Exam 16: Collective Behavior, Social Movements, and Social Change

Many credit Rachel Carson's book ___________as a stimulus for collective behavior geared toward environmental concerns.

Propaganda refers to generally false information that is disseminated by those in power in efforts to fool the public into accepting their perspective.

___________theory is based on the assumption that participants in social movements make rational decisions about goals and actions and must have some degree of economic and political resources to make the movement a success.

Discuss the dynamics of collective behavior; that is, when are people most likely to act collectively, how do attitudes and behavior correlate with each other, and why might some people be more likely to act in a group than alone?

Worshipers at religious revival services and revelers assembled on New Year's Eve at Times Square in New York are examples of a(n) ___________crowd.

Members of the public attempt to influence those in power, and vice versa, with the dissemination of ___________, which is information provided by those with a vested interest in furthering their own cause or damaging an opposing one.

From the perspective of political opportunity theory, social movements___________ .

___________movements seek to improve society by changing some specific aspect of the social structure, such as public policy, to bring it in line with their own values and beliefs.

Collective behavior lacks the organizational structure of other forms of behavior.

A(n)___________ is a relatively large number of people who are in one another's immediate vicinity.

Sit-ins, marches, boycotts, blockades, and strikes are all examples of ___________crowds.

When a society or community is unable to meet people's expectations that something should be done about a problem, tension occurs in the system. This is the condition of___________ within Smelser's value-added theory.

Labor movements, animal rights movements, antinuclear movements, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), and the disability rights movement are all examples of___________ .

Apply the discussion of conditions that lead to the emergence of collective behavior to the role of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the emergence of the environmental movement.

Summarize the key features of these four explanations of collective behavior: contagion theory, social unrest and circular reaction, convergence theory, and emergent norm theory. Highlight the differences among these explanations.

Collective behavior occurs as a result of some common influence or stimulus that produces a response from a(n) __________.

Social movements are more likely to develop in industrial societies than in preindustrialized societies.

Tabloid newspapers and magazines such as the National Enquirer and People, and television entertainment "news" programs that present "inside" information on the lives of celebrities, are sources of contemporary ___________.

A(n)___________ is violent crowd behavior that is fueled by deep-seated emotions but not directed at one specific target.

___________focuses on the social-psychological aspects of collective behavior; it attempts to explain how moods, attitudes, and behavior are communicated rapidly and why they are accepted by others.