Social Facilitation/ Social Inhibition

Question 1

Social facilitation

Answer 1

The positive influence of others who may be watching or competing on sports performance

Question 2

Social inhibition

Answer 2

The negative influence of others who may be watching or competing, which leads to a decrease in sports performance

Question 3

Factors affecting social facilitation / inhibition

Answer 3

• Presence of others could cause a performer to ‘choke’ or encourage them on to perform exceptionally well
• Personality types - e.g. type a = high anxiety levels, perform less well in presence of others compared to type b/ extroverts tend to seek out situations with levels of high arousal, positive impact on performance = social facilitation
• Level of experience = elite = presence of others can boost your performance (praise) - dominant response more likely, novice = pressure, high levels of anxiety = social inhibition —> if you’ve performed in front of a big crowd before and performance was rubbish, lots of booing, bad experience, pressure = prior experience can make you feel nervous already so decrease in level of performance, performing in front of ppl you know can cause a decrease in performance levels
• Type of skills = gross skills = are dynamic and require high levels of arousal e.g. athlete before race starts, simple skills = lower levels of arousal e.g. snooker
• Home vs away = horn crowd = pressure form home crowd to do well = evaluation apprehension, BUT cheering for you, familiar environment = social facilitation
• Other influences - volume = level of noise comes with a bit of aggression, intimidation, lil too competitive/ proximity = too close you = feel threatened (abuse, booing) or safe (supporting, cheering you on, reassurance)

Question 4

Strategies to reduce social inhibition

Answer 4

• [ ] It is clearly more desirable if an athlete experiences social facilitation rather than social inhibition
• improve selective attention to focus on the imports r cues + shut out the audience
• Use mental rehearsal + relaxation before and during a competition to control arousal
• Train in front of an audience
• Over-learn skills so the dominant response is likely to be correct
• Reduce the importance of the event so additional arousal of audience doesn’t over around performer
• Coach and teammates can reassure the performer
• Teach early skills in a non-evaluative environment

Question 5

Evaluate apprehension (e.g. in netball)

Answer 5

• apprehension is an increase in arousal, which negatively affects performance, when an individual thinks that they are going to be judged by others in the audience
• This suggests that the presence of a crowd alone is not enough to affect performance, unless the athlete feels that they are being judged by them (Cottrell 1968)
• E.g. this could happen to a netball player during a training session if they think that their coach is deciding who to pick for their next match
• It is more likely to happen if the athlete experiences high levels of anxiety, low levels of confidence or is inexperienced