SOCIAL FACILITATION

Theoretical Development in Research on Social Facilitation



Theoretical Development in Research on Social Facilitation

Social facilitation refers to the phenomenon that influences cognitive and physical performances when other people are present. Other people manipulate the behaviours (of human and non human species) in a number of ways and with varying extents. Mere presence of co actors or spectators can enhance one's performance when assigned uncomplicated tasks to the performer. However, this increased arousal can backfire and impair one's performance on unfamiliar, complex and difficult tasks. The factor that determines the facilitation or deterioration of performance is whether the job, that the person is performing, is easy or novel (complicated). Researches have revealed that well-learned and basic tasks facilitate under observation whereas novel and difficult tasks inhibit under observation.

The study of this phenomenon, later termed as social facilitation, initiated in late 1890s, when Norman Triplett (1898) noticed that bicyclists turned faster while competing with competitor cyclists than when the cyclists raced unaccompanied. The quickest times were, when the cyclists actually chased the other cyclists in the race. The next best times were when cyclists competed against the timer but had further cyclists setting the pace. Lastly, the observers found the slowest times when the participants raced against the timer with no competitor or pace setter. These observations inspired the subsequent experiments, and in 1920, Gordon Allport coined the word social facilitation.

Development of Social Facilitation Theories

Activation Theory

Psychologists specified varied rationales for social facilitation phenomenon prior to Zajonc, but none of these had been able to justify the discrepancies of the obtained results. Robert Zajonc (1965) proposed a theory, known Zajonc drive theory, to explain these variations in the performances. He proposed that while others are present, individual's drive levels elevate. He explained that increased drive boost the emission of dominant primary responses while hinder the emission of secondary responses. If the job is well learnt, the dominant response is likely to be holding true. In the presence of other people, it emits more assertive responses, and enhances the productivity if the task is easy and simple. If the task is not well learnt or difficult, performance is likely to be affected negatively (Zajonc, 1965).

Zajonc (1965) supports his theory with empirical evidence. Zajonc says that social facilitation is not only limited to humans, but it also occurs in species with no cognitive processing. Zajonc procured 72 cockroaches to run a simple or a confusing maze. In addition to the difficulty level, Zajonc assessed the impact of audience cockroaches on the cockroaches chosen to run in the maze. Zajonc placed a clear box, filled with cockroaches, adjacent to maze. The final key factor was whether cockroaches ran the maze unaccompanied or paired with companion cockroaches. Zajonc concludes that it takes more time for a cockroach to finish the complex maze in the presence of other cockroaches than when it runs alone. Contrary, in simple, conventional runway, a cockroach finishes the race earlier in the presence of other cockroaches than when ...