COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIES OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

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COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND THE SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGIES OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Project submitted to
Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda
(Assistant Professor of Sociology)




Project Submitted by
Vinay Kumar Sahu
(Sociology Major)
Semester Five
Roll No - 169





HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
RAIPUR, C.G.


COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIES OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

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Table of Content
Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................03
Introduction ................................................................................................................04
Objectives ....................................................................................................................05
Reasearch Methedology .............................................................................................06
Social psychology ........................................................................................................07
Collective behaviour.....................................................................................................07
Institutional psychology...............................................................................................08
The social psychology of inequality.............................................................................10
The social psychology of religion ................................................................................11
The social psychology of work and leisure................................................................12
Major findings ...........................................................................................................13
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................14
Bibliography and Webliography ..............................................................................15







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Acknowledgements

At the outset, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and thank my teacher, Dr. Uttam
Kumar Panda for putting his trust in me and giving me a project topic such as this and for
having the faith in me to deliver.
My gratitude also goes out to the staff and administration of HNLU for the infrastructure in
the form of our library and IT Lab that was a source of great help for the completion of this
project.

- Vinay Kumar Sahu









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Introduction
Here we will consider the most "macro" dimensions of social psychology, those social forces
arising out of the interactions of large numbers of individuals and groups which, in turn, are
the master templates patterning the cultural and social orders. One cannot study the behaviors
of individuals without devoting some attention to the broader socio-cultural environments--
their economic structures, stratification orders, technological systems of communication and
transportation, family processes, demographics, and value systems-- structuring their social
lives. Humans have long been fascinated by the processes through which collective social
wholes emerge out of individuals' separate activities. They have probably forever felt the
sense of exhilaration and power of their unity in numbers when pressed into crowds. The
whole is greater than the sum of its parts in the image below. In this 1947 photograph by E.O.
Goldbeck, 21,765 members of the U.S. Army Air Force are fused into a symbol of their
group.




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Objectives

The objective of this project is to -
To discuss the concept of social psychology.
To study collective behaviour.
To study social psychologies of social institutions.












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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher has followed the non doctrinal method for research design. The research is
based on both primary and secondary sources. Books from the universitys library have been
used. Computer from the computer laboratory of the university has been used for the purpose
of secondary research and is the main source of project.





















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Social Psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how peoples thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours
are influenced by factors in the social world
1
.
Collective Behaviour
By "collective behavior" social scientists typically mean that realm of action not governed by
the everyday rules and expectations which normally shape social behavior:
the behavior of crowds (such as "the wave" rolling around a sports stadium) and
mobs;
religious revivalism;
political activity, fads and fashion;
Collective action can be understood as the result of an emerging collective definition of the
situation. This definition includes elements of shared cognitive belief (the "facts" that are
commonly defined as being real and relevant), emotional factors (such as the personal needs
being frustrated and the dominant emotion evoked), and the predominant motivation of those
present. How such a commonly-shared mindset comes to be gets us into such topics as how
information flows through social networks
2
and connectivity opportunities provided by email
and the Web
3
.
A century ago one of the first social science investigations of collective action focused on the
behavior of crowds. Gustave LeBon, in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1897),
wrote of the "crowd mind," emerging from anonymity and deindividuation (which often leads
to antisocial behavior), contagion (e.g., epidemic hysteria) and emergent norms. Though
contemporary social scientists have dismissed LeBon's "crowd mind," his antecedents
continue to influence social research. Indeed, individuals (whether crowd members or
observers) frequently act on the basis of their inferences about what the crowd "thinks, fears,
hates, and wants."

1
Catherine .A. Sanderson, Introducing social psychology
2
Stanley Milgram's "Small World" thesis
3
Columbia University's Small World Research Project
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The crowds that go mad have long intrigued social scientists. These intensely emotional
mobs that violate the social norms and values have been both agents of social change and
targets of severe repression by agencies of social control. Participants, anonymous and
deindividualized and hypersensitive to any emergent definition of the situation, may find
themselves engaging in acts of wanton destruction that they never envisioned nor intended.
Being major agents of social change, perhaps the most-studied forms of collective behavior
are social movements, such as the American civil rights, anti-war, feminist, and
environmental crusades of recent decades. These can arise, for instance, when cultural values
become ambiguous during times of social change or crisis, when people find themselves in
unanticipated(be aware of future events) situations, or when individuals' motives are similarly
blocked. Such are the occasions when novel shared definitions of the situation arise and a
collectivity is formed, experiences solidarity, and mobilizes for action.
Precisely how such collective action arises has likewise received considerable theory and
research. Neal Smelser, for instance, develops such processes as:
structural strain
structural conduciveness
generalized belief
some precipitating factor
mobilization of participants for action
success or failure of social control mechanisms.

Institutional Psychologies
Institutions are perceptual, cognitive, emotive and behavioral systems. institutions provide
individuals with consensual ways for deriving meaning from their social interactions. They
also provide individuals routine ways for making decisions and acting in various situations
with various types of others. As Mary Douglas observes in How Institutions Think
4
"the
instituted community blocks personal curiosity, organizes public memory, and heroically
imposes certainty on uncertainty. In marking its own boundaries it affects all lower level

4
Syracuse University Press, 1986:102
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thinking, so that persons realize their own identities and classify each other through
community affiliation."
From a more social perspective, institutions are social housekeepers in that they program the
routine services necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the group. With social evolution,
distinctive institutions emerged to address the separate needs of society. For instance, out of
society's need for protection against external threats arose the military; out of the social need
for an informed and trained citizenry emerged education; and out of the social need for moral
consensus and restraint of selfish impulses arose religion. Ideally these social needs
addressed simultaneously address the needs of individuals, such as the social need for
procreating the next generation of members matching the personal needs for intimacy and
connectedness in the institution of the family.
From this social psychological perspective, institution
addresses the needs of both individuals and social systems;
shapes perception, beliefs, and cognition;
induces various emotional experiences, such as the feelings of awe and respect, love
and hate;
impacts identity: the bearing of its roles on the self-concepts and esteem of its actors,
its rites-of-passages, its demands for biographical summaries and accountabilities;
defines situations and creates settings for interaction;
channels behavior, such as its encouragement of risk-taking or pro-social activities,
restraint on sexual activity, or timing of activities;
creates group dynamics, such as creating in-groups and out-groups, and specifying
roles for leaders and followers, and groupthink;
spawns collective action and social movements;
relates to other institutional systems of action and thought.




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THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF INEQUALITY
Inequality among men is a rich source of much that is evil, but also of everything that is
good.
--Kant
Individuals' positions in the stratification orders of sex, race, and social class determine the
language the speak, their values, happiness, self-esteem, sense of personal efficacy, physical
and mental health, rate of aging and life-expectancy, sexual activities, childrearing practices,
and nature of their work.
THOUGHT PROBLEM
Suppose that you are a member of a dominant group. What social psychological tactics would
you use to ensure that your "social lessers" remain in their place
5
?
EXPLORING AMERICANS' ATTRIBUTIONS OF WHY THE POOR ARE POOR
In the 1990 NORC General Social Survey, Americans were asked why there are poor people
in this country. Two questions dealt with internal loci of control (e.g., they blame the
victims): People are poor because of: Loose morals and drunkenness, and Lack of effort by
the poor themselves. Two deal with external loci (e.g., they locate the cause in society):
Failure of society to provide good schools for many Americans, and Failure of industry to
provide enough jobs. Out of these questions was created a scale of poverty attributions, where
1=society's fault, 2=both social and personal faults, and 3=self-fault. Not surprisingly, those
identifying themselves as members of the lower class are most likely to see poverty being
society's fault (43%) than are the other classes, but there is virtually no difference in
attributions of the working, middle, and upper classes (27% of whom blame society). Women
are slightly more to blame society (30%) than men (26%), as are those 18-29 years of age
(32%) compared to those 70 and older (19%).



5
T.R. Young's "The Contributions of Karl Marx to Social Psychology"
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THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION
RELIGION'S ROLE IN ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF SELF AND SOCIETY -
In numerous ways, religion acts as a shock absorber that cushions the inevitable tensions
between self and society. Social frustrations must be resolved; the incongruities between
personal desires and social needs must be explained. Social order may well require
individuals' absolute faith in the order, meaningfulness, and justice of social life. Religious
faith is a potent source of human motivation, whether directed toward orthodoxy or
fanaticism.
Considering the needs of selves and societies addressed by religion, let's first investigate the
extent to which religiosity contributes to the happiness of individuals. As can be seen, when
controlling for Americans' age and education, those who report being "strongly" religious are
significantly more likely to be "very happy" than are their less religious counterparts--
particularly among those 18-30 and those 45-64 years of age.
6

In addition to emotional health, religion contributes to physical well-being as well, evidenced
by Mormons' prohibitions against alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. In the October 1997 issue of
The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine is reported a study by Harold Koenig
and Harvey Cohen of 1,718 older North Carolinians. They found that those who attended
religious services at least once a week were significantly less likely to have high levels of
interleukin-6, an immune-system protein implicated with a number of diseases, in their
bloodstreams. Perhaps it should not be surprising that one-quarter of Americans report using
prayer as a form of health care.
7

The social order not only keeps individuals out of mischief but intertwines personal
motivations with group objectives. It is in society's interest that individuals voluntarily
become involved in its groups and organizations, particularly in a democratic society.

6
The American Religious Experience Project, a consortium of UWV, UNC, LA State, AZ
State, Barnard-Columbia, and Franklin and Marshall
7
The National Institute for Healthcare Research ("Bridging the Gap Between Spirituality and
Health")
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THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF WORK AND LEISURE
When people meet for the first time, a question that invariably arises is, "What do you do for
a living?" We believe that to know another person's line of work is to have a highly predictive
framework for inferring his or her social status, interpersonal traits and skills, value
orientations, personal interests, and even personality type.
As populations were growing rapidly and the social system was becoming increasingly
specialized, it was no longer practical to refer to others by their first names (even when
coupled with one's residence, such as Edward-of-Dover). What better way to index other
selves than by what they do? Those who made carts became Cartwrights and Wainwrights;
metal workers became Smiths; and Shepard became the surname of people who tended sheep.
Of all the institutionalized arenas of human activity, work is the most central, both
sociologically and psychologically. From a macro perspective, work is a way of keeping
social actors "out of mischief" by harnessing and coordinating their energies to produce
socially necessary goods and services. The products of work become the basis of trade, which
brings cultures into contact with each other, thereby providing opportunities for social
innovation.
From a micro perspective, work satisfies a broad spectrum of individual needs, such as the
needs for solidarity and a feeling of self-worth. One way to appreciate this function of is to
study those who lack it: the unemployed and unemployable, those who have been fired and
laid off, and retired people. In many ways these individuals become nonpersons; their
activities are no longer perceived as wholly legitimate, since only through working is one
generally seen as contributing to the social system
8
.





8
Robert Merton's "Bureaucratic Structure and Personality"
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Major findings

Individual is very much influenced by his environment which includes his political,
economic, and social conditions. As sociology studies human society , social psychology
studies human behaviours, attitudes, and thoughts influenced by factors in the social world.
Individual behaves differently when he is alone and behaves differently in collectivity for ex.
Why people behave more aggressively when they are in group setting than when they are
alone. Collective behaviour moulds the behaviour of individual as social psychology of
individual works differently in different situations. Collectivism hold great impact on
individualism. Institutions provide individuals with consensual ways for deriving meaning
from their social interactions. They also provide individuals routine ways for making
decisions and acting in various situations with various types of others. Individuals' positions
in the stratification orders of sex, race, and social class determine the language they speak,
their values, happiness, self-esteem, sense of personal efficacy, physical and mental health,
rate of aging and life-expectancy, sexual activities, childrearing practices, and nature of their
work. In numerous ways, religion acts as a shock absorber that cushions the inevitable
tensions between self and society. religion contributes to physical well-being as well. person's
line of work helps others in inferring his or her social status, interpersonal traits and skills,
value orientations, personal interests, and even personality type.









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Conclusion

Humans have long been fascinated by the processes through which collective social wholes
emerge out of individuals' separate activities. The interactions of large numbers of individuals
and groups are the master templates patterning the cultural and social orders. One cannot
study the behaviors of individuals without devoting some attention to the broader socio-
cultural environments--their economic structures, stratification orders, technological systems
of communication and transportation, family processes, demographics, and value systems--
structuring their social lives.


















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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Catherine .A. Sanderson, Social Psychology, Wiley India Edition.
WEBLIOGRAPHY
Robert Merton's "Bureaucratic Structure and Personality"
The American Religious Experience Project, a consortium of UWV, UNC, LA State,
AZ State, Barnard-Columbia, and Franklin and Marshall
The National Institute for Healthcare Research ("Bridging the Gap Between
Spirituality and Health")
T.R. Young's "The Contributions of Karl Marx to Social Psychology"
Syracuse University Press, 1986:102
Catherine .A. Sanderson, Introducing social psychology
Stanley Milgram's "Small World" thesis
Columbia University's Small World Research Project