I'm doing an assignment on social facilitation, envolving a young sixteen year old having difficulty in playing infront of crowds. I would find it very helpful if you could send me any information on this topic.

Thank you

Nick Gasson

-- Nick Gasson (gasslips@hotmail.com), January 28, 1999

Answers

Social facilitation research goes back over 100 years. The phenomenom which you referred to in your question (a decrease in performance when in the presence of others) is sometimes refer to as social inhibition. there are a couple of landmark studies in the field, which I listed below. I think the inclusion of Bandura's self-efficacy theory by Sanna (1992) sheds a lot of light on how "others" can cause performance to go up in some individuals and down in others even in what should be a "well-learned task". Just about anything by S.G. Harkins should also provide some help. Good Luck,

Harkins, S.G. (1987) Social faciliatation and social loafing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 1-18

Tripplett, N. (1898). The dynamic factors in pacemaking and competition. American Journal of Psychology, 9, 507-553.

Sanna, L. J. (1992). Self-efficacy theory: Implications for social facilitation and social loafing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 774-786.

Zajonc, R. B. (1965). Social Facilitation. Science, 149, 269-274.

-- Roch A. King (rking@bloomu.edu), March 29, 1999.

Definition: "The behavioural effects due to the presence of others"

-- Rob Hessell (Lynn.Hessell@virgin.net), October 21, 1999.