Sociology 101
Chapter 16
Collective Behavior and
Social Movements
Collective Behavior

Collective behavior is voluntary, often
spontaneous activity that is engaged in by a
large number of people and typically
violates dominant-group norms and values.

Collective behavior can take various forms,
including crowds, mobs, riots, panics, fads,
fashions, and public opinion.

What forms of collective behavior have you
taken part in?
2/25
Types of Crowd Behavior
 Casual
and conventional crowds - people
who happen to be in the same place at the
same time or for a scheduled event
 Expressive
and acting crowds – join to
express some strong emotion, may erupt into
violent or destructive behaviors
 Protest
crowds - crowds that engage in
activities intended to achieve political goals.
3/25
Explanations of Crowd
Behavior

Contagion Theory –
– People are more likely to engage in
antisocial behavior in a crowd
because they are anonymous and
feel invulnerable.
– Le Bon asserted that emotions such
as fear and hate are contagious in
crowds because people experience a
decline in personal responsibility;
they will do things as a collectivity
that they would never do when
acting alone.
Gustave Le Bon
4/25

Social unrest and
circular reaction
– Sociologist Robert E. Park
was the first U.S. sociologist
to investigate crowd
behavior.
– the discontent of one person
is communicated to another
who reflects it back to the
first person.
Robert Park
5/25
 Convergence
theory
– focuses on the shared
emotions, goals, and
beliefs people bring to
crowd behavior (Turner
and Killian,1993).
– people with similar
attributes find a
collectivity of like-minded
persons with whom they
can express their
underlying personal
tendencies.
Ralph Turner
6/25

Emergent norm
theory
– crowds develop their
own definition of the
situation and
establish norms for
behavior that fits
the occasion (Turner
and Killian,1993).
7/25
Social Movements
A
social movement is an organized group that
acts consciously to promote or resist change
through collective action (Goldberg, 1991).
 Because
social movements have not become
institutionalized and are outside the political
mainstream, they offer outsiders an opportunity
to have their voices heard.
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Types of Social Movements
 Reform
movements seek to improve society by
changing an aspect of the social structure.
 Revolutionary
movements seek to bring about a
total change in society.
 Religious
movements seek to produce radical
change in individuals and typically are based on
spiritual or supernatural belief systems.
10/25
Types of Social Movements
 Alternative
movements seek limited
change in some aspect of people's
behavior.
 Resistance
movements seek to
prevent or undo change that has
already occurred.
11/25
Stages in Social Movements
 Preliminary
stage - people begin to
become aware of a threatening problem.
 Coalescence
stage - people begin to
organize and start making the threat known
to the public.
 Institutionalization
stage organizational structure develops.
12/25

But how do we explain the emergence
of social movements and why some
people join them?
13/25
The Relative Deprivation
Model

Until the 1960s several social-psychological
models prevailed
– These models suggested that people suffer some type
of deprivation that motivated them to join a social
movement or NRM

Deprivation could be economic, social, or psychological
– Members were assumed to be recruited from marginal
segments of society
– Members were often assumed to have some sort of
pathology

Yet members of social movements in the 1960s
were well adjusted, came from middle and upper
class families, were highly educated, etc.
14/25
Relative Deprivation Theory

Thus, Charles Glock
argued that perhaps
deprivation was
relative rather than
absolute
– Members only had to
*believe* that they
were deprived
– Argues that relative
deprivation in some
form is a necessary
condition for the rise of
an NRM
15/25
Value-Added Theory
 Neil
Smelser
asserted, six
conditions are
necessary and
sufficient to
produce social
movements when
they combine or
interact in a
particular situation:
17/25
Value Added Theory
– Structural conduciveness
– Structural strain
– Spread of a generalized belief
– Precipitating factors
– Mobilization for action
– Social control factors
18/25
Social Movement Theories:
Resource Mobilization Theory
 Focuses
on the ability of
members of a social
movement to acquire
resources and mobilize
people in order to
advance their cause
Mayer Zald
20/25
Resource Mobilization


Resources include
money, people’s time
and skills, access to
the media, and
material goods, such
as property and
equipment.
Assistance from
outsiders is essential
for social movements.
John D. McCarthy
21/25
Social Constructionist Theory:
Frame Analysis


Erving Goffman
Based on the assumption
that a social movement is
an interactive, symbolically
defined, and negotiated
process that involves
participants, opponents and
bystanders
Our interpretation of the
particulars of events and
activities is dependent on
the framework from which
we perceive them.
22/25
Frame Analysis
Frames help to
render events or
occurrences
meaningful and
thereby function to
organize experience
and guide action

–
David Snow
Robert Benford
Simplifies and
condenses the “world
out there” thus
providing focus
23/25
Political Opportunity Theory


Social protests are directly related
to the political opportunities that
potential protesters and movement
organizers believe exist within the
political system at any given point
in time.
Based on the assumption that
social protests that take place
outside of mainstream political
institutions are deeply intertwined
with more conventional political
activities that take place inside
these institutions.
Doug McAdam
24/25
New Social Movement Theory


Looks at a diverse array of
collective actions and the manner
in which those actions are based
on politics, ideology, and culture.
Examples of “new social
movements” include ecofeminism
and environmental justice
movements.
Stephen Buechler
25/25