Social Facilitation/inhibition Flashcards
Social facilitation can be defined as:
Social inhibition can be defined as:
The positive influence of others, who may be watching or competing, on sports performance
The negative influence of others, who may be watching or competing, which leads to a decrease in performance
Researchers within this area have different categories for different groups of people. These are:
1. Co-actors
Those that are performing the same activity as the individual
2. Audience
Those which are watching the event
Zajonc’s theory of social facilitation
He believed that the following factors affected performance:
- The presence of co-actors and the audience increases the level of arousal experienced by the performer
- This increase in arousal will increase the likelihood that the dominant response will occur (remember the DRIVE THEORY)
- If the skill to be performed is simple or the performer is an expert the dominant response is likely to be the correct one and performance will improve
- If the skill to be performed is complex or the performer is a novice the dominant response is likely to be incorrect and performance will deteriorate
Zajonc’s theory - Sporting Example - An experienced Badminton player (3 points)
- An experienced Badminton player will be able to cope with the audience being present, as their skill is well learned.
- Therefore, as arousal level increases so will their performance. An inexperienced performer, will become too aroused with an audience present
- therefore their performance will be hindered, as the execution of skills will be poor.
Zajonc’s theory - Effects of social facilitation on performance (4 points)
- The presence of others will spur some athletes on to greater performances, however, others may ‘choke’.
- If an athlete chokes this will have an adverse effect on their performance.
- We already know from Zajonc’s theory that the complexity of the skill and the level of performer can have an effect on this.
- However, it is important to recognise that situational factors may influence whether a performance is helped or hindered
Zajonc’s theory of Social Facilitation - graph
Cottrell’s Theory of Evaluation Apprehension (7)
- Questioned belief that the mere presence of others raised arousal levels.
- He proposed that an audience could have a calming effect in some circumstances
- Increases in arousal were only evident when the performer perceived that the audience was assessing performance.
- Defined as ‘the fear of a perceived threat of being judged’.
- It is not just the presence of others that causes increased arousal but the possibility that they are evaluating us & making judgments.
- Cottrell argued that for facilitation or inhibition to occur, this evaluation potential must be present.
- We must think we are being judged.
Cottrell’s theory of evaluation apprehension - It is affected by the following factors:
What are its effects? (4)
- Confidence
if we are confident, we are less likely to worry & will still perform well. - Expertise of the audience
we will be more concerned if a chief scout is watching. - The audience is known
we may be more relaxed if performing in front of family - The audience is openly critical and the result is important
Effects:
- Increase in arousal levels - Can cause performer to choke/give up - Make it difficult to concentrate - Increase in motivation
Home/away effects
It is generally assumed that when teams play at home they have an advantage over their opposition.
It can be due to a number of factors which include: (3)
- A large number of home supporters
- Familiarity of the surroundings
- A lack of travel required prior to the game
For Home is better than away argument (5)
- Home support tends to improve performance – boosts self-efficacy
- More matches won at home than away – More Olympic & World medals by host nation
- Home teams tends to play more attacking style of play
- Closeness of crowd has a negative effect on visiting teams
- Away teams commit more fouls – due to being over-aroused
Against Home is better than away argument (6)
- Increased pressure from the home crowd
- More important the game the greater pressure – choke effect
- Performers may become more self-conscious at home causing over-arousal
- Players place more pressure on themselves at home due to expectations
- Social inhibition for the home team
- Evaluation apprehension for the home team
Personality factors (2 factors)
Type A vs Type B
- High anxiety (type A) individuals do not perform well in the presence of others than individuals with low anxiety (type B)
Introvert vs Extraverts
- Extroverts tend to seek out high arousal situations and, therefore, perform better with an audience.
- Introverts have a tendency to shy away from social situations because they already have high levels of internal arousal
Levels of experience (6 things)
- If they have failed in front of an audience before they may have an expectation that they will fail again
- On the other side if they have experienced being in front of an audience before and no longer see it as a threat they will be fine in future performances.
Elite or highly skilled performers are more likely to do well in front of an audience and experience social facilitation.
This is because of:
- their dominant response,
- correct motor programmes are stored in the long term memory.
- Movement occurs with little conscious thought/control
- This means that distractions are less likely to interfere with performance
Types of skills or activities
Simple and Gross skills:
- These skills can cope with high arousal levels caused by the audience and can facilitate performance
- This is because these skills do not require high levels of perceptual processing
For example triple jump requires high levels of arousal.
Complex and Fine skills:
- Lower levels of arousal are more desirable with these skills to optimise performance
- This means that the audience can inhibit performance
For example snooker players will try and block out the audience and avoid interaction with others.
Other influences (6)
Nature of the audience can affect the arousal levels of the performer.
- For example, if the crowd is loud and competitive, the performer may feel more anxious and possibly more aggressive
Physical proximity of the audience can also affect the arousal levels and in turn affect the performance.
- Too close and the performer may feel intimidated.
- The knowledge of the audience may increase evaluation apprehension
- Alternatively the performer may feel supported by the crowd (homefield advantage)
- Performing in front of people you known can increase anxiety levels and hinder (inhibit) performance.
- If the performer is an expert, having people you know in the audience can increase the sense of pride – which can lead to facilitation
