Psychology is the science of human and animal behavior. Crowd psychology examines how an individual's thoughts and behaviors change and become more uniform, volatile, and emotional when in a large group. One of the earliest theorists of crowd psychology was Gustave Le Bon, who studied the French Revolution and believed that something negative happened to people's self-awareness, judgment, and morals when they were in crowds, causing them to adopt a more primitive, impulse-driven "collective consciousness."

1. What is Psychology?
Q 1. What do you think of when someone mentions
Psychology?
Q 2. What then is Crowd Psychology?
Q 2. Do you know any famous Psychologists?

2. Introducing Psychology.
• Psyche - The Soul
• Logos – Study of.
• Psychology is the science of
human and animal
behavior.

3. What is Crowd Psychology
• ‘In science the crowd is the
elephant man’
• Basic concept of crowd
psychology:
• The thoughts and behaviour
patterns of the individual vary
from those of a larger group
• Behave in a uniform manner that
is:
– Volatile
– In violation of social norms
– Highly emotional

4. The collective vs the Individual

5. The collective vs the Individual

6. The collective vs the Individual

7. The collective vs the Individual
• Basic concept of crowd psychology:
• The thoughts and behaviour patterns of the individual
vary from those of a larger group

8. Introducing Le Bon.
• A French Psychologist.
• He made one of the earliest
contributions to Crowd Psychology in
1895.
• He studied the events of the French
Revolution in 1789 as the basis of his
ideas.
• He published his book ‘The Crowd: A
study of the Popular Mind’
• He believed that something negative
happened to people when they were
in crowds.

9. What does Le Bon mean?
• An individual in the crowd, ‘…Isolated, he may be a cultivated
individual; in a crowd he is a barbarian – that is, a creature
acting by instinct’ (Le Bon, 1908, p. 12)
• According to Le Bon, when people are assembled into a
crowd, their self awareness, judgement, morals are
temporarily suspended and they adopt a ‘collective
consciousness’
• This collective consciousness is primitive and driven by
impulse.

10. • Therefore according to Le Bon, a man in a crowd becomes reduced to
the level of an animal.
• Is this true?
Extension Task: Are there any problems with studying an historical event and
using it as the basis of a theory of behavior?
Task 1: Write a paragraph outlining the theory of Crowd Behavior according to
Gustave Le Bon.

11. New Words. Research the
defination.
• Individual
• Collective
• Conformity