Social facilitation and inhibition

Question 1

What is the difference between social facilitation and social inhibition?

Answer 1

Social facilitation is where players prefer performing in front of an audience and their performance improves

Social inhibition is where players dislike performing in front of an audience and their performance worsens when they are observed

Question 2

What are the 4 types of ‘others’ that Zajonc states may be present during performance?

Answer 2

1) Passive others
- Audience (don’t speak but watches silently such as scouts or observers in a tee off in golf
- Co-actors (those performing the same task but not in direct competition eg another player on the opposite badminton court can encourage you to play better
2) Interactive others
- Competitive co actors (the opposition eg other players on the footy pitch)
- Social reinforces (the crowd who cheers and applaud but may also shout abuse at other players. May give you motivation to improve or the coach)

Question 3

Name some factors that facilitate performance..

If the performer is:

Answer 3

1) an expert used to performing infront of an audience
2) performing a gross skill eg rugby scrum that requires large muscle groups
3) performing a simple skill that requires little decision making or info processing
4) an extrovert who seeks social situation and has low levels of natural arousal. The audience is an opportunity to ‘show off’ (personality of the performer)

Question 4

Name some factors that inhibits performance..

If the performer is:

Answer 4

1) an novice eg little past experience and no experience infront of an audience
2) performing a fine skills that requires precision which is difficult to maintain at high arousal
3) performing a complex skill which requires several decisions to be made and a lot of info processing which may not be performed successfully at high arousal
4) an introvert who dislikes social situations and has high levels of natural arousal. They find performing infront of others demanding

Question 5

How does social facilitation differ between novices and experts?

Answer 5

• When under immense competitive pressure and at high levels of arousal, performers revert to their dominant response which is their well learned skill
• Experts will store over-learned motor programmes in their long term memory and their dominant response is likely to be performed correctly –> performance is facilitated
• Novices haven’t had that experience and haven’t grooved their response. A fine or complex skill of an extrovert is likely to be inhibited

Question 6

Describe the flow diagram…

Answer 6

1) Audience
2) Increased arousal
3) evaluation apprehension
4) Dominant response
5) Complex or new task (inhibition) or well learned or simple task (facilitation)

Question 7

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 7

The fear of being judged which causes the performer to revert to their dominant response

Question 8

What other factors cause evaluation apprehension?

Answer 8

• a knowledgeable audience eg a scout
• presence of significant others eg parents which can be pos or neg
• whether an audience is supportive or abusive which will facilitate or inhibit performance
• naturally high trait anxiety (inhibit at an audience)
• low self efficacy and doubt their performance

Question 9

What is home field advantage?

Answer 9

• Playing at home is better due to the larger number of support being present and being familiar with the venue
• This keeps arousal levels low
• Home side feel more confident and assertive
• Visiting team find it unfamiliar and less confident and more likely to do aggressive acts due to over arousal
• However players could add too much pressure on themselves at home causing social inhibition

Question 10

What’s Baron’s distraction theory?

Answer 10

• Suggests that players pay attention to the task aswell as distracted which could be external (crowd) or internal (negative thoughts)
• This causes a psychological conflict which increases arousal which leads to either social facilitation or inhibition depending on the tasks and ability performer
• Athlete performing - attention to the task and the distractor - conflict - increase arousal - social inhibition effects

Question 11

What strategies could be used to combat social inhibition?

Answer 11

• Familiarisation during training by allowing an audience to watch you train
• Increase self efficacy (Bandura’s model)
• Practice skills until they are grooved in
• Selective attention - blocking the irrelevant stimuli and just focusing on the relevant
• Cognitive eg mental rehearsal, imagery, positive self talk, negative thought stopping
• The coach could decrease the importance of the task or encourage the performer by giving encouragement or positive reinforcement