~Class 14: Groups Processes - Social Facilitation and Inhibition

Question 1

Social Facilitation occurs when people perform ___ on a task when in the presence of others than when they are alone.

Answer 1

better

Question 2

Social Inhibition occurs when people perform ___ on a task when in the presence of others than when alone.

Answer 2

worse

Question 3

Students refuted philosophical arguments ___ when alone than in with others.

Answer 3

more effectively

Question 4

Social Inhibition occurs when tasks are ___ or ___.

Answer 4

difficult // novel

Question 5

Social Facilitation occurs when tasks are ___ or ___.

Answer 5

easy // well-learned

Question 6

Children turned fishing reels ___ when with others than when alone

Answer 6

faster

Question 7

What is Mere Presence?

Answer 7

The mere presence of others increases alertness and arousal, yielding social effects on performance

Question 8

Which research put forward the first major explanation for social facilitation effects?

Answer 8

Robert Xcience, the mere presence phenomenon

Question 9

The mere presence effect is because if there is another person around, that person is a ___ and ___ stimulus of sorts.

Answer 9

dynamic // somewhat unpredictable

Question 10

When you’re in that state of increased arousal, essentially what it’s going to do is increase the chances that any behaviour you engage in is going to be your ___ for that situation.

Answer 10

dominant response/baseline

Question 11

When the cockroaches were doing this on their own, their performance was faster in the ___ version of the maze where it was a straight shot, but it was ___ in the more complex version of the maze.

Answer 11

simple // inhibited

Question 12

What is Evaluation Apprehension?

Answer 12

Others’ presence raises concerns about how we might be evaluated

Question 13

What is Home field disadvantage?

Answer 13

Teams perform worse at home (vs. away games) during decisive/consequential games because there’s a lot on the line, and you might be particularly aware of your fans and the expectations that they have for you, they’re invested in you winning and they’re watching as you’re performing.

Question 14

In a lab-based context, participants perform a little better on a math test when being observed by a ___.

Answer 14

stranger

Question 15

In a lab-based context, participants perform worse on a math test when being observed by a ___.

Answer 15

supportive friend

Question 16

Why are you more likely to perform worse on a task in front of a friend opposed to in front of a stranger?

Answer 16

Because they have expectations of you, and you don’t want to let them down. Being mindful of the fact that you’re being evaluated and caring about that evaluation can create situations in which it is harder to perform to your best, because that evaluation is so salient in your mind.

Question 17

What did Markus (1987) find in his mere presence experiment?

Answer 17

Mere exposure is sufficient to produce social effects on performance, though evaluation apprehension can amplify the effects, especially when tasks are seen as important. They found the results they were expecting, that basic pattern of facilitation and inhibition, where the mere presence of somebody who shouldn’t be able to evaluate you leads to that pattern of facilitation for easy tasks and inhibition for a harder, more novel once.