An Example Of Experiencing Collective Behavior

Herd behavior describes how individuals in a group can act collectively without centralized directions. Herd behavior can not only be in human beings but also in animal herds, packs, fish schools, and bird flocks. Herd behavior can also be in decision. For example, if a person is walking down a street, hungry, and desperately wanting food, and sees two restaurants down the road, suppose Pizza Hut and Papa Johns; Pizza Hut is full with people, whereas Papa John’s barely even has two customers. The man would more likely got to Pizza Hut because of the number of people he sees.

Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,

In this group there were no disruptive members. I filled the role of an observer, I offered feedback at the end of the session. The counselor filled the role of standard setter. There was an encourager, a harmonizer, an expediter, and a follower.

This is modeled by the fact that people being in groups, causes them to act and think differently than they would have if they had been alone. In her essay, Tavris uses many examples of this: In the case of Kitty Genovese or the late Rodney King who was beat to death by police officers. People have a tendency to act differently in groups, others suffer due to people not wanting to “rock the boat” or they do not want to “embarrass themselves or others if they are wrong” (19). Tavris offers a solution to the way people act in groups, “By understanding the impulse to diffuse responsibility, perhaps as individuals we will be more likely to act. By understanding the social pressures that reward group-think, loyalty and obedience, we can foster those that reward whistle blowing and moral courage. And, as a society, we can reinforce the belief that they also sing who stand and watch” (19). If civilization can solve the dilemma of people acting differently when they are in groups with others, the world could be a much improved place.

Dismissing your own individual opinions to reach group consensus, now that’s negative peer pressure! Peer pressure will always be a problem and can affect anyone. I say that because no matter where you’re from or who you are, peer pressure is lurking about. Anytime you’re pressured to do something and your conscience is telling you not to do it, and you follow through with the task anyway, that is dismissing your opinion just to please other group members. Not wanting to be ostracized by others is the basis of conformity. Peer pressure doesn’t discriminate against race, nationality, or social class. It’s like a plague waiting to spread like wildfire throughout your school, your

The original idea of collective efficacy is derived from social-cognitive theory. According to Bandura (1995, 2000), social-cognitive theory distinguishes among three forms of human agency: personal, proxy, and collective. Collective efficacy in this theory concerns with people’s beliefs in their joint capabilities to prioritize their common goal and shared interest and to achieve the goal successfully with all possible resources and strategies. The stronger their belief is, the more actively they engage in collective efforts.

In this paper, I will use a personal experience in which my actions were greatly influenced by the pressure of groupthink to demonstrate my sociological knowledge and to further analyze the situation using Symbolic Interactionism. My experience with bullying and the role that I played in the situation is an excellent example of groupthink leading people to display uncharacteristic behaviors and make choices they would not have otherwise as an individual (Baker 2017).

The demographics of protesters are widely varied, representing the racial breakdown of the country almost perfectly. Those that are engaged in the public outcry but are not directly affected by the recognized public issue are likely to be engaging in social solidarity. Social solidarity refers to the ties in a society that bind individuals as one group. Émile Durkheim defines it as a social cohesion that is based on the dependence individuals on one another (Durkheim 133). Durkheim further classifies solidarity into two types, mechanical and organic. Mechanical solidarity is largely based on social cohesion stemming from the homogeneity of individuals. People form bonds through having similar lifestyles, and those lifestyles are often based on the kinship ties of familial networks. This would be the type of solidarity more likely to be undertaken between members the African-American community in this situation. Organic solidarity is generally found in more complex and less homogenous social circles. In this type of solidarity bonds are formed based on interdependence among complementary members of a social circle as opposed to homogeneity. This is the type of solidarity that can be seen most readily among the outraged public as a whole. We see many different demographics represented during these protests. Suburban

The occurrences of modern Black social phenomena 's reflect Black people 's history in America; they are byproducts of a social system that has neglected their equality, liberty, justice, and needs. Most Black social phenomena are ironically misunderstood by the very system that help creates them. Along with being misunderstood, Black social phenomena 's are also blamed for many of society 's ills. The present welfare system was not created by black people but they receive the blame for its inefficiency. A vicious cycle has been created. Black social phenomena 's occur with little control by black people, but the negative effects and consequences are blamed on Black people.

This can also be seen in Letter from Birmingham. All of those protestors, though they were fighting for the same cause, did not mean they knew each other or were friends. But working together bonded them. This is a very general theme because it does not always yield a good outcome. People can work together to do bad things as well, but it shows how much can get done with a group than

When analyzing social patterns and behaviors, is there a significant difference between the psychology of an individual and groups? Collective and individual behavior is surprisingly similar, and depending on the circumstances, identical. In Charles Siebert essay “An Elephant Crackup,” he validates to readers, through social elephant narratives and herd mentality theory, that similarly to an individual elephant all elephants behave in similar ways. Furthermore, Sherry Turkle in selections from her work Alone Together accounts

Working within a group or team is unavoidable for most people. We are involved in sports teams, assignment groups, work teams, social groups and a variety of other groups and teams. Each of these groups share one thing in common, that is each requires us to communicate in some way in order to reach a shared goal or target. Therefore, it is imperative to know and understand how to work and communicate effectively with others to maximise outcomes and productivity.

Each individual is categorized into a group from the day they were conceived. According to Kozier et al (2010) a group is “two are more people who have shared need and goals, who taken each other in account in their and who, thus, are held together and set apart from others by virtue of their interaction” (p. 400). The communicate that takes place between members of the group is group dynamic (Kozier et al, 2010). Motivation for participation and similarity of other group members and the goals of the group will affect the group dynamic (Kozier et al, 2010). The type of group that was created was a task group and Kozier et al (2010) stated that “the focus for such group is completion of a specific task, and the format is defined at the

The communication in the group appears to be inconsistent and does appear to harmful to some of the members. Certain members of the group are communicating verbally, others are communicating nonverbally and their behaviors are sending out intended and possibly unintended messages that is impacting the rest of the group in a negative way. Therefore, members may not feel comfortable talking about feelings, problems, or other issues within the group. In this case study Luisa, appears to be a main factor of why people are shutting down. As there is interference with groups communication based on anger, fear, and uncertainly. She appears to be provoking a response for attention or disapproval to perhaps gain or maintain power within group.

One of the facets of living within civilized society is that there are certain norms and social conventions that people must follow. Frequently, there is a large effort on the part of government, financial, and social institutions to keep people doing most of the same thing as others going to work, driving cars, buying homes, etc. Despite the fact that people engage in these efforts individually, the simple fact that they are all attempting to do the same thing, in much the same way, is indicative of the fact that they are engaged in collective behavior. THESIS: Those who are able to overcome collective behavior and allow for their individuality to determine their own outcomes exemplify the best of human nature.