mob mentality

John Adams/Boston Massacre

During the year 1770, the British government tried to increase it’s control on the colonies by instituting taxes and other things which angered the colonists who had been running the colonies on their own just fine without the restrictions of the British government.

In the afternoon of March 5th, 1770 a group of Bostonians were throwing snowballs, and began to gather around a group of British soldiers guarding the British Customs House.

Tensions were already high between the two groups so the soldiers became enraged when one of them was hit with a snowball.

The soldiers shot into the crowd under no orders to do so, and their shots killed four civilians and this event came to be known as the Boston Massacre.

John Adams worked as a lawyer for the defense of six soldiers involved in the shootings. He along with some other lawyers helped to get all six officers acquitted.

John Adams/Boston Massacre continued

A drawing of the Boston Massacre.

John Adams

Civil War Drafts

The initial excited sentiments toward the war soon faded, which required both sides to implement a draft because there weren’t enough voluntary soldiers.

They instituted a draft for a three year service for all men ages 18-35 but when they began losing more men, they widened the ages to 17-50.

The lower classes, especially in northern cities with lots of immigrants resented the draft which led to draft riots in cities.

When the death toll increased, it led to intense racism and many freed blacks were wrongly blamed for the war and beaten.

The Army of the Potomac was sent in to decrease the rage and riots.

LA Riots/Rodney King

Occurred in 1992 Also known as Rodney King Uprisings or Rodney

King Riots Began when four police officers accused of

beating Rodney King, a black citizen, were acquitted

King led the police on a high-speed chase through L.A.

Thousands rioted for 6 days Included looting, arson, assault, and murder. Many crimes were gang related 53 casualties

Ashley Gore

L.A. Riots/Rodney King

Residential home after riot Over 13,000 troops were deployed to keep peace

Nonviolent Protests vs. Mob Mentality

Nonviolent protest: includes marches, demonstrations, petitions, and other methods that do not use violence to prove a point.

Example: March from Selma, March 7, 1965 African Americans march from Montgomery, AL to

Selma, AL in order to gain suffrage Police brigade blocks them, using teargas, dogs, taunts,

and beatings Media called it “Bloody Sunday” due to the violence

exhibited by the police on the protestors. The blacks executed nonviolent protest, refusing to

retaliate against the violent police officers The police officers, in large numbers, demonstrated

mob mentality as they beat the protestors as a unified group

Ashley Gore

March from Selma

Marchers are blocked by a police line from voting inside

the church

Deindividuation

Deindividuation- the theory that in a large group, people lose their identity to the group’s overall identity and have the tendency to do stupid things like bashing cars and setting things on fire, etc.

Conformity

Conformity: since people naturally want to fit in, people will change the way they think/act/talk in order to fit in with a certain group of people.

Angela Hairston

Other Psych Terms

Other Psych Terms, cont.

Works Cited

Myers, David G. (2004) Psychology. Michigan: Worth Publishers.

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/revolut/boston_1

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h249.html http://www.americanrevolution.com/BostonMassa

cre.htm Deindividuation. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved May

28, 2008, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/deindividuation