The concept of social facilitation
The concept of social facilitation is a psychological concept that explains the individual's tendency to perform better and be more productive; And that when he is among others; Whether by working with them or by performing in front of an audience, the opposite concept of social facilitation is the concept of social inhibition. It refers to the negative impact of the presence of others on an individual's performance.
It is often related to the extent of the individual’s knowledge of their task. The more knowledgeable and mastered they are of it, the better and more confident their performance will be in front of others. On the contrary, the less the individual knows about the task they perform in front of others, their performance decreases.
Examples of social facilitation
- The musician, artist, or actor who excels in front of the audience and performs better.
- You study and commit more if you study in the library with other students instead of staying at home.
- The social facilitation of food. It is the phenomenon of an individual's tendency to eat food in the company of family or friends, which is more significant than eating food alone.
Types of social facilitation
There are two types of social facilitation:
1. The effects of joint action
Joint work is meant when the individual participates with others in performing the task. This individual performance improves because of the competition between them and their co-workers.
2. Audience influences
It is individual work but in front of the audience, which makes the performance of the individual better because it increases their enthusiasm.
Factors affecting social facilitation
The factors affecting social facilitation can be summarized as follows:
- Difficulty or ease of the task: Social facilitation makes the individual perform better in easy tasks and may weaken them in difficult tasks.
- Self-Esteem: A self-confident individual performs better in the presence of others, while an insecure individual performs poorly.
- The audience's support, quality, closeness, and size affect social facilitation. For example, a weightlifter may lift more due to the crowd's encouragement and enthusiasm.
History of Social Facilitation Theory
Many scholars have studied the subject of social facilitation. The most prominent of these are:
1. Norman Triplett
The idea of social facilitation was first put forward by Norman Triplett in 1898, who began conducting experiments on this topic. His first experiments were on cyclists and measuring cycling time in different situations. In the first case, he allowed them to race individually. That is, the individual competes with themself, and in the second case, cyclists are allowed to race among themselves and compete against each other.
By comparing the results of the two cases, he noticed that the cyclists' race was shorter when they competed with each other compared to the time it took them in the case of individual racing. Norman also experimented on a group of children and asked them to hunt individually and collectively, and he noticed that the child's performance in the group outperformed his performance solo.
2. Floyd Allport
Dr. Floyd Allport conducted experiments on social facilitation in the style of Norman Triplett. Allport conducted his experiments in two different cases. The first is that the individual performs a task alone, and the second is in a group of others.
The results of his experiments proved that the performance of the individual in a group is better than his performance alone.
3. Robert Zajonc
You cannot research the concept of social facilitation without the name of researcher Robert Zajonc appearing to you. Who talked about the idea that our abilities and our ideas about ourselves determine the effect of social facilitation on us, whether positive or negative, and discovered this through experiments in which an individual performed a task in front of a group of people, however, in the first stage, he was allowed to perform a well-done task, and in the second stage he was assigned a new, unprofessional task.
When comparing the results, he noticed that the individual's performance in the second stage, the "unprofessional task," was worse than his performance in the first stage, the "proficient task."; Zajonc explained the reason for the low performance of the individual in the second stage is his feeling that he is not confident in his ability to perform a new task that is not perfect for it in front of others, as the feeling of insecurity makes the tendency to make mistakes greater.
Sub-theories of social facilitation
The experiences and opinions of scholars led to the formation of theories of social facilitation, which are:
1. The activation theory and the wakefulness hypothesis
Dr. Robert Zajonc advanced both the revitalization theory that a person feels more aroused when other people are present; which makes him feel a higher motivation to improve his performance, and the wakefulness hypothesis, which explains that the individual will be awake when he has to do a complex task; Which may cause his poor performance in front of others.
2. Social Orientation Theory
Social orientation theory refers to the different orientations of individuals to social situations. As the theory states that an individual who has a positive social orientation improves his performance in the presence of others, while someone who has a negative social orientation, fear of others, and low self-esteem; His performance weakens in the presence of others.
3. The Distraction and Conflict Hypothesis
It is the hypothesis in which Robert Barron tried to explain how the presence of people around an individual can be a source of distraction. Imagine being in a situation where you are required to complete a complex task that requires full concentration, but you are in a group of people who are watching you how you speak and what you do, and they make noises around you; Which puts you in an environment that is not good for work and concentration, and then inevitably your performance will be negatively affected.
4. The overload hypothesis
The hypothesis developed from the distraction-conflict hypothesis; This hypothesis explains that distraction and noise from the environment around us overloads our brains. Which negatively affects our performance.
However, this hypothesis refers to the occurrence of the contrary situation when the individual performs a simple task. In this case, the distractions have no effect on the individual's performance. It can even make him focus more on what's important.
5. The Feedback Loop Model
Feedback is the reactions of others, and this theory explains how the individual becomes more aware, accurate, and focused in situations in which others notice him and in which he expects to receive positive feedback; So we find him striving to provide his best performance.
6. Self Presentation Approach
The self-presentation approach explains two theories of social facilitation. The first relates to excitement or leadership, and this theory says that the presence of the audience activates excitement, and potential embarrassment prompts the individual to present his best and appear in the best image in front of the audience, while the second theory considers that the issue is not excitement; it is a response; As the individual tends to appear competent in front of the audience, but if the task is difficult, his response may be in the form of fear that he will not be competent, and he will fall into confusion and embarrassment. which negatively affects its performance.
Concepts related to social facilitation
1. Yerriks-Dodson Law
The Yerricks-Dodson Law explains that an individual's performance varies depending on how easy or difficult a task is, and how familiar the person is with it.
For example, if you have studied and prepared well for the exam, at the time of the actual exam, your performance will be better than if you were testing yourself at home. This is because the exam increases your alertness and concentration, while if you imagine that you have an exam but you have barely studied and prepared for it, your performance will be worse in the actual exam than if you were testing yourself at home. This is because you are in a difficult situation and intense tension, and you are not able to provide the information required of you.
2. Social lounging
The concept of social hanging out is related to, but different from, the concept of social facilitation. Social loafing refers to the idea that the performance of individuals within a group is affected by the presence of one person who is central to the success or failure of the group.
That is, if we assume that there is a group of people working together, but one person among them is responsible for the success or failure of the work, then the performance of the rest of the group will often decrease and they will tend to hang out. This is because they feel less responsible for the outcome.
Why is social facilitation important? What are the effects of social facilitation?
The importance of social facilitation comes from the fact that:
- Interpret and explain an individual's human responses to the presence of other individuals.
- Social facilitation can be used to improve our performance. After we do something alone and master it, we can move on to doing it in a group or in front of an audience. This is to increase our enthusiasm and improve our performance.
- Social facilitation can be used to motivate the student among the class, or to encourage the employee to present his best performance among his colleagues.
In conclusion
Social facilitation is a psychological phenomenon, and it can be taken advantage of and exploited to our advantage. This is when we feel that working with others or in front of the public makes us feel enthusiastic, improves our performance, and increases our productivity, and in return avoiding social facilitation in situations where we feel that it hinders us or reduces our performance.
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