Sports Psychology - Social Facilitation

Question 1

What is social facilitation?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is 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

What are the four factors that can affect social facilitation and inhibition?

Answer 3

1. The presence of an audience or cofactors increase arousal level of a performer.
2. This increase in arousal makes it more likely that the performance dominant response will occur.
3. If the skill to be performed is simple or the performer is autonomic. The dominant response is likely to be the correct one.
4. If the skill to be performed is complex or if the performer is a novice, the dominant response is likely to be incorrect and performance may decline..

Question 4

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 4

Arousal level increases only when the other present where evaluating all were perceived by the performer to be evaluating/judging.

Question 5

What are the Home and Away effects?

Answer 5

• teams win more often at home than they do away.
• This may be to do with the nature of the audience are they hostile?
• Some research says that plane at home can be a disadvantage because increased pressure in front of people they know.

Question 6

What are the effects of personality factors on a sport?

Answer 6

• High anxiety individuals perform less well in the presence of others compared to low anxiety trait individuals.
• Extroverts tend to seek situations with higher arousal levels so they perform better with an audience.
• Introverts shy away from social situations because they have high levels of internal or arousal.

Question 7

How can levels of experience affect performance?

Answer 7

• previous experiences in front of an audience affect future responses.
• if you failed before you might expect to fail again or feel less pressure because you’ve already experienced it
• Elite performers usually perform better under pressure due to experience and automatic skills making them less distracted.
• A smart crowd can boost effort or make the performer feel supported.
• Performing in front of people you can raise anxiety, but if they are expert boost pride and performance.

Question 8

How can types of skills and activities affect performance?

Answer 8

• High arousal helps with simple or gross skills which are dynamic and don’t need complex processing.
• In events like the triple jump athlete often engage the audience to boost arousal and performance.
• Low arousal is better for complex skills as the presence of others can disrupt focus.
• A snooker player needs concentration and precision so the audience can hinder performance.

Question 9

What are some other influences

Answer 9

• a noisy competitive crowd can increase anxiety or aggression to the performer.
• If the crowd is close, it may either feel threatening or reassuring impacting the performers arousal.

Question 10

What are the strategies to minimise social inhibition?

Answer 10

• using imagery or relaxation techniques in training with people watching you so are used to it.
• An audience can impair performance in the early stages of skill learning so it is best to teach skills in a non-evaluative atmosphere
• athletes must be aware of the negative effects of distractions and be prepared to deal with them.
• Teachers can help by being calm and focused reassuring the athlete
• All sports performance should be aware of the potentially positive and negative effect of the presence of others during performance