Paper 2: Social Facilitation

Question 1

What is social facilitation?

Answer 1

Social facilitation can be defined as the beneficial impact on sporting performance caused by performing in front of an audience

Question 2

What is social inhibition?

Answer 2

Social inhibition can be defined as the negative impact on sporting performance caused by performing in front of an audience

Question 3

How does the presence of an audience affect performance levels?

Answer 3

• Increased arousal
• Increased likelihood of dominant response

Not everybody reacts the same way, whether successful or unsuccessful because of:

• personality factors
• level of experience
• type of skill

Question 4

What is Zajonc’s model of social facilitation?

Answer 4

When arousal increases, when performing in front of others, likelihood of dominant response occurring increases.

Therefore:
- Correct DR = Better performance

• Incorrect DR = Worse performance

Evaluation apprehension

Question 5

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 5

Evaluation apprehension refers to the perceived judging of others that negatively affects performance.

• Increased arousal
• Affect magnified if those who are evaluating are of a higher status than the performer
• More likely to suffer if performer has: anxiety, low self-confidence, inexperienced, negative experiences

Question 6

Strategies to minimise the adverse effects of social facilitation and social inhibition?

Answer 6

• Attend to the important cues
• Ignore distraction of audience
• Mental rehearsal
• Self-talk
• Practice in the presence of others
• Use relaxation techniques to lower arousal
• Positive reinforcement
• Over-learning skills through repetition, autonomous
• Goal-setting