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crowd & collective behaviour

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4 detailed 50-minute lessons with teaching scripts, worked examples, parent guides, and assessment criteria.

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Lesson Overview

Total Lessons: 4
Tier: Foundation and Higher
Duration: 50 minutes per lesson (200 minutes total)
Exam Boards: AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, CCEA

Learning Objectives

Prerequisites

Materials & Equipment

Lesson 1: Introduction: crowd & collective behaviour

Duration: 50 minutes

Starter Activity (5 minutes)

Quick Recall

Write down everything you already know about crowd & collective behaviour. Then check against the key terms: Psychology Exam Tips. Use a mini-whiteboard or paper.

Main Content (35 minutes)

Parent/Teacher Guide:
Before lesson: Read the script below. Pre-teach key vocab: Psychology Exam Tips.
If stuck: Re-read the revision notes (link above), then break the content into smaller steps.
Extension: See the Stretch & Challenge ideas in Lesson 4.
Teaching Script (35 mins):
Mins 0-5 - Hook: "Today: crowd & collective behaviour. By the end you will be able to answer exam questions on it unaided. It connects to the rest of Psychology because the ideas here recur across the spec."
Mins 5-20 - Direct Instruction: Work through the core ideas below one at a time; after each, ask your student to explain it back in their own words.
Mins 20-30 - Guided Practice: Model the worked example together, then let your student attempt the first practice question with guidance.
Mins 30-35 - Independent Practice: 2-3 practice questions from Lesson 3 below, with immediate feedback.
First Look

Start with the revision notes summary, then attempt: Explain how deindividuation can lead to both antisocial and prosocial behaviour in crowds.

Plenary (5 minutes)

Check Out

Your student states one thing they learned and one question they still have about crowd & collective behaviour.

Lesson 2: Core Concepts: crowd & collective behaviour

Duration: 50 minutes

Starter Activity (5 minutes)

Review Previous Lesson

Quick recap: write 3 key points from Lesson 1 on crowd & collective behaviour. Check them against the notes below.

Main Content (35 minutes)

Key Fact: Deindividuation: losing your sense of personal identity in a crowd, which can lead to behaviour you would not normally do. Anonymity (e.g. uniforms, masks) reduces self-awareness and increases conformity to group norms.
Key Fact: Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner): we derive part of our identity from group membership. Process: social categorisation -> social identification -> social comparison. This can lead to in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination.
Key Fact: Tajfel's minimal group paradigm: even when groups are assigned arbitrarily (e.g. preference for Klee vs Kandinsky), participants favoured their in-group. This shows that even meaningless group distinctions create bias.
Key Fact: Prejudice: a negative attitude towards a group based on stereotypes. Discrimination: unfair treatment based on group membership. Causes: social identity, scapegoating, media representations, and authoritarian personality.
Key Fact: Reducing prejudice: intergroup contact (Allport's contact hypothesis), superordinate goals (Sherif's Robbers Cave experiment), and education about stereotyping.
Psychology Exam Tips: When evaluating crowd behaviour and prejudice, consider: lab vs real-world, cultural factors, and practical applications (how can findings reduce discrimination in schools and workplaces?).

Practice (10 minutes)

Q: Explain how deindividuation can lead to both antisocial and prosocial behaviour in crowds.

Answer: Deindividuation reduces personal accountability - people follow group norms. In an antisocial crowd (riot), anonymity leads to aggression because the group norm is destructive. In a prosocial crowd (charity run), anonymity leads to helpfulness because the group norm is supportive.

Plenary (5 minutes)

Explain Back

Your student teaches the key points back to you without looking. Fill any gaps immediately.

Lesson 3: Application: crowd & collective behaviour

Duration: 50 minutes

Starter Activity (5 minutes)

Quick Recall

Recall the key terms: Psychology Exam Tips. Define each in one sentence.

Main Content (35 minutes)

Parent/Teacher Guide: Let your student attempt each question alone first, then compare with the model answer. Award method marks for correct working even if the final answer is wrong.

Q1: Explain how deindividuation can lead to both antisocial and prosocial behaviour in crowds.

Answer: Deindividuation reduces personal accountability - people follow group norms. In an antisocial crowd (riot), anonymity leads to aggression because the group norm is destructive. In a prosocial crowd (charity run), anonymity leads to helpfulness because the group norm is supportive.

Q2: Describe Tajfel's minimal group paradigm and evaluate what it tells us about prejudice.

Answer: Tajfel showed that even arbitrary group divisions create in-group favouritism. This demonstrates that prejudice arises from the basic cognitive process of categorisation. Limitation: the paradigm is artificial - real-world prejudice involves history, power, and material conflict.

Q3: Evaluate methods for reducing prejudice, referring to psychological research.

Answer: Contact hypothesis: prejudice reduces when groups interact under equal status, cooperation, and shared goals. Sherif's Robbers Cave: hostile groups reconciled when they worked together on superordinate goals. Evaluation: contact works under optimal conditions but may backfire if groups compete.

Plenary (5 minutes)

Error Review

Review any questions answered incorrectly. Identify whether the error was knowledge, method, or reading the question.

Lesson 4: Exam Practice: crowd & collective behaviour

Duration: 50 minutes

Starter Activity (5 minutes)

Command Words

Review what these command words require: state (one point), describe (say what happens), explain (say why), compare (both sides), evaluate (judgement).

Main Content (35 minutes)

Extended Answer

Extended question: Full-Mark Response Evaluate the view that prejudice is an inevitable consequence of group membership. <div class="

A grade 9 response will: explain SIT (categorisation creates in-group favouritism automatically); support with Tajfel's minimal group paradigm; evaluate (SIT shows bias is basic to group membership); counter-argument (prejudice levels vary across cultures and time, contact reduces prejudice, superordinate goals create cooperation); conclude: while the cognitive processes are basic, the expression of prejudice is not inevitable - it depends on social context and whether conditions promote intergroup contact.

Exam Tips: Deindividuation = losing personal identity in a crowd. Behaviour follows GROUP NORMS (good or bad). | Social Identity Theory: Categorise -> Identify -> Compare. 'Us vs Them' thinking is automatic. | Reduce prejudice: contact + superordinate goals + equal status + education.
Common Errors: Watch Out! Students often make mistakes here. Wrong: Crowds always make people behave more aggressively than they would alone. Correct: Deindividuation theory shows that crowds lead people to follow group norms - which can be aggressive or prosocial. Johnson & Downing (1979) found that participants in KKK-style uniforms gave more shocks (antisocial norm), but those in nurses' uniforms gave fewer shocks (prosocial norm). The crowd amplifies the existing group norm.
Stretch & Challenge (Grade 8-9):
  • Synoptic links: explain how crowd & collective behaviour connects to another Psychology topic you have studied
  • Real-world: research one real-world use or example of crowd & collective behaviour
  • Critical: "What are the limitations of the models used in crowd & collective behaviour?"

Plenary (5 minutes)

Assessment Criteria
  • Got it: Confident explanation + correct worked examples
  • Getting there: Main points OK, needs support with detail
  • Not yet: Confused on key concepts - re-run Lesson 2

Homework & Consolidation

Recommended Resources

🎓 Smart Lesson (Guided)