PSYC 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Fishing Reel, Floyd Henry Allport, Deindividuation
Document Summary
Groups have served evolutionary purpose- protection, efficiency in acquiring food, assistance with childcare, defense against other humans. So crucial to survival that we have a psychological need to belong to a group. Group- collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree. Norman triplett- first to examine effect of presence of others on performance. Conducted social facilitation research- had 40 children turn a fishing reel as fast as possible while alone and alongside other participants. Found that children were faster when with others. Effect also occurred when in the presence of non-participating people (bystanders) Seen in animals too when with members of own species. Floyd allport showed that students performed better on counterargument tasks, math, memory tasks, and maze learning when they we alone. Zajonc"s social facilitation theory- presence of others facilitates performance on simple or well-learned tasks, but hinders performance of difficult or new tasks.
