Sociology

1. Collective Behaviour
Collective behaviour describes the actions, thoughts, and feelings of relatively temporary and
unstructured groups of people.
Characteristics of Collective Behaviour
1. Spontaneous and episodic
Takes place occasionally rather than regularly and routinely.
2. Unstable
Short-lived, no stable goals, values and expectations like institutionalized behaviour.
3. Unstructured
Not set rules, it is loosely structured.
4. Unpredictable
Such behaviour cannot be foretold.
5. Irrational
Unreasoning, beliefs, hops, fear and hatreds.
6. Emotional
7. Based on considerable personal interaction
8. Non-traditional
Not clearly according to norms and values.
Types of Collective Behaviour
There are three type of collective behaviour:
1. Crowd behaviour
2. Mass behaviour
3. Public and Public Opinion
Crowd Behaviour
It is a very important type of collective behaviour. A crowd is a large number of people who
gather together with a common short-term/long-term purpose.
Characteristics of Crowd Behaviour
1. Suggestibility
2. Anonymity
3. Spontaneity
4. Invulnerability
Types of Crowd Behaviour
Sociologist Herbert Blumer (1969) developed a popular typology of crowds based on their
purpose and dynamics.
1. Casual crowds
2. Conventional crowds
3. Expressive crowds
4. Acting crowds
5. A fifth type, protest crowds, has also been distinguished by other scholars
Casual Crowd

2. A casual crowd is a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the
same time. It has no common identity or long-term purpose. e.g. A gathering of people who
are waiting to cross the street and to this degree do have a common goal, but this goal is
temporary.
As Erich Goode (1992) emphasizes, "members of casual crowds have little else in common
except their physical location."
Conventional Crowd
A conventional crowd is a collection of people who gather for a specific purpose.
They might be attending a movie, a play, a concert, or a lecture.
Expressive Crowd
An expressive crowd is a collection of people who gather primarily to be excited and
to express one or more emotions. e.g. include a religious revival, a political rally for a
candidate. A conventional crowd may sometimes become an expressive crowd, as when the
audience at a movie starts shouting if the film projector breaks.
Acting Crowd
An acting crowd refers to a crowd where the members are actively doing something
that is directly related to their goal. It is crowd by planed. An acting crowd goes one
important step beyond an expressive crowd by behaving in violent or other destructive
behaviour such as looting. Acting crowds sometimes become so large and out of control that
they develop into full-scale riots, which we discuss momentarily.
Protest Crowd Clark McPhail and Ronald T. Wohlstein (1983) A protest crowd is a
collection of people who gather to protest a political, social, cultural, or economic issue.
Riots
A violent disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a
crowd protesting against another group, a government policy etc. in the streets. A riot is a
relatively spontaneous outburst of violence by a large group of people.
Types of Riots
Protest riots express discontent regarding a political, social, cultural, or economic issue.
Celebration riots express joy or delight over an event or outcome, such as the celebration of
a football team’s championship that gets out of hand.
Protest riots are fundamentally political in nature, while celebration riots are decidedly
apolitical.
Another popular typology (Goode, 1992) distinguishes 4 types of riots:
1. Purposive
2. Symbolic
3. Revalue's
4. Issueless
Purposive are intended to achieve a specific goal regarding that issue.
Colonial riots mentioned earlier are examples of purposive riots, as are many of the riots that
have occurred in U.S. prisons during the past few decades.
Symbolic riots express general discontent but do not really aim to achieve a specific goal.
Revelous riots are the same as the celebration riots already discussed.
Issueless riots have no apparent basis or purpose. An example of an issueless riot is the
looting and general violence that sometimes occurs during a citywide electrical outage.

3. Mob: When a acting crowd starts to engaged in destructive and sometimes violet behaviour,
they become a mob.
Mass Behaviour
Mass behaviour is a type of social behaviour and is defined as collective behaviour among
people who are spatially dispersed from one another.
Types of Mass behaviour
1. Mass Hysteria
2. Rumours
3. Panic
4. Fashion and Fads
Mass Hysteria
It is some form of irrational, compulsive behaviour spreads among people. Mass
hysteria is a common term used to describe a situation in which various people all suffer from
similar hysterical symptoms. Mass hysteria is also known as collective hysteria, epidemic
hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness.
Rumours
A rumour is a piece of information gathered informally which is used to interpret an
ambiguous situation. It arises in such a situation where people want some verifiable
information but do not get or cannot get it.
Panic
It is physical and psychological distance of people such as fire in a cinema hall, hotel etc.
Fashion and Fads
When large number of people enthusiastically embrace some activity or object of a
short period of time. e.g. TV program at that time. Fashion is longer live than fads. Fashion
is a continuing state of change. e.g. hair length and eyelashes' are best example of fashion.
Public and Public Opinion
It is an aggregate rather than a group. The people working on road, in farms, gathering in
Mosque for payers. It has Three Elements:
1. Existence of a problem
2. Discussion on the problem by the
people
3. Attempting to form collective
opinion differ among the people
Contagion Theory
A French psychologist LeBon (1896) he described the theory of collective
behaviour based on contagion "some process moods, attitude and behaviour are
communicated rapid and accepted uncritically". This theory maintains that a crowd can exert
a hypnotic effect on its members. Anonymity of a crowd creates a condition in which people
lose their identity and personal responsibility to a collective mind. This theory relies heavily
on such idea as stimulus response and emotional contagion. Supposedly, as a crowd around
and interacts, emotions are transmitted quickly from one person to another. This
transformation is facilitated through "circular reaction" or "a type of inter-stimulation"
whereby one individual reproduces the simulation that has come from another and when back
to this individual, reinforce the original stimulation.