SOC 101 Study Guide - Herbert Blumer, Minimax, Collective Behavior

• School: University at Buffalo
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 101
• Professor: Christopher Mele

Document Summary

Collective behavior refers to actions at a group level that are considered to be outside the usual norms governing behavior: ex. Social efforts for the philippines: for example: the normal" course of politics = voting, Writing a congressman collective behavior politics = demonstrating, protesting: collective behavior can be violent and nonviolent; progressive (for change) and conservative (against change); profound (humanitarian movements, animal rights) or mundane (fashion; rumors) Early explanations: the transformation of the individual: focus on protest and collective action as dysfunctional, early explanations of collective behavior focused on a crowd"s ability to affect an individual"s behavior. Mob mentality": involves getting an individual to do things as part of a group that normally he or she would never do. 1852, charles mackay commented on how individuals may act differently when in a crowd: argued people had a herd mentality . 1920, robert park added the ideas of social unrest to lebon"s contagion analogy.