Deck 16: Collective Behavior

Question 1

In which of the following situations is "spontaneous collective behavior" most likely to occur?

A) a rally sponsored by a hierarchical organization
B) a protest march without any set leader, initiated by a loose affiliation of volunteers
C) a political campaign event in which professional managers decide the order of speakers and activities
D) a wedding with a clearly defined series of activities, organized by an experienced wedding planner

Answer 1

a protest march without any set leader, initiated by a loose affiliation of volunteers

Question 2

Which of the following is a true statement regarding the Tiananmen Square event in Beijing, China?

A) Chinese students organized in response to political corruption in the Chinese government but were ultimately unsuccessful.
B) Chinese soldiers protested their treatment by gathering in the square.
C) One student bravely launched a personal protest against the Chinese government.
D) No one was imprisoned for their participation in the Tiananmen protest.

Answer 2

Chinese students organized in response to political corruption in the Chinese government but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Question 3

The Tiananmen Square event, in which protesters demanded political freedom, democratic participation, and an end to governmental corruption in order to fundamentally change the structure of communist China, would best be classified as which type of social movement?

A) revolutionary movement
B) reform movement
C) expressive movement
D) resistance movement

Answer 3

revolutionary movement

Question 4

The Ferguson protest in Ferguson, Missouri, was in response to a police officer killing a Black teenager; people gathered at the site over a two-week period to protest and memorialize the victim. Police attempted to disperse the gathering, leading to increased intensity of the conflict. In this instance of collective behavior, which of the following could be a problem in gathering evidence?

A) Researchers would not have enough time to collect evidence because the gathering lasted for such a short period of time.
B) There would be a lack of videos and news footage of the event.
C) There would be an overabundance of primary source data and overly objective data such as news reports, retrospective accounts, and interviews to sift through.
D) Even though researchers would have had enough time to observe the event in person because the protest lasted for two weeks, the event was dangerous enough that it might have kept potential researchers away.

Question 5

The use of cell-phone videos of a protest, collected from dozens of users, for statistical analysis is a recent research technique best used to address which problem?

A) Collecting cell-phone videos can provide researchers with conceptual clarity about whether an incident should be classified as a protest, riot, or gathering.
B) Since collective behavior often begins with little warning and can be physically dangerous, using cell-phone videos provides researchers access to a large quantity of sources without having to actually be present.
C) In previous studies, there was too much data from collective behavior events and researchers struggled to find appropriate people to interview and news stories about the events.
D) Historically, records of protests were overly objective, and contemporary researchers are seeking ways to subjectively measure the experiences of participants at protests using cell-phone videos.

Question 6

Which of the following is the correct order of social protests from smallest to largest number of participants?

A) Vietnam War protest (1969) - smallest; Women's March on Washington (2017) - largest
B) Million Man March (1995) - smallest; Iraq war protest (2003) - largest
C) "I Have a Dream" protest march (1963) - smallest; Iraq war protest (2003) - largest
D) Women's March on Washington (2017) - smallest; Vietnam War protest (1969) - largest

Question 7

Which of the following is a true statement about the Iraq war protest in 2003?

A) Some 5 million people participated in Rome, and an additional 2 million participated in Barcelona.
B) The protest had a major political impact.
C) Though the protest was the single largest protest gathering in history, it had little impact on the trajectory of the war.
D) Around 4 million people participated in the protest across the United States.

Question 8

The protest crowd the day after Donald Trump's election compared to the inaugural crowd demonstrated which of the following important concepts relating to protest crowds?

A) The size of protest crowds has little importance on the political impact of the protests.
B) Though size of crowds may seem unimportant, size actually plays an influential role in the conclusions about political impact.
C) The inaugural crowd was larger than the protest crowd.
D) The protest crowd was only slightly larger than the inaugural crowd, emphasizing that crowd size is not that important.

Question 9

Which city demonstrated the highest protester turnout for the women's marches against Donald Trump in 2017?

A) Los Angeles
B) Washington, D.C.
C) New York City
D) Chicago

Question 10

Which of the following is the best way to describe the difference between a gathering and a protest?

A) Protests are typically used by those in power to advance their positions. A gathering is always for the purpose of protesting.
B) A protest can take several forms, including a public gathering that can lead to protesters being perceived as committing some sort of crime, potentially triggering a confrontation with authorities that holds the possibility for violence. A gathering is typically but not always brief, routine, and forgettable.
C) During gatherings, participants who clap or sing do so for clearly discernable reasons and only engage in activities that the entire group is participating in. Protests do not involve collective expressions of opposition.
D) Protests are more effective in swaying political opinion when they are quantifiably larger. Gatherings are by definition memorable events.

Question 11

__________ describes the process by which police expect participants to exit a(n) __________ that is perceived to be causing a "threat to public safety."

A) Assembly; gathering
B) Dispersal; casual crowd
C) Dispersal; gathering
D) Mobilization; assembly

Question 12

Which of the following is true of dispersals of gatherings?

A) Dispersals are defined by the arrival of the police.
B) Dispersal can refer to someone leaving a party because she or he suddenly becomes ill.
C) It is common for people to want to make sure that everyone knows they are dispersing from an event.
D) Dispersals are necessarily forced exits-for example, when bad weather interrupts a party, or when a fire starts in a restaurant.

Question 13

Which of the following best describes a solidaristic crowd?

A) a group of people watching a pie-eating contest at a fair
B) people waiting in line at the bank
C) people dancing at a bar
D) people attending a patriotic or religious event

Question 14

If you are waiting outside of the "Arrivals" area at the airport for a ride-share or taxi, which type of crowd are you most likely a part of?

A) conventional crowd
B) acting crowd
C) casual crowd
D) solidaristic crowd

Question 15

Which of the following is true of both casual and conventional crowds?

A) They both have instrumental goals.
B) They both aim to create unity through emotional expression.
C) They both have high interaction rates.
D) They both have extremely low emotional expression and barely any interaction.

Question 16

An expressive crowd is defined by __________ and also __________.

A) little emotional feeling; little connection with others
B) high emotional connection; presence at an event such as a concert or political rally
C) the initiation of social change; strong emotional connection
D) conventional norms of behavior; lack of police involvement

Question 17

Which of the following best describes the difference between an "acting crowd" and an "expressive crowd"?

A) An acting crowd expresses strong emotion and often acts on that emotion to create social change and protest; an expressive crowd usually occurs at performance events in which the crowd is determined to change their mood or emotions.
B) Acting crowds are often made up of people attending patriotic events who feel a sense of unity with each other; expressive crowds are people who are performing typical normative behaviors such as waiting in line at the grocery store.
C) An acting crowd is one in which people express their emotions as a group; an expressive crowd is oriented around creating social change and activism through emotional unity.
D) Acting crowds are not social problems and involve people going about their daily activities without much interaction with those around them; expressive crowds involve people at religious events who experience solidarity with others.

Question 18

Why are Gustave Le Bon's theories influential for research on crowds?

A) Le Bon's theory of the "collective mind" is still influential for understanding how the media represent the "madding crowd."
B) Le Bon was one of the first sociologists to argue that the "madding crowd" is actually a myth.
C) Le Bon found that during the food riots in Europe, starving workers took food and stored it, then later sold it.
D) Le Bon theorized that crowd members are actually rational problem solvers.

Question 19

Zombie movies and television shows that depict masses of people fleeing in panic represent which of the following myths, and what does evidence actually reveal?

A) The myth of rational crowds; in actuality, crowds respond in highly irrational and violent ways.
B) The myth of crowd anonymity; in actuality, crowds are made up of people with divergent political beliefs.
C) The myth of crowd panic responses; in actuality, crowds tend to respond with politeness and conventional behavior.
D) The myth of crowd unanimity; in actuality, crowds are made up of people who know each other.

Question 20

During the 1992 "Rodney King riot," what did the actual behavior of Black bystanders reveal about rumors?

A) During the riots, African American mobs attacked any White person they encountered, revealing how rumors are often accurate.
B) Rumors often create an inaccurate explanation for collective behavior. During the riots, Black bystanders helped White motorists who were stranded in the riot area.
C) During the riots, police officers shot any African American they saw, and Black bystanders responded by attacking White motorists, proving that rumors of crowd retaliations were true.
D) The rumor was that Black bystanders were helping White motorists, thus emphasizing how rumors are often accurate explanations for collective behavior.

Question 21

A supervisor suddenly stops coming to work, and stories begin to circulate about the reasons behind this absence because there have been no official announcements to explain her absence from the workplace. This situation can best be described using which term?

A) a countermovement
B) an expressive crowd
C) a rumor
D) the madding crowd

Question 22

Protests against Donald Trump's decision to disregard the Paris Climate Agreement are an example of a __________ movement because protesters want to stop or reverse Trump's decisions that may lead to what they consider a negative institutional pattern.

A) resistance
B) reform
C) revolutionary
D) expressive

Question 23

How do you decide if a movement should be categorized as a resistance movement or a revolutionary movement?

A) A resistance movement provides gratification through self-expression, while a revolutionary movement wants to replace the existing order with a new order.
B) A resistance movement wants to stop or reverse current changes, while a revolutionary movement aims to change laws such as LGBT rights.
C) A resistance movement aims to reverse current changes in laws, while a revolutionary movement aims to completely transform the existing government into a new and different one.
D) A resistance movement wants to change society in a limited way, while a revolutionary movement aims to create art that will stop or reverse current political changes.

Question 24

Which of the following correctly matches the type of social movement with a specific example of that movement?

A) resistance movement: charismatic movement for Protestants and Catholics
B) reform movement: antiabortion movement in response to Roe v. Wade
C) revolutionary movement: Arab Spring uprisings of 2011
D) expressive movement: women's suffrage movement beginning in 1848

Question 25

What is the best way to differentiate between expressive movements and resistance movements?

A) Expressive movements aim to correct injustices; resistance movements aim to reform existing laws.
B) Expressive movements are like the suffrage movement, which fought for women's right to vote; resistance movements aim to replace the existing social order.
C) Expressive movements aim to allow participants to express their feelings about their identities; resistance movements aim to stop or reverse changes that are quickly becoming institutionalized.
D) Expressive movements, such as the pro-life movement, try to repeal a previously created law; resistance movements are motivated by emotional release and spiritual well-being.

Question 26

When Donald Trump became president in 2017, White supremacist activities rose, and the gains that Black citizens felt during the Barack Obama presidency were feared to be lost (a "sudden downturn"), leading to increased involvement in anti-racism social movements in the United States. This description of political events could best be interpreted through which theory of social movements?

A) relative deprivation theory
B) mass society theory
C) structural strain theory
D) resource-mobilization theory

Question 27

If a sociologist were to explain the eventual split of Czechoslovakia into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, because of the way that the communist government denied its citizens the right to form trade unions and practice their religion, which social movement theory would this researcher be employing?

A) relative deprivation theory
B) mass society theory
C) structural strain theory
D) resource-mobilization theory

Question 28

Which of the following best explains the differences between mass society theory and relative deprivation theory?

A) Mass society theory is most interested in how postindustrialism and liquid modernity have triggered threats to the environment. In contrast, relative deprivation theory underscores how identities and culture, rather than technologies, are the keys to understanding social movements.
B) Mass society theory focuses on the alienation and isolation that people in industrialized societies experience that eventually lead them to unite together in protest. Relative deprivation theory emphasizes how people are more likely to get involved in collective action when their situation is getting better rather than worse because they see the discrepancy between their desires and the realities.
C) Mass society theory emphasizes that collective behavior develops following a six-step process that includes a collective set of beliefs and a triggering incident. In contrast, relative deprivation theory argues that people join social movements when there is a conflict between their expected needs and actual need satisfaction.
D) Mass society theory focuses on how alienation leads to democratic movements, while relative deprivation theory articulates the importance of material resources (money, members, physical office space) in the success of a social movement.

Question 29

Which of the following accurately pairs a phase in Smelser's structural strain theory with a specific incident in the Arab Spring uprisings?

A) "conduciveness": the prevalence of jokes about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
B) "precipitating factors": police abandon Tahrir Square
C) "strain": youth in Egypt were frustrated by unemployment and poverty
D) "generalized belief": Egypt had 23.5 million Internet users

Question 30

As industrialization increased, social systems became impersonal, and people became alienated and isolated from each other; this can lead to people drawing together for a sense of community and creating social movements. This best describes which theory of social movements?

A) relative deprivation theory
B) mass society theory
C) Smelser's structural strain theory
D) resource-mobilization theory

Question 31

Which social movement theory emphasizes that during times of economic prosperity, businesses and charities have more discretionary income, so they can support social movements, but when discretionary income declines, so does involvement in social movements?

A) relative deprivation theory
B) mass society theory
C) Smelser's structural strain theory
D) resource-mobilization theory

Question 32

When a sociologist emphasizes the material resources required for social movements, such as donations, employees or volunteers, physical space, and publicity, which theory of social movements is she or he likely using?

A) mass society theory
B) resource-mobilization theory
C) new social movements theory
D) cultural theory

Question 33

The arguments that the forces behind social movements are social class, culture, and social identity rather than technology or politics, and that social movements are fueled by educated members of the middle and upper classes, emerge from which social movement theory?

A) mass society theory
B) resource-mobilization theory
C) new social movements theory
D) cultural theory

Question 34

Research on the incident in Paris in 2005 in which three White French youth climbed an electric fence around an African immigrant compound, leading to 20 days of clashes between authorities and immigrant youth, showed that news reports most often blamed which two causes for the unrest?

A) "poor housing" and "own culture"
B) "lack of assimilation" and "police overreaction"
C) "riff-raff" and "police overreaction"
D) "lack of education" and "lack of assimilation"

Question 35

When animal rights groups use an "emotion pool" to capture an audience's emotions by featuring televised images of abused dogs and cats in cages, their approach is best described by which term?

A) social change
B) framing
C) new social movements theory
D) social control failure

Question 36

In 2016, when indigenous peoples on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota protested a proposed oil pipeline by emphasizing their historic rights and experiences of their land, they were utilizing which concept?

A) collective identity
B) blame frame
C) liquid modernity
D) resource mobilization

Question 37

The Black Lives Matter movement protested systemic racism. In response, White groups used a __________, arguing that White Lives Matter or All Lives Matter. This could best be analyzed using __________ theory.

A) blame frame; mass society
B) prognosis; resource-mobilization
C) diagnosis; new social movements
D) counter-frame; cultural

Question 38

When French newspapers in 2005 depicted possible solutions to the clashes between immigrants and authorities, including "law and order," they were providing which of the following?

A) diagnosis
B) prognosis
C) motivation
D) collective identity

Question 39

The Dakota Access Pipeline created a protest movement through which activists formed a __________ as protectors of the water, chanting "water is life" and emphasizing their communal investment in the well-being of all peoples through the prevention of water contamination.

A) blame frame
B) collective identity
C) diagnostic frame
D) cultural theory

Question 40

The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrated evidence of __________ because it united the movement for American Indian sovereignty with environmental rights.

A) collective identity
B) resource mobilization
C) new social movements
D) intersectional activism

Question 41

A "decolonializing framework" could be best used to understand which of the following movements?

A) Tiananmen Square protest
B) Arab Spring
C) American Indian Sovereignty Movement
D) democracy movement in Czechoslovakia

Question 42

Which of the following shows the typical trajectory of a social movement?

A) coalescence, emergence, formal organization, decline
B) emergence, coalescence, formal organization, decline
C) achieves goals, quashed, splintered, absorbed
D) absorbed, formal organization, coalescence, quashed

Question 43

Which of the following accurately matches a stage in the life cycle of a social movement with a specific event in the Tea Party movement?

A) Decline: muted racial opposition to President Obama
B) Bureaucratization: Tea Party campaigns elect national and local candidates
C) Coalescence: Senator Rick Santelli calls for a "tea party" among Chicago's elite
D) Emergence: small coalition of Tea Party politicians is able to swing a close vote in Congress

Question 44

Which term best describes the way that labor activists united with environmentalists to address the issues of pollution, industrial waste, and dangerous working conditions that unionized workers faced?

A) framing
B) life course of a social movement
C) intersectionality
D) collective identity

Question 45

Which of the following statements is true regarding Black Major League Baseball players?

A) The percentage of Black players in the Major Leagues peaked in 1967.
B) Historians cite 1947 as the year of the official integration of the Major Leagues.
C) Black players made up 25 percent of the Major Leagues in 1977.
D) The percentage of Black players has continued to rise since 1947.

Question 46

Kimberlé Crenshaw is known for her theory that courts often ignore the __________ of racial and gender discrimination.

A) collective identity
B) coalescence
C) framing
D) intersection

Question 47

Hooks (2015) argued that all inequalities in the United States originate in both capitalism and the dominance of White male power. This idea that issues of gender, race, and class are all connected is best defined as __________.

A) intersectionality
B) framing
C) a decolonializing framework
D) cultural theory

Question 48

A sociologist observing the Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011 found that participants often implemented a "blame frame" in order to call out the greed of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population for the economic inequalities in U.S. society. This interpretation is an example of which social movement theory?

A) mass society theory
B) resource-mobilization theory
C) new social movements theory
D) cultural theory

Question 49

What is the concept of the "madding crowd"?

A) Crowds hold the same belief systems.
B) Crowds are made up of people who know each other.
C) Crowds follow normative modes of behavior.
D) Crowds flee in panic, acting irrationally and destructively.

Question 50

A march occurring on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in which participants hold signs with phrases such as "I march for my legacy" and a quote from Harriet Tubman with the words "Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world" is relying on which of the following strategies of social movements?

A) resource mobilization
B) creating a blame frame
C) utilizing a decolonializing framework
D) invoking collective memories

Question 51

Select one of the protest or political movements discussed in the chapter. Describe that movement, based upon evidence from the text. Then analyze its activities using one of the social movement theories (mass society theory, relative deprivation theory, structural strain theory, resource-mobilization theory, new social movements theory, or cultural theory). Articulate why that theory is the best one to use to analyze that particular social movement. If necessary, you can select two of these theories and explain why you must explain this social movement using these two theories rather than only one theory.

Question 52

Select one of the protest or political movements discussed in the chapter. Describe the life course of that social movement using the terminology from the chapter-you must use all four of the terms for the life course of the movement. Explain how the movement ended using the correct terms from the section on how movements decline/end.

Question 53

Select a social movement discussed in the chapter and explicate why it is intersectional. Make sure to define intersectionality. Use at least three pieces of evidence from the chapter to support your argument.

Question 54

Design a research project in which you would analyze collective behavior based upon the examples provided in the chapter. Describe what kind of collective behavior you would observe, and then explain how you would collect data on this behavior. Elaborate how you would address the four problems confronting scientists who study collective behavior.

Question 55

Which type of social movement (reform, revolutionary, resistance, expressive) is most likely to be effective or successful in achieving its goals, and why? Explain how the social movement or movements you select are different from the other social movement types discussed in the chapter and thus are more or less effective at achieving their goals.