PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Social Inhibition, Social Loafing, White Noise
19 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Interpersonal processes 1
Social facilitation
• Improved performance in presence of others on easy or well-learned tasks
• Decreased performance in presence of others on difficult or poorly-learned tasks
Triplett's experiment 1898
• Conducted first empirical social psychology experiments
• Used scientific methods to explore a social phenomenon
• Observed cyclists faster when with competitors than when racing against clock by themselves
• Presence of others improved performance
• Children wound fishing reels
o Either alone or in presence of another child
o Children performed faster when competitive, compared to when alone
• 7 theories of social facilitation
1. Suction theory
2. Shelter theory
3. Encouragement theory
4. Brain worry theory
5. Hypnotic suggestion theory
6. Automatic theory
7. Dynamogenic factor theory
• Presence of others act as stimulus to arouse competitive instinct
• Competitive instinct releases nervous energy that not released when alone
• Sight of movement in the other person inspires more effort
Types of social facilitation studies
• Co-action effect - observe behaviour when individuals are all simultaneously engaged in same
activity in full view of each other
• Audience effect - observe behaviour when occurs in mere presence of passive spectators
Social inhibition
• Pessin 1933
o Ps learned lists of nonsense syllables alone or with audience
o Alone - took shorter amount of time, contradicting Triplett
o Presence of others impairs performance (social inhibition, interference)
Theories of social facilitation
Mere presence
theory
• Zajonc 1965
• Theory explains why others can improve/impair performance
• Presence of other people leads to arousal
• Arousal has different effects on performance
• If task easy or well-learned -> arousal helps performance (dominant
response)
• If hard -> arousal hinders performance
• Ie. Performance facilitated and learning is impaired by presence of
spectators
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Screen clipping taken: 7/06/2017 11:12 PM
Michaels et al 1982
• Social facilitation in 2 types of pool players
• Tested when alone and when in presence of others
• Arousal facilitated performance of dominant response, enhanced performance
• And impaired performance of non-dominant response
Screen clipping taken: 7/06/2017 11:20 PM
Distraction-
conflict theory
Sanders et al 1978
• Presence of others influences our performance because people are
cognitively distracting
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Improved performance in presence of others on easy or well-learned tasks: decreased performance in presence of others on difficult or poorly-learned tasks. Sight of movement in the other person inspires more effort. Types of social facilitation studies: co-action effect - observe behaviour when individuals are all simultaneously engaged in same activity in full view of each other, audience effect - observe behaviour when occurs in mere presence of passive spectators. Social inhibition: pessin 1933, ps learned lists of nonsense syllables alone or with audience, alone - took shorter amount of time, contradicting triplett, presence of others impairs performance (social inhibition, interference) Zajonc 1965: theory explains why others can improve/impair performance, presence of other people leads to arousal, arousal has different effects on performance. If task easy or well-learned -> arousal helps performance (dominant response) Performance facilitated and learning is impaired by presence of spectators.
