This street in
Hong Kong is crowded with both people and advertisements.
A crowd of people returning from a show of fireworks spill in to the street stopping traffic at the intersection of
Fulton Street and Gold Street in
Lower Manhattan. City crowds are surprisingly peaceful considering their size and the potential for chaos.
A crowd leaves the
Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station on the
Washington Metro on
July 4,
2006. The crowd behaves like a
granular fluid, and people, having the same aim, are more confined than they would normally choose to be. This induces frustration and loss of manners, possibly up to putting individuals into jeopardy.
A
crowd is a
group of people. The crowd may have a common purpose or set of emotions, such as at a
political rally, at a
sports event, or during
looting, or simply be made up of many people going about their business in a busy area (eg
shopping).
Terminology
The term crowd is often defined in contrast to other group nouns for collections of humans or animals: aggregation, audience, group, mass, mob, populous, public, rabble and throng. For example in "Public Opinion" Vincent Price compares masses and crowds:
Crowds are defined by their shared emotional experiences, but masses are defined by their interpersonal isolation.
In human sociology, the term "mobbed" simply means "extremely crowded", as in a busy
mall or shop. In animal behaviour
mobbing is a technique where many individuals of one species "gang up" on a larger individual of another species to drive them away. Mobbing behaviour is often seen in
birds.
Social aspects of crowds
Social aspects are concerned with the formation, management and
control of crowds, both from the point of view of individuals and groups. Often crowd control is designed to persuade a crowd to align with a particular view (e.g.,
political rallies), or to contain groups to prevent damage or mob behaviour. Politically organised crowd control is usually conducted by law enforcement but on some occasions military forces are used for particularly large or dangerous crowds.
Social aspects of crowds for adolescent peer groups
Adolescent culture is a relatively new feature of society, affecting most teenagers in the United States since the 1930’s . The research on adolescent culture began with the search for identities: who the adolescents and their peer groups are and the differences and how adolescent culture differed from adult culture . Many researchers are making efforts to develop an understanding of the functions of crowds . But the findings are complicated due to multiple definitions of the crowd. Now in adolescence, peer affiliation becomes more important than ever before . Youths tend to categorize themselves and each other based on stereotypes and reputations . These categories are known in the developmental psychology literature as peer crowds .
Crowds are defined as reputation based collectives of similarly stereotyped individuals who may or may not spend much time together . Crowds also refer to collectives of adolescents identified by the interests, attitudes, abilities, and/or personal characteristics they have in common . Crowds are different from cliques, which are interaction based peer groups who hang out together . Crowds are not simply clusters of cliques; the two different structures serve entirely different purposes . Because the clique is based on activity and friendship, it is the important setting in which the adolescent learns social skills like how to be a good friend and how to communicate effectively . These and other social skills are important in adulthood as well as in adolescence . Crowds are based on reputation and stereotypes than on interaction; they probably contribute more to the adolescent sense of identity and self-conception . For example jocks and burnouts are more likely to be interaction based than such crowds as loners and nerds .
Psychological aspects of crowds
Psychological aspects are concerned with the psychology of the crowd as a group and the psychology of those who allow their will and emotions to be informed by the crowd (both discussed more comprehensively under
crowd psychology), and other individual responses to crowd such as
crowd-sickness,
claustrophobia and
agoraphobia.
See also
Notes and references
Category:Sociology*bg:Тълпаcs:Davde:Mob (Personen)fr:Foulehr:Ruljahe:המוןla:Vulguspl:Tłumru:Толпаscn:Fuddask:Davsr:Гомилаsv:Massa (sociologi)th:ฝูงชนวุ่นวายuk:Натовп
