WarmUp: Journal Entry
 Respond to the following scenario in your
journals. Please be detailed in your
response.
 You are sitting in a movie theater watching
a film & the film breaks.
 How does the audience respond?
 Why do they respond that way?
Chapter 17.1
Collective Behavior &
Social Movements
Objectives
 Contrast the various types of collectivities &
analyze the explanations for collective
behavior that have been proposed.
 Identify the preconditions necessary for
collective behavior to occur & explain how
they build on one another.
Collective Behavior
 the relatively
spontaneous
social behavior
that occurs when
people try to
develop common
solutions to
unclear situations
Characteristics of Collectives
 limited interaction
 unclear norms
 limited unity
 group that share these characteristics known as a
collectivity
Types of Collective
Behavior
Crowds
Riots
Mass Hysteria
Fads
Urban Legends
Mobs
Panics
Fashions
Rumors
Public Opinion
Crowds
 temporary
gathering of
people who are
in close enough
proximity to
interact
Mobs
 an emotionally charged collectivity whose
members are united by a specific destructive or
violent goal
Riots
 collection of people who erupt into generalized
destructive behavior, resulting in social disorder
 less unified & focused than mobs
 London Graffiti Riot
Panics
 spontaneous & uncoordinated group action
to escape some perceived threat
Mass Hysteria
 unfounded anxiety shared by people who can
be scattered over a large geographic area
Fashions
 enthusiastic
attachments
among large
numbers of
people for
particular styles
of appearance or
behavior
Fads
 an unconventional object, action, or idea that a
large number of people are attached to for a very
short period of time
Rumors
 unverified pieces of information that spread
rapidly from one person to another
Urban Legends
 stories that teach a lesson & seem realistic
but are untrue
 Urban Legends Decoded: The Hook
Public Opinion
 collection of
different
attitudes that
members of the
public have
about a
particular issue
Explaining Collective
Behavior
Contagion Theory
Emergent-Norm Theory
Value-Added Theory
Contagion Theory
 developed by Gustave LeBon
 1st systematic theory of collective behavior
 3 factors give crowds power over individuals
 numbers create anonymity of individual
members
 spread of emotion like epidemic
 members rapidly enter state of suggestibility
Emergent-Norm Theory
 developed by Ralph Turner & Lewis Killian
 people in a crowd often faced with a situation in which
traditional norms do not apply
 no clear standards of behavior
 new norms gradually emerge
Value-Added Theory
 proposed by Neil Smelser
 attempted to predict if collective behavior would occur
& the direction it might take
 taken from economic theory of the production process
 6 basic preconditions for social behavior:
 1) structural conduciveness
 2) structural strain
 3) growth & spread of generalized belief
 4) precipitation factors
 5) mobilization for action
 6) social control
CHAPTER 17: CLASSWORK
 Page 448: #2-3
 Page 455: #2-3
 Page 458: #1-10 Identifying People & Ideas
 Page 458: #1-7 Understanding Main Ideas
 Page 459: #1-4 Building Social Studies Skills
Group Activity: Collective
Behavior Posters
 In groups of 3, create a poster for 1 of the previously
discussed types of social behavior.
 Be sure to include relevant facts, examples & illustrations to
support your definitions.