Purchase Solution

Social Facilitation Theories

Not what you're looking for?

Ask Custom Question

Informing your post with scholarly sources, define and discuss social facilitation. Apply social facilitation theory to an aspect of society or social psychology.

Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary

This solution relates the social facilitation Theory to Social Psychology, and applies it to a broader society

Solution Preview

(a) Define and discuss social facilitation.

The Theory of Social Facilitation refers to performing in the presence of others, or behaviors in a crowd (Zajonc. 1965). Zajonc examined the effects of performance of the presence of other persons, and found that when others were present, the performance was enhanced. Studies show that social facilitation is usually referred to as the performance enhancement on a simple, or well-learned task, or a complex new task (Sung & Catramibone, 2007). They explain that humans behave differently and process information differently when there is someone is near.

(b) Apply social facilitation theory to an aspect of society or social psychology.

Social Psychology is the scientific study of behaviors focused on understanding individual thoughts ...

Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
How can you tell if your loved one is suicidal?

This is a small quiz to help determine if a loved one is suicidal and what steps should be taken to help stop suicide.

Piaget's Theories on Development

Do you know all about Piaget's theories on development? Find out with this quiz!

Controversies in Developmental Psychology

This quiz addresses controversies in developmental psychology.

Can you name these types of cognitive distortions?

In each mini-scenario, can you identify the type of cognitive distortion being displayed? All of us are subject to cognitive errors, biases, and distortions throughout our daily lives.

Theories of Work Motivation

This quiz tests the student's understanding of the major theories of work motivation from an organizational behavior perspective.

View More Free Quizzes
Related BrainMass Solutions

  • The Evolution of Social Facilitation

    Social Facilitation: A Test of Competing Theories. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(5), 1087-1109. doi:10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00032.x Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology (2nd ed.).

  • Attention Allocation and Avoiding Distraction

    Attention Theories on attention allocation were derived from the Social Facilitation Theory (Zajonc, 1969). Social facilitation sought to explain what would account for both individual performance gains and losses.

  • What is Social Facilitation

    458714 What is Social Facilitation What is social facilitation? How has the definition of social facilitation evolved? How do the concepts of personal space and territoriality differ?

  • social facilitation

    12214 Examples of social facilitation What is social facilitation? How would social facilitation affect one's performance on a difficult exam? How would social facilitation affect one's performance on a simple exam? These questions are posed.

  • Factors in Curriculum Development

    Knowledge of the most effective learning strategies and theories, would give curriculum developers the knowledge base from which to select the most effective learning strategy for the facilitation of student acquisition of knowledge.

  • Social Facilitation

    335593 What is social facilitation? How has the definition of social facilitation evolved? Social facilitation is when people are prompted to do a task when they are watched by others.

  • Social facilitation, drive theory, and "mere presence" effects

    568690 social facilitation What is social facilitation and how it related to drive theory? What is the mere presence effect and what does it have to do with social facilitation?

  • The Social Loafing Phenomenon

    Social facilitation has an inverse relationship with social loafing, due to the fact that social facilitation involves better performance by individuals when they are in the presence of others.

  • Defining social facilitation vs social inhibition

    641281 Defining social facilitation vs social inhibition Social facilitation theory explains why performance improves when an individual is in the presence of others. The theory evolved over time because it does not apply in all cases.

View More Related Solutions