Social facilitation

• What is social facilitation


  The influence of the presence of others on performance such as an audience watching a performer
• Positive (facilitation)


  -) Arousal/drive increased

  -) dominant response more likely to occur

  -) extroverts likely to perform better with an audience

  -) if audience in familiar setting performance helped ('home-field advantage')
• Negative (inhibition)


  -) arousal/drive increased

  -) weaker players performance deteriorates

  -) introverts likely to perform worse with audience present

  -) proximity of the audience / how close the crowd are to the player can lead to distractions

  -) attention narrows for those who are used to audiences
• Effect of an audience on an extrovert/introvert

  Extroverts tend to seek social situations with high arousal and for this reason, tend to perform better with an audience
• Effect of an audience on beginners and experts

  Previous experiences in front of an audience can affect performance. If you are more skilled and elite, you are likely to perform better in front of others than as a beginner as the crowd could distract your focus.
• Effect of an audience on simple and complex skills


  Lower levels of arousal are more desirable to increase performance if the skill is more complex due to the decision making and concentration required. If the skill is more simple, higher levels of arousal can be managed and are often desirable to increase performance.
• Effect of an audience on gross and fine skills

  If the skill is a gross skill then higher levels of arousal from the presence of others is desirable to increase performance. If the skill is fine and intricate then the arousal from an audience could cause social inhibition if

  not managed.
• Evaluation apprehension


  This is when a performers arousal level or anxiety increases because they perceive judgement by others in the audience
• Factors affecting social facilitation (name at least 3)

  Trait anxiety

  Personality

  Previous experience

  Status of observers

  Nature of audience (noise level)

  Size of audience

  Social inhibition avoided by- Mental rehearsal

  Training in front of others

  Reduce importance of event

  Stress management/relaxation
• Barons distraction - conflict theory

  Suggested that athletes must focus their attention on the task in hand , if the focus on anything else it will distract them, therefore the performer must ignore the distractions created by the crowd
• Ways of coping with an audience

  - improve selective attention

  - learn to block out audience

  - train with distractions

  - small audience to begin with, increase to a larger audience over time
• Home-field advantage

  Gaining an advantage in a sporting event from being in familiar surroundings, with the majority of the spectators supporting you.