Social Facilitation & Audience Effects

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of the lesson you will be able to:

• Explain social facilitation and social inhibition.

• Describe the major theories of social facilitation and link them to arousal.

• Understand the homefield advantage phenomenon.

• Prescribe strategies to combat social inhibition.

SOCIAL FACILITATION

the effect that the presence of spectators has on the way sportspeople play or perform. This can be:

• Positive - facilitationexample : crowd encourages a team playing well

• Negative - inhibitionexample : crowd jeers at a team not playing well

Defoe has stated that one of his main reasons for staying at Tottenham is due to

the facilitation he receives from the Tottenham crowd.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF AUDIENCE (Zajonc)

CO-ACTORS

• a passive form of audience involved in the same activityat the same time as the performer but not competing directlyexamples :

officials / umpires / refereesmembers of own teamball boys / helpers

Present Others

Interactive Others

Passive Others

Co-actors, non threatening fellow

performers e.g a jogging partner

Audience a passive possibly silent

but interesting group

Co-active Competitors – for example,

opponents

Emotive supporters

Zajonc was mainly concerned with this

group

FACTORS AFFECTING PERFORMANCE

• size of audience• proximity of audience (proximity effect, Schwartz)• intentions of the audience• skill level of the task• personality of the performer• type of task

FACILITATION

high arousal leads to improved performance by:• highly skilled performer• gross skills• simple skills• extrovert performer

INHIBITION

high arousal leads to reduced performance by• novices• fine skills• complex skills• introvert performer

SOCIAL FACILITATION (ZAJONC)

The mere presence of others creates arousal which then affects performance depending on which part of the learning curve.

Performance is only improved if the dominant response is the one desired.

Therefore, an increased arousal level caused by the crowd effect would increase the performance of an experienced, extroverted performer

carrying out a simple, gross task.

EVALUATION APPREHENSION (COTTRELL)

audience is perceived as evaluating performance causing anxietythus evaluation apprehension causes arousal.

coping strategies to reduce the effects of social inhibition and evaluation apprehension include:

• stress management• mental rehearsal• selective attention (away from evaluators)• lowering the importance of the situation• training with an audience present• raise awareness of the zone of optimal functioning (IZOF)• Simulate crowd noises• Ensure skills are over learned (grooved)

HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE

HOME / AWAY EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE

• more teams win at home than away.

• a crowd may be judged as supportive or hostile

• high levels of anxiety caused by hostility may reduce performance

• the environment is familiar to home teams. Therefore home players are more comfortable.

• this limits anxiety and enables a worry free performance.

Chelsea have not lost a game at home for 67 matches due to the homefield advantage effect.

DISTRACTION / CONFLICT THEORY (Baron)

• Theories like cue utilisation and attention styles have revealed that an individual can only concentrate on a limited amount of cues.

• Crowds demand more attention space and therefore limited the amount of space performers have to concentrate on the performance.

• Easy tasks that require little attention are performed best in front of crowds while complex tasks would be impaired.

Will be facilitated by an audience

Will be inhibited by an audience

Questions

1. What are the positive and negative aspects of audience effects called?

Facilitation and inhibition

2. Name the four types of ‘present others’ who can affect performance according to Zajonc.

Co-active, co-actors, passive but interesting group and emotive

supporters.

3. Name six factors that can affect performance.

Audience size, proximity and intentions, skill level/personality of

the performer, type of task.

4. Name 4 coping strategies to reduce evaluation apprehension.

stress management mental rehearsal

selective attention (away from evaluators)

lowering the importance of the situation

training with an audience present

5. Explain distraction/conflict theory

6. Explain ‘homefield advantage’

Unscramble the tiles to reveal a statement.

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