what is the group mind
3 explanations
1. the collective conscious of a specific group such as a tribe which is accumulation of specific beliefs
2. an
... [Show More] emergent quality that occurs when a mass congregates
3. psychological traits that can be applied to a group
why is it of interest
3 reasons
1. for many years it was the prime concern
2. crucial in understanding how the history of psychology unfolded
3. raises many concerns about the relationship between individual and group
what are the two main strands
transformational and non-transformational
what is transformational group mind
crowds could not understand in terms of the psychology of the individual, crowd as a new social entity
what is non-transformational
group possess certain norms, values and written histories that provide a 'group mind'
Le Bon 1985
transformational group mind
- Characterises the psychology of the collective in juxtaposition to that of the individual
- the crowd is 'qualitatively' different
- highly negative view of the collective
Le Bon's notion of Crowd
The Paris Commune - 1870-1
1.French ruling classes got into war with Prussia (French leaders & military corrupt)
2) Prussian army took Paris
3) People of Paris organised a national guard - cannons
4) Wealthy of Paris legged it to Versailles
5) Communards turned Paris into a workers state
6) In Versailles the wealthy French and the Prussians plotted
to re-take Paris
7) Paris was attacked and in one week of fighting 40,000
men, women & children were killed
Le Bon
characteristics of collectives vs group
individuals= rational, conscious, controlled, civilised
collectives= irrational, emotional, primitive, uncontrolled
le bon
the three issues/ factors
1. anonymity- hidden identity in a mass
2. suggestibility- open to influence
3. contagion- emergence of the group mind and ability to spread and transform
-state where behaviours are preformed that would never be done if alone
Freud
transformational group
influenced by le Bon but also in some ways critical
Formulated an analysis of the group based on his
own general theory (of the individual)
the 2 overlapping models
1. awareness- conscious, preconscious and unconscious
2. mechanisms within awareness- ID, ego, superego
did freud say groups were unstructured or structured?
unstructured, groups were united with a common identification of a leader
group leader- takes on the role of the superego (moral), for the leader anything becomes okay
the restraint that's usually in place is offline
element of transformation= mass hypnotisation
summary of transformational classical theorists
le bon and freud
- focus on qualitative change in nature of person according to the situation
- transformation to a different state
- implication quality to the crowd
- unscientific
Non-transformational group
Wudnt
two psychologies
1. Naturwissenschaft - a) Content - physiological psychology
(memory, perception etc...)
b) Method - experimental psychology
2.Volkerpsychologie - a) Content - collective aspects,
(1904-) (custom, history, language etc...)
b) Method - non experimental
non- transformational
Durkheim
1. central idea: social facts need to be explained by other social facts, not reduced to psychological
2.social facts are external to the individual- religion
3. the group or collective becomes crucial [Show Less]