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Soc 319
Sociological Approaches to Social Psychology
Tuesday April 21, 009: Collective Behavior and Social Movements (cont’d)
& Altruism
1. Theories of collective behavior.
a. Contagion theory: Proposes that people are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior in a crowd, because they are anonymous, have a reduced
sense of personal responsibility, and feel invulnerable. Emotions are
spread across persons in the crowd as a virus or “contagion” spreads.
People imitate the behaviors of one another. This perspective developed
out of the early studies of crowds by LeBon (1895). He argued that
emotion in a crowd produces unity among its members and gives
directions to the crowd’s behavior. LeBon conied the term “mental unity
of the crowd” which has since been referred to as “crowd mentality.” This
unanimity is supposed to lead participants to think, feel, and act in ways
that are different than if each member were alone.
b. Convergence theory: counters that the crowd does not lead to conformity
among individual participants. Rather, those who choose to participate in such
an event already are like-minded. Moreover, participants often know each
other, so behavior is not necessarily anonymous.
c. Emergent norm theory. Patterns of behavior emerge within the crowd.
Crowds develop their own definition of the situation and establish norms for
behavior that fit the social context and occasion. Pre-existing norms may not
be applicable, and may be revised or reinvented for the distinctive context.
This perspective views individuals as active agents, rather than passive
recipients of the crowd mentality.
B. Social movements.
1. Definitions: Social movement is a collective action that expresses a high level
of concern about some issue. Its participants feel strongly enough to act, and they
may act in a variety of ways – protesting, volunteering, giving money, etc.
2. There is a direct link between social movements and social change, though the
causal order cannot be easily established. (Do social movements trigger social and
political changes, or do ongoing social and political changes empower individuals
to engage in an active and organized social movement?)
3. The success of a movement depends on resource mobility (i.e. resource
mobilization theory). Resources typically include: money, labor, contact with
media, and credibility. A movement must be known to large numbers of persons
(and must be credible) in order to effect change. As such, the media plays a
powerful role in transmitting images of the movement, and in transmitting the
demands and goals of the movement to a wider audience. The internet and You
tube have been effective ways to “diffuse” information about protests- even small
ones – to relatively large audiences.
4. Stages of a social movement
a. Preliminary stage: Individuals become aware of a threat or problem.
The scale may be large (e.g., women throughout the U.S. are worried about the
erosion of reproductive rights) or small (e.g., parents in one small town become
aware that a tainted water supply is making their children sick).
b. Coalescence stage: People begin to organize their efforts and start to
make the threat known to the public.
c. Institutional stage: Individuals begin to develop an organizational
structure, including a clear-cut plan of action, an allocation of tasks among
participants, and in some cases partnering with other organization or groups (e.g.,
NOW and NARAL may join forces; a small community group may get the
backing of Greenpeace, etc.)
6. What factors shape whether one participates in a social movement?
a. strength of attitude. Recall from attitude-behavior literature that attitudes
predict behavior when the attitude is strongly held and is salient to the actor.
b. situational constraints. The linkage between attitudes and behavior is
weakest when situational constraints are high. Thus, lack of time, money or
access may prevent people from participating in a movement, even if their
attitudes are consistent with the aims of the movement.
c. Risks vs. benefits: High-risk/cost activism raises barriers to mobilizing
participants. According to rational choice and expectancy value theories, the
decision to participate is based on an assessment of the potential costs and
rewards associated with participation. The rational decision is not to
participate when perceived low success is outweighed by potentially great cost
(e.g., violence, loss of job, etc.).
d. “Social network” theory proposes that people may get involved because of
relationships they have with others who already belong to the movement.
Social ties provide access to information and an entrée into the groups’
activities.
e. “Mass society” theory proposes that social movements attract socially isolated
people who are looking for a purpose and social integration.
7. Underlying causes of collective behavior and social movements.
a. Strain. Societies are typically “balanced”, where there’s an emphasis on both
achieving goals and having means to achieve those goals. However, imbalances often
trigger movements. The core ideas here are similar to those of Merton’s strain theory.
b. Relative deprivation. Relative deprivation occurs when individuals recognize
that they have less than another – blacks versus whites, women versus men, etc. People
make a comparison between what they have and what others have. (e.g., a child who
receives a $5 weekly allowance will be satisfied. However if his/her sibling gets an
increase to $10/week, then relative deprivation will ensue.). Relative deprivation is distinct
from absolute deprivation.
i. Perceptions of deprivation often have a temporal component. When
individuals’ expectations are raised, and their hopes and expectations rise more
quickly than their actual rewards, then levels of discontent and perceived
deprivation increase. For instance, women and Blacks had far more rights in the
1970s than in prior generations, yet the movements of the 1960s raised their hopes
for complete equality, so anything less was viewed as disappointing and an
indicator of deprivation.
c. Grievances. When resources are scarce and one group has discontent with the
existing distribution of resources, collective behavior may ensue.
I. Helping & Altruism
A. Helping
1. Helping/pro-social behavior is generally defined as any behavior carried out
with the intention of benefiting another person. However, the helper either consciously or
unconsciously engages in the pro-social behavior because s/he will be rewarded. The key
point that differentiates helping from altruism is that helping may involve a selfish
motivation. There is no such motive present in altruism.
a. Examples of helping behavior are numerous, (although it is often
difficult to determine one’s intent from simply observing behavior). Perhaps you’re
walking through campus with friends or a date, and you give a $5 to a homeless person.
Are you concerned about the poor person’s well-being? Or are you simply trying to
impress your friends (thus a reward to you would be social approval)? Or do you want to
receive the positive feeling that often occurs after helping someone?
2. These examples clearly illustrate the central themes of reinforcement
theory. Recall that this theory says that our behavior is guided by external events. We
will perform a behavior that is rewarded, and will discontinue one that will be punished
(we might not even begin a behavior that we believe might be punished, as the theory of
imitation predicts). Research and theory on helping behavior emphasizes that in order for
helping to occur, individuals must perceive that the rewards to themselves outweigh the
costs.
3. Some adherents of reinforcement theory argue that pure altruism does not exist,
because all acts of helping reap some rewards to the helper – whether a positive feeling
about one’s self, positive reinforcement from others, or enhancing one’s self-concept as a
“giving person”
B. Why Do We Help?
1. Sociobiology/evolutionary arguments
a.
Recall that sociobiology or evolutionary theories of human behavior argue
that all human behavior is directed toward the perpetuation of one’s species, and one’s
own genes. From this perspective, it is easy to understand why we would help our
biological family members, particularly our own children. If we adhere this to theory, we
would argue that parents will behave more altruistically to healthy children than
unhealthy children, because the healthy are more likely to survive and give birth to future
offspring. Few studies have been done which support this hypothesis, however.
2. Normative explanations. Sociologists argue that most members of society abide by
norms, or subtle yet pervasive guidelines of “right” and “wrong.” Three specific norms
apply to helping behavior:
a. Norm of social responsibility. This norm prescribes that we should help others
who depend on us.
b. Norm of reciprocity. This norm says that we should help those who help us,
and we should not hurt those who help us.
c. Personal norm: feeling of moral obligation to help a specific person in specific
situation, based on one’s own values. (e.g., individuals have particular preferences about
who they would or would not like to help, such as those who they like, respect, or feel
similar to).
d. Norm of non-involvement (?): Norm that individuals should not involve
themselves in the private actions of others. (e.g. not intervening into a domestic
dispute, because family relations are “private matters”)
C. Theoretical Perspectives
1. Social Exchange Theory. This theory says that our behavior is guided
by external events. We will perform a behavior that is rewarded, and will discontinue one
that will be punished (we might not even begin a behavior that we believe might be
punished, as the theory of imitation predicts). Research and theory on helping behavior
emphasizes that in order for helping to occur, individuals must perceive that the rewards
to themselves outweigh the costs. This conceptual model has been highly influential, and
many specific models of helping behavior are derived from the cost-benefit model.
2. Empathy-altruism model (Batson 1981). This model holds that helping
behavior occurs when individuals experience empathy for the person in need. Individuals
may vicariously experience emotions that are similar to the person in need. Helping will
occur out of a desire to lessen this negative emotional state.