SPE - De-individualisation

Question 1

What is de-individuation ?

Answer 1

A psychological state in which an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of a social group.

Question 2

Who used the concept of de - individuation ?

Answer 2

Gustave Le Bon (1895) , to explain the behaviour of individuals in crowds.

Question 3

Why is our behaviour constrained ?

Answer 3

Usually, because we are easily identified by others, our behaviour is constrained by social norms..

Question 4

What happens to aggression when we are part of a crowd?

Answer 4

We live in a society where most forms of aggression are discouraged.
->When part of a crowd ,we lose restraint and have freedom to behave in ways we wouldn’t.
->We lose our senses of individual self-identity and responsibility for our behaviour.

Question 5

What do we disregard as part of a crowd ?

Answer 5

Norms and even laws. Responsibility becomes shared throughout crowds, so we experience less personal guilt about directing harmful aggression at others.

Question 6

What did Zimbardo distinguish ?

Answer 6

He distinguished between individuated and de-individuated behaviour.

Question 7

How do we behave in an individuated state ?

Answer 7

In an individuated state, our behaviour is rational and normative

Question 8

How do we behave in an de-individuated state ?

Answer 8

Emotional, impulsive, irrational, disinhibited and anti-normative.
-> We lose self-awareness, stop monitoring and regulating or own behaviour.
-> Ignore social norms ,failing to form longer term plans.

Question 9

What are they conditions of de-individuation ?

Answer 9

Darkness,drugs,alcohol,uniforms,masks and disguises which promote aggression.

Question 10

Major factor ;

Answer 10

anonymity.

Question 11

Research by John Dixon and Kesi Mahendran :

Answer 11

‘anonymity shapes crowd behaviour’.We have less fear of retribution because we are small and unidentifiable part of a faceless crowd.

Question 12

How are crowd and anonymity linked?

Answer 12

The bigger the crowd the more anonymous we are.Anonymity provides fewer opportunities for others to judge us negatively.

Question 13

What does de-individuation cause ?

Answer 13

Part of a faceless crowd creates a greater likelihood of aggression. Prentice -Dunn and Rogers believe this is due to the consequence of anonymity.

Question 14

The consequence of anonymity is :

Answer 14

The consequence of anonymity is explained in two types of self awareness ;
Private self awareness
Public self awareness

Question 15

Private self awareness :

Answer 15

Concerns how we pay attention to our own feelings and behaviours.This is reduced when we are part of a crowd.
->Our attention becomes focused outwardly to events around us ,so we pay less attention to our own beliefs.
We are less self critical and less thoughtful, which promotes a de-individuated state.

Question 16

Public self awareness

Answer 16

How much we care about what other people think of our behaviour.
This is reduced in crowds
We realise we are one individual amongst many ,we are anonymous and our behaviour is less likely judged by others.
We no longer care how others see us, so we become less accountable for our aggressive actions.

Question 17

Research on de-individuation
Procedure :

Answer 17

David Dodd ; psychology teacher who developed a exercise to illustrate de-individuation.

-229 undergrad psychology students in 13 classes this question : ‘ if you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do ?”
-Students responses were anonymous.
-3 independent raters who did not know the hypothesis decided which categories of antisocial behaviour the responses belonged to.

Question 18

Research on de- individuation Findings ;

Answer 18

-36% responses involved some form of anti social behaviour.
-26% were actual criminal acts, the most common ‘rob a bank’
-A few students opted for murder, rape, assasination of a public figure.
-9% were pro social behaviours (helping people)
In terms of how people imagine they would behave this study demonstrated the link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour