Dispositional Factors of Crowd & Collective Behaviour (AQA GCSE Psychology)
Revision Note
Written by: Claire Neeson
Reviewed by: Lucy Vinson
Personality
A dispositional explanation is one which focuses on the role of personality in behaviour
Personality includes:
Traits
Characteristics
Attributes
Qualities
Idiosyncrasies
It is the traits etc. which set one person apart from everyone else i.e. everyone has a unique personality
There is no absolute way that people respond to being in a crowd
Some people will become quieter
Others will become more excitable
Locus of control (LOC) is a dispositional explanation of conformity (see the revision note on this here) which applies equally to crowd and collective behaviour
People who have an internal LOC:
Take responsibility for their actions
Do not blame others/circumstances for what happens to them
Are less likely to be swayed by group pressure
People who have an external LOC:
Do not take responsibility for their actions
Are more inclined to blame others/circumstances for what happens to them
Are more likely to go along with the group
Chiu (2003) conducted research on whistleblowing:
306 Chinese managers and professionals comprised the sample
Each participant was asked questions to determine their LOC (internal or external)
Each participant was asked about their intention to whistleblow if circumstances required it
The results showed that participants with an internal LOC were more likely to blow the whistle than participants with an external LOC
An internal LOC means that someone is more likely to speak out and go against the crowd.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
There is a lot of overlap between conformity and crowd behaviour so be careful not to blur the lines between these topics too much. For example, if you answer a question on crowd behaviour using Asch’s study as an example then this is unlikely to bring you top marks. The only exception to this combining of topics, theories and studies is on a SYNOPTIC question (worth 9 marks).
Morality
Morality refers to what an individual believes is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’
An individual’s morality may operate outside of what the law/society/religion deems to be right or wrong for example:
An animal rights activist may feel that it is morally right to smash up labs which carry out animal testing
A school student may feel that their school is morally wrong to insist on students wearing uniform
Someone may decide not to vote as they feel that all political parties are immoral and corrupt
People who have very strong moral values are unlikely to be swayed by public opinion or crowd behaviour
They are firm and resolute in their beliefs and convictions
Examples of people who have gone against the crowd to stand up for their moral beliefs include:
Rosa Parks who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Alabama in the 1950s
Ghandi who led non-violent protests in his fight for Indian independence
‘Tank Man’ who temporarily stopped the advance of tanks in Beijing in 1989, which had been sent in to break up a student protest
Evaluation of dispositional factors of crowd & collective behaviour
Strengths
Examples from history (see above) validate the argument that morality is a strong dispositional factor in resisting collective behaviour
Locus of control can also be applied to other forms of social behaviour e.g. conformity and obedience which means that it can be tested for reliability across behaviours
Weaknesses
Bocchiaro et al. (2012) found that whistle-blowing amongst a sample of employees did not show real personality differences which weakens the dispositional argument
Morality can be measured using self-reports (e.g. questionnaires) but a weakness of this method is that people may say that they would act morally but they may act differently (i.e. immorally)
Worked Example
Here is an example of a question you might be asked on this topic - for AO2.
AO1: You need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
AO2: You need to apply your knowledge and understanding, usually referring to the ‘stem’ in order to do so (the stem is the example given before the question)
AO3: You need to analyse and evaluate key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
Kylie and Danni were at a party at a friend’s parents’ house when some people they knew from school started raiding the drinks cupboard. The group urged Kylie and Danni to join in. ‘I’m going to take some vodka from the cupboard’, said Danni. ‘I’m not joining in, this is someone’s house, we can’t steal from them, it’s wrong’ Kylie replied. ‘I know it is’, replied Danni ‘but this group is really popular at school and I want to join in with them’.
Question: Dispositional factors can affect how likely it is that someone will join in with crowd behaviour. Explain why Danni joined in with the group and took the vodka but Kylie did not. Use the conversation and your knowledge of dispositional factors in your answer. [3]
Model answer:
One dispositional factor that affects how likely it is that people take part in collective behaviour is personality. Danni may be more likely to go along with the crowd because they are popular and she wants to be in their group; she didn’t see that she had a choice (external LOC).
Another dispositional factor that affects how likely it is that people take part in collective behaviour is morality. Kylie has a strong belief that taking someone’s property is wrong, and this has helped her to refuse to steal drinks instead of joining in (internal LOC).
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