate and disharmonize the life-styles of other causing nothing else but destruction in various forms.
Why do people follow the crowd? This is something that happens everyday and few notice it . Sometimes people follow the crowd because it is easier or we don’t want to be made fun of for being different . The article “The Third Wave,” by the commonLit Staff is the very definition of following the crowd.
The influence that the behaviors of groups have is one of the most important factors that help shape and contribute to a functional society. With their works, William Edward Burghardt
In the 19th century, Gabriel Tarde and Gustave Le Bon put forth the idea of herd or mob mentality. Mob mentality is caused by several things, one of these causes being deindividuation. Deindividuation, “when people are part of a group,
Sometimes civil disobedience can become violent as in the case in South Africa during the struggle to end apartied. It started out with passive resistance, but after years of struggling with no change, a violent group was formed and was willing to do anything to get the freedom they desired.
After 42 long days the Tucson bus strike ended with a new contract to the union member. During this time period members of the Tuscon community conducted their own fair strike. People walked on the bus and refused to pay for their ride. On a normal scale this would be considered a “misbehavior” or a “deviant” act. However, the book links conduct misbehavior as an analytic category and not an empirical one. Therefore, it is the context of the misbehavior will influence whether it will be determined as a deviant act or develop into a social moment. When comparing an individual’s misconduct to a collective group, you can look at the collective group doing the same act and it can be considered a social movement. The same can be said about the Tuscon fair strike. I’ve been in a situation where someone
One of the more interesting topics discussed in PPA 660 was group behavior. Group behavior by definition is the formal and information associations between two or more individuals. I found this as an interested topic for group behavior is a concept we are exposed to at a young age but not much thought or discussion is ever been presented. Through the professor’s lectures on group behavior, I learned about group attributes (roles, social identity, norms, conformity and cohesiveness), process of forming and socialization, group decision making, conflicts within group and different group dynamics. One of the more interesting group behavior topics discussed was the concept of
Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2014). Human Behavior in the Macro Social Environment: An Empowerment Approach to Understanding Communities, Organization, and Groups. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
When contemplating what a crowd is, what usually comes to mind is a collection of likeminded individuals coming together for a cause, Le Bon reframes this outlook with the introduction of a psychological crowd. Although Le Bon’s writing was first accepted when published in 1895, the tonality of The Crowd— Study of the Popular Mind has shifted into being reviewed as pessimistic, racist, sexist but also provides a warning of what a crowd can become. By discrediting Le Bon’s his theories would be lost, and imperative information on crowd theory would be discredited as well. Rather than discrediting Le Bon, a reader must acknowledge the time period that The Crowd— Study of the Popular Mind was written in, and in doing so look past the tonality to grasp key elements on crowd theory.
Violent protesting is the act of gathering large amounts of individuals to destroy property, hurt bystanders, set fires, and on rare occasions, kill people, to peer pressure the government into changing certain laws.
The protest is meant to symbolize a peaceful resistance to a decision made by the government in authority over the land. If the protesters choose to become violent and harmful, then it is no longer a peaceful resistance, but a riot. Through this comes senseless violence that will accomplish nothing but an influence of hatred that will spread throughout the society and prompt more to join in the conflict. The act of peaceful resistance is the best route to take, but should still be taken with caution because there are many possibilities that people could still be harmed. However, this can positively impact a society because it shows that citizens are willing to be patient with their government as they await their answer after so many demonstrations have been complete. This can also fuel a better relationship between citizens and their government, bringing about a future where hopefully, less and less protests will be
It amazes me at how much influence crowds can have over individuals. Deindividuation is stated as “the process of losing one’s sense of personal identity, which makes it easier to behave in ways inconsistent with one’s normal values” (Kenrick, Neuberg, & Cialdini, 2015, p. 394). This type of behavior can be seen in protests that turn into riots. One may be there for the protest, but get caught up in the action as a riot starts, therefore looting stores even though one knows that is not the proper way to behave. In your PowerPoint you state that in groups’ people “lose their self-identity and loosen inhibitions” (Lettwich, 2017, PowerPoint). This is especially true since in crowds people feel a sense of anonymity. Our textbook states that
Collective behavior has four different types of crowds; casual, conventional, expressive and acting crowd. A casual crowd is a group of people that are together but not interacting with each other. For example, a group of people casually standing in line at the grocery store. A conventional crowd regularly come together for an event they scheduled. For example, a group of people in a church. An expressive crowd is a group of people that are converging to express themselves and their emotions. An acting crowd consists of people focusing on a goal or action.
Two of the four coordinates that are completely opposite from each other on this theoretical framework include “Individual” and “Collective.” According to classical theory, “Individual are the patterns of social life which are seen as emerging from ongoing interaction, and Collective are the patterns of social life which are seen as the product of existing structural arrangements” (Appelrouth...
...Henslin, James M. "Social Structure and Social Interaction." Essentials of Sociology: A down to Earth Approach. 10th Ed. 10th ed. Pearson, 2013. 112. Print.
There were several causes which led to this riot and the immediate cause was racial tension. Racism tends to persist most readily when there are obvious physical differences among groups e.g. “Black” and “white” differences. This no doubt results in attempts to limit economic opportunities, to preserve status, to deny equal protection under law and to maintain cheap labor. Discrimination was represented ...