De-individuation Theory and Collective Behavior

De-individuation Theory and Collective Behavior

Introduction

Every person has his or her own individuality. It is important for the people to keep in mind the fact that every person is different and has different characteristics and attributes. It is important that the individualism of people are identified and respected. On the other hand, the theory of de-individuation has been explained by many people as a reason for aggressive behavior of people. Psychologists say that this concept helps the people to hide their individuality and does not make them solely responsible for their actions. With the help of this theory, people can put the responsibility of their actions on the group they are associated with. This paper will explain this theory and its relation to the aggressive behavior in people.

Discussion

Every person is responsible for his or her own actions; however, when people are associated with a group, they are influenced and their actions represent the characteristics of the whole group. It is important that the people understand the concept of this theory so that aggressive behavior can be understood. This part of the paper will discuss the theory and its relation to the aggressive behavior of the people with respect to this theory.

De-Individuation Theory

De-individuation is a theory characterized as a psychological state added with a lower level of self evaluation and concerned about evaluation by others. This happens when the person loses his self confidence and gets associated with a group which he thinks is correct for him and matches his own characteristics. The person then follows all that the members of that group that do and gets influenced by it. This is necessary as the person gains his confidence back and is able to interact with people in a much better manner. One drawback of this theory is that when the person gets him associated with other people, he tends to believe that everything that others are doing is right and does the same.

Furthermore, de-individuation often leads to behavior that does not follow the social norm and violated them frequently. This is known as aggression. When a person gets himself associated to others, he does the same that the other people do (Hollway, et.al, 2006). This causes riots. De-individuation does not identify individuals, rather it identifies the whole group for the incident that has taken place. This is the reason that people who are a part of the same group have the courage to do wrong. They know that they will never be caught and even if they will be, the whole group will be responsible

Looting behavior became popular with the same concept i.e. the individuation theory. When people form groups, they are encouraged to get involved in such unacceptable behaviors which causes problems for them, as well as, the society in which they are working. People are not identified when they are caught as a group, this is why, and the police officers were suggested by a psychologist to put up pictures of individuals who ...