Social Facilitation & Inhibition

Question 1

What is Social Inhibition?

Answer 1

The negative effect of the presence of others on performance

Question 2

What is social facilitation?

Answer 2

The positive effect of the presence of others on performance

Question 3

What are passive others?

Answer 3

Do not interact with the performer, but have an effect by simply being present. do not exert direct influence on the event, presences causes an increase in arousal aware their being watched

Question 4

What are the two types of passive others?

Answer 4

1. Audience- People present who do not speak but just watch e.g tv audience, silent observer during t-off there mere presence may put you off
2. Co-actors, Are doing the same thing at the same time but might not be in competition such as a jogger on the opposition side of the road or cyclist in front, might try overtake though you win nothing

Question 5

What are interactive others?

Answer 5

Communicate directly with the performer. More actively involved in the event, gives encouragement, advice or causes distractions

Question 6

What are the two types of interactive others?

Answer 6

3. Competitors- Can be called competitive co-actors, in direct competition with them, such as your opponents e.g swimmers in next lane
4. Social reinforcers- People who have a direct influence on the performance, such as the crowd/coach

Question 7

How may a cognitive performer react to being watched?

Answer 7

experience anxiety, over-arousal, unable to cope with pressure, poor execution of skills- Social inhibition

Question 8

How may autonomous performers cope with being watched?

Answer 8

Cope with the crowd, motivated/encouraged by support, skill performance is enhanced- Social Facilitation

Question 9

How will being watched affect the execution of a simple skill?

Answer 9

Presence of co-actors can help motivate the performer to keep on trying harder, not much information to process- limited decisions to be made, can perform under higher levels or arousal

Question 10

How will being watched affect the execution of a complex skill?

Answer 10

Presence of others can have a negative effect- due to the large amounts of information needing to be processed under stress, this will increase arousal levels meaning information processing decreases

Question 11

What are strategies a coach may use to reduce the negative effects of an audience on performance?

Answer 11

train in front of others, improve selective attention and cut out the effect of the audience, reduce the importance of the event, avoid social comparisons with others/teach/coach in a non-evaluative environment initially/verbal encouragement/persuasive communication, encourage team mates to be supportive, mental rehearsal/imagery/visualisation, ensure skills are over-learned/highly skilled/autonomous phase/performance accomplishments/ensure success