The Term, Social Facilitation, By Floyd Allport - 1702 Words

The term â€Å"Social facilitation â€Å" was coined by Floyd Allport in 1924 and was recently defined by Karau as â€Å"a tendency for the presence of other people to enhance an individual’s performance on a simple or well-learned task but to reduce it on complex or unfamiliar tasks† ( 2012, p. 486). This phenomenon has been widely studied for over a century and has produced numerous theories to explain its occurrence . Beginning with Norman Triplett in 1898, who discovered a social facilitation effect in cyclists that were competing against others in a race,opposed to those racing alone (Aiello Feinberg, 2006) This was followed by research to dispute and support Tripletts claims, as many studies found performance impairment in social situations. In general, three different types of presences were examined: co-actors, audiences or observers and others that were simply present but not interacting in any way with the individual. (Karau , 2012) As of today it is still unclear what exactly causes a facilitating effect to performance of individuals ,yet it is still a highly relevant area of research as people never cease to strive to improve their performances and seek the knowledge of how this is achieved . This essay will argue , that despite the complexity and interaction of numerous factors required for Social faciliation to occur, presence of others can facilitate performance of simple tasks in the absence of distraction and when there is an expected evaluation byShow MoreRelatedHistorical Reference Of Social Psychology1169 Words   |  5 PagesReference of Social Psychology Social psychology uses scientific methods to understand how people’s opinions and behaviors are influenced by the actual presence or the implied presence of others. Social psychology is an integrative field that builds the gap between psychology and sociology. Sociology, on the other hand, is the scientific study of human behavior. In addition, social psychology is a comparatively new field that originated in the early 20th century. In 1954 Gordon Allport nominated AugusteRead MoreCompare and Contrast Functionalism and Structuralism14315 Words   |  58 PagesChapter 1 What is social psychology? LEARNING OUTCOMES When you have ï ¬ nished studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1 Outline the main differences between experimental and critical approaches to social psychology. 2 Describe the three main ‘metaphysical battles’ between them. 3 Trace the origins of social psychology through the work of William McDougall and William James, and the contributions made by Và ¶lkerpsychologie and crowd psychology. 4 Describe the two contrasting