Steve Reicher

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Steve Reicher

Born
Stephen David Reicher
Alma mater University of Bristol [ citation needed ]
(PhD) [1]
Known for BBC Prison Study [2]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions University of St Andrews
University of Dundee
University of Exeter
Thesis The determination of collective behaviour  (1984)
Doctoral students Fabio Sani [4]
Website risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/stephen-david-reicher(a0a908db-1bb8-4d5e-ab30-f47643e35169).html

Stephen David Reicher FBA FRSE is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Social Psychology at the University of St Andrews. [5] [6] [7] [3]

Contents

His research is in the area of social psychology, focusing on social identity, collective behaviour, intergroup conflict, leadership and mobilisation. He is broadly interested in the issues of group behaviour and the individual-social relationship.

Education

After attending the Perse School, Cambridge, Reicher completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol [ citation needed ] and his PhD also at the University of Bristol in 1984 with a thesis on collective behaviour. [1] At Bristol, Reicher worked closely with Henri Tajfel and John Turner on social identity theory and social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE). [8]

Career and research

Reicher held positions at the University of Dundee and University of Exeter before moving to St Andrews in 1997.[ citation needed ] He was formerly head of the School of Psychology at St Andrews.[ when? ]

He is a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology and Chief Editor (with Margaret Wetherell) of the British Journal of Social Psychology .[ citation needed ] Reicher is an editor for a number of journals including Scientific American Mind .[ citation needed ] His research [7] is in the area of social psychology, focusing on social identity, collective behaviour, intergroup conflict, leadership and mobilisation. [3] He is broadly interested in the issues of group behaviour and the individual-social relationship.[ citation needed ] His research interests can be grouped into three areas. The first is an attempt to develop a model of crowd action that accounts for both social determination and social change.[ citation needed ] The second concerns the construction of social categories through language and action. The third concerns political rhetoric and mass mobilisation – especially around the issue of national identity.[ citation needed ] His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). [6] His former doctoral students include John Dixon, John Drury, Nick Hopkins, Mark Levine, Eva Loth, Fabio Sani and Clifford Stott

Stephen Reicher as well as his direct University of Sussex colleague John Drury are both participants in the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also a member of the advisory committee to the Scottish Government and convened the behavioural science group of Independent SAGE.

Crowd psychology theory

Reicher's work on crowd psychology has challenged the dominant notion of crowd as site of irrationality and deindividuation. His social identity model (SIM, 1982, 1984, 1987) of crowd behaviour suggests that people are able to act as one in crowd events not because of 'contagion' or social facilitation but because they share a common social identity. This common identity specifies what counts as normative conduct.[ citation needed ] Unlike the 'classic' theories, which tended to presume that collectivity was associated with uncontrolled violence (due to a regression to instinctive drives or a pre-existing 'racial unconscious'), the social identity model explicitly acknowledges variety by suggesting that different identities have different norms – some peaceful, some conflictual – and that, even where crowds are conflictual, the targets will be only those specified by the social identity of the crowd.[ citation needed ]

BBC Prison study

Reicher collaborated with Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter on the BBC television programme The Experiment , [2] which examined conflict, order, rebellion and tyranny in the behaviour of a group of individuals held in a simulated prison environment. The experiment (which became known as the BBC Prison Study) re-examined issues raised by the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) and led to a number of publications in leading psychology journals. Amongst other things, these challenged the role account of tyranny associated with the SPE as well as broader ideas surrounding the Banality of Evil , and advanced a social identity-based understanding of the dynamics of resistance.[ citation needed ]

Publications

Awards and distinctions

-He was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2018. [5]

Related Research Articles

Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the relationship between mental states and social situations, studying the social conditions under which thoughts, feelings, and behaviors occur, and how these variables influence social interactions.

Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, or between social groups. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, leadership studies, business and managerial studies, as well as communication studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crowd psychology</span> Branch of social psychology

Crowd psychology is a branch of social psychology that deals with the ways in which the psychology of a crowd is different from the psychology of the individual persons who are in the crowd. The field of crowd psychology enquires into the behaviors and thought processes of both the individual members of the crowd and the crowd as a collective social entity. The behavior of a crowd is much influenced by deindividuation, a person's loss of responsibility, and the person's impression of the universality of behavior, both of which conditions increase in magnitude with size of the crowd. Notable theorists in crowd psychology include Gustave Le Bon, Gabriel Tarde, and Sigmund Freud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social group</span> Two or more humans who interact with one another

In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. For example, a society can be viewed as a large social group. The system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group or between social groups is known as group dynamics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collective action</span> Action taken together by a group of people to further a common objective

Collective action refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences including psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science and economics.

Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention. For the social psychologist, the level of analysis is the individual in the context of a social situation. As such, social psychologists emphasize the role of internal psychological processes. Other social scientists, such as sociologists, are more concerned with broad social, economic, political, and historical factors that influence events in a given society.

<i>The Experiment</i> British documentary on a psychological experiment

The Experiment is a 2002 BBC documentary series in which 15 men are randomly selected to be either "prisoner" or guard, contained in a simulated prison over an eight-day period. Produced by Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam, it presents the findings of what has subsequently become known as the BBC Prison Study. These findings centered around "the social and psychological consequences of putting people in groups of unequal power" and "when people accept inequality and when they challenge it".

The minimal group paradigm is a method employed in social psychology. Although it may be used for a variety of purposes, it is best known as a method for investigating the minimal conditions required for discrimination to occur between groups. Experiments using this approach have revealed that even arbitrary distinctions between groups, such as preferences for certain paintings, or the color of their shirts, can trigger a tendency to favor one's own group at the expense of others, even when it means sacrificing in-group gain.

Stephen Alexander "Alex" Haslam is a professor of psychology and ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland.

William B. Swann is a professor of social and personality psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is primarily known for his work on identity, self and self-esteem, but has also done research on relationships, social cognition, group processes, accuracy in person perception and interpersonal expectancy effects. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Minnesota and undergraduate degree from Gettysburg College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Tajfel</span> Polish-born British psychologist (1919–1982)

Henri Tajfel was a Polish social psychologist, best known for his pioneering work on the cognitive aspects of prejudice and social identity theory, as well as being one of the founders of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology.

Social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black sheep</span> Idiom for oddness or disreputability

In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more common white; these sheep stand out in the flock and their wool is worth less as it will not dye.

Infrahumanisation is the tacitly held belief that one's ingroup is more human than an outgroup, which is less human. The term was coined by Jacques-Philippe Leyens and colleagues in the early 2000s to distinguish what they argue to be an everyday phenomenon from dehumanization associated with extreme intergroup violence such as genocide. According to Leyens and colleagues, infrahumanisation arises when people view their ingroup and outgroup as essentially different and accordingly reserve the "human essence" for the ingroup and deny it to the outgroup. Whether a "subhuman" classification means "human but inferior" or "not human at all" may be academic, as in practice it corresponds to prejudice regardless.

The social identity model of deindividuation effects is a theory developed in social psychology and communication studies. SIDE explains the effects of anonymity and identifiability on group behavior. It has become one of several theories of technology that describe social effects of computer-mediated communication.

Self-categorization theory is a theory in social psychology that describes the circumstances under which a person will perceive collections of people as a group, as well as the consequences of perceiving people in group terms. Although the theory is often introduced as an explanation of psychological group formation, it is more accurately thought of as general analysis of the functioning of categorization processes in social perception and interaction that speaks to issues of individual identity as much as group phenomena. It was developed by John Turner and colleagues, and along with social identity theory it is a constituent part of the social identity approach. It was in part developed to address questions that arose in response to social identity theory about the mechanistic underpinnings of social identification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social identity approach</span> Research and theory pertaining to two intertwined, but distinct, social psychological theories.[

"Social identity approach" is an umbrella term designed to show that there are two methods used by academics to describe certain complex social phenomena- namely the dynamics between groups and individuals. Those two theoretical methods are called social identity theory and self-categorization theory. Experts describe them as two intertwined, but distinct, social psychological theories. The term "social identity approach" arose as an attempt to mitigate against the tendency to conflate the two theories, as well as the tendency to mistakenly believe one theory to be a component of the other. These theories should be thought of as overlapping. While there are similarities, self categorisation theory has greater explanatory scope and has been investigated in a broader range of empirical conditions. Self-categorization theory can also be thought of as developed to address limitations of social identity theory. Specifically the limited manner in which social identity theory deals with the cognitive processes that underpin the behaviour it describes. Although this term may be useful when contrasting broad social psychological movements, when applying either theory it is thought of as beneficial to distinguish carefully between the two theories in such a way that their specific characteristics can be retained.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Drury (psychologist)</span> British academic

John Drury is a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sussex. His core research is in the area of crowd psychology.

John Charles Turner was a British social psychologist who, along with colleagues, developed the self-categorization theory. Amongst other things, the theory states that the self is not a foundational aspect of cognition, but rather that the self is an outcome of cognitive processes and an interaction between the person and the social context. The self-categorization theory was developed as a companion theory to the social identity theory, and the two theories taken together are known as the social identity approach.

Intergroup relations refers to interactions between individuals in different social groups, and to interactions taking place between the groups themselves collectively. It has long been a subject of research in social psychology, political psychology, and organizational behavior.

References

  1. 1 2 Reicher, Stephen David (1984). The determination of collective behaviour. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Aberdeen. OCLC   876280070. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.593332.
  2. 1 2 "Welcome to the official site for the BBC Prison Study". bbcprisonstudy.org.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Steve Reicher publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  4. Sani, Fabio (1996). The social psychology of schisms. copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Exeter. OCLC   982130673. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.664751.(registration required)
  5. 1 2 Al-Khalili, Jim (2018). "Stephen Reicher on the psychology of crowds". bbc.co.uk. BBC.
  6. 1 2 "Stephen David Reicher - University of St Andrews". risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk.
  7. 1 2 Steve Reicher publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  8. "Investigating Psychology: CHIPs".
  9. Book reviewed in Maines, David R. (1989). "Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory.John C. Turner , Michael A. Hogg , Penelope J. Oakes , Stephen D. Reicher , Margaret S. Wetherell". American Journal of Sociology. 94 (6): 1514–1516. doi:10.1086/229205. ISSN   0002-9602.
  10. Reicher, Stephen David (1984). "The St. Pauls' riot: An explanation of the limits of crowd action in terms of a social identity model". European Journal of Social Psychology . 14 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420140102. ISSN   0046-2772. Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  11. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2010. Retrieved 25 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "The Psychology of Crowd Dynamics" (PDF). uni-kiel.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011.
  15. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 January 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. Reicher, Stephen; Haslam, S. Alexander; Rath, Rakshi (2008). "Making a Virtue of Evil: A Five-Step Social Identity Model of the Development of Collective Hate" (PDF). Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 2 (3): 1313–1344. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00113.x. ISSN   1751-9004.
  19. "From our new President". The Psychologist: 3. September 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.