1. Collective Behavior & Social Change
Chapter 16
Collective Behavior & Social Change

2. Warm-up
What is an urban legend? Give an example.
How might these connect to collective behavior & collective preoccupations?

3. Types of Collective Behavior
Collective Behavior: spontaneous social behavior that occurs when people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations
Collectivities differ from social groups due to limited interaction, no shared norms or unity
Crowd: temporary gathering of people who are close enough to interact
Casual crowd (spontaneous)
Conventional crowd (common purpose)
Expressive (no goal, emotional event)
Acting (violent)

4. Mob: emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific destructive or violent goal
Riot: collection of people who erupt into generalized destructive behavior, social disorder
Panics: spontaneous, uncoordinated group acting to escape a threat
Mass Hysteria: unsupported anxiety shared by people who can be scattered over a wide area

5. Collective Preoccupations
People who rarely meet or interact, yet engage in similar behavior & share an understanding of that behavior
Fashions & fads
Rumors & urban legend
Public Opinion: collection of differing attitudes that members of a public share on a particular issue

6. Explaining Collective Behavior
Contagion Theory: hypnotic power of the crowd encourages people to give up their individuality
# of people = anonymity
Rapid spread of emotion
Suggestibility
Emergent-Norm Theory: applies in situations where traditional norms don’t apply, through interactions new norms emerge
Recognizes the individual

7. Value-Added Theory: identifies 6 preconditions necessary for collective behaviors
Structural conduciveness
Structural strain
Spread of generalized belief
Precipitating events
Mobilization
Social control

8. Explaining Riots
After watching the videos you will be applying each example to collective behavior theory, all examples and all theories must be used
In each paragraph you will:
Explain what happened in the riot/what lead to it
Explain the chosen theory
Explain how this theory explains what happened

9. Warm-up What is a social movement?
List some social movements that have taken place throughout history

10. Types of Social Movements
Social movement: long-term effort to promote or prevent social change
Alterations of various aspects of society over time
Reactionary: reverse current social trends
Conservative: protect a society’s values from change

11. Revisionary: improving some part of society
Revolutionary: total & radical change of the existing social structure
Life cycle of social movements:
Agitation
Legitimation
Bureaucrazation
Institutionalization

12. Explaining Social Movements
Relative Deprivation Theory: movements arise when large parts of the population feel socially or economically deprived
Resource Mobilization Theory: movements can only occur if people are effective in organizing resources
People, leaderships, $, media

13. Sources of Social Change
Values & Beliefs
Ideology: system of belief that justifies the social, moral, religious, political, or economic interests held by a group or society
Technology
Finding new ways to manipulate environment –discovery & invention
Diffusion
Reformulation: adapting borrowed cultural traits to suit a society’s own needs

14. Population Physical environment Wars & conquest
Increase, decrease, composition, distribution
Physical environment
Food, reliance on natural resources, adjusting to disaster
Wars & conquest
Uncommon, brings about greatest change

15. Resistance to Social Change
Ethnocentrism
Change that comes from outside the society is met w/ most resistance
Cultural lag
Norms take time to change in accordance w/ new technology
Vested Interest
Imperfect present is better than unknown

16. Theories of Social Change
Functionalist
Cyclical: societies rise, go through certain changes, then decline
Principle of imminent change: society fluctuates between 2 extreme forms of culture
Ideational: knowledge & truth sought through religion
Sensate: knowledge & truth sought through science
Evolutionary: process that moves in 1 direction becoming more complex
Equilibrium: change in 1 part of society causes change in all parts

17. Conflict
Marx & Class Conflict: society is divided between those w/ & those w/o power, change occurs when withouts try to gain power
Dahrendorf & Social Conflict: focuses on groups besides class (racial, ethnic), revolution is not the only cause of change

18. Process of Modernization
Modernization: process by which society’s institutions become increasingly complex
Modernization Theory: more-developed nations modernized bc they were 1st to industrialize, less-developed nations will follow the same patterns
Fails to recognized different conditions
World-System Theory: world is comprised of 3 types of nations
Core: most powerful & developed
Peripheral: depend on cores to buy raw materials & for aid
Semiperipheral: industrialized but not powerful

19. Impact of Modernization
Positives
Higher standard of living
Technology
Education
Negatives
Family & religion lose authority
Govt plays a large role
Technology raises moral & ethical questions
environment

20. Buy a Daughter General reactions
Is this a morally acceptable practice? Explain.
How might this practice impact a population?