Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics

What Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics covers

Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics is examined in Component 02, Psychological factors affecting performance. It covers social facilitation and inhibition, evaluation apprehension and reducing social inhibition, groups and Tuckman's stages of development and Steiner's model, the Ringelmann effect and social loafing.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Social facilitation and inhibitionZajonc's passive and interactive others and co-actors, social facilitation and inhibition, experts and beginners, simple and complex, gross and fine skills, extroverts and introverts, home crowds and the novice golfer.Open →
• Evaluation apprehension and reducing social inhibitionCottrell's evaluation apprehension, which audiences and performers cause it most, the county trial, and reducing social inhibition through familiarisation, selective attention, mental rehearsal, teammates and relaxation.Open →
• Groups and Tuckman's stages of developmentGroups and why a crowd is not one, task and social cohesion, Tuckman's forming, storming, norming and performing stages, the hockey squad, the promoted football team and slipping back a stage.Open →
• Steiner's model, the Ringelmann effect and social loafingSteiner's potential and actual productivity, faulty processes, coordination and motivation losses in a relay, the Ringelmann effect, social loafing and how coaches reduce it, and worked tug-of-war figures.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Social facilitation vs Social inhibition

  Social facilitation: improved performance when others are present. Social inhibition: worse performance when others are present.

• Task cohesion vs Social cohesion

  Task cohesion: members working together towards a shared goal. Social cohesion: members liking one another and enjoying each other's company.

• Coordination losses vs Motivation losses

  Coordination losses: poor timing and teamwork that waste combined effort. Motivation losses: reduced effort by individuals within a team.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is social facilitation?

   Model answer

   Social facilitation is the positive effect that the presence of others has on performance. An expert sprinter may run faster in front of a large crowd.

2. 2

   What is social inhibition?

   Model answer

   Social inhibition is the negative effect that the presence of others has on performance. A beginner may make more errors when watched.

3. 3

   How did Zajonc explain the effect of an audience on performance?

   Model answer

   Robert Zajonc linked audience effects to drive theory in 1965. The presence of others raises arousal, which increases the likelihood of the dominant response.

4. 4

   What are the passive and interactive others in Zajonc's model?

   Model answer

   Passive others are the audience and co-actors. Interactive others are competitors and social reinforcers, such as a coach.

5. 5

   What are co-actors?

   Model answer

   Co-actors are people performing the same task at the same time without directly competing. Cyclists training alongside each other are co-actors.

6. 6

   How does an audience affect an expert compared with a beginner?

   Model answer

   An expert's dominant response is correct, so an audience usually improves performance. A beginner's dominant response is often incorrect, so an audience tends to cause errors.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics revision questions

What does Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics cover in OCR A-Level Physical Education?

4 subtopics: social facilitation and inhibition, evaluation apprehension and reducing social inhibition, groups and tuckman's stages of development and steiner's model, the ringelmann effect and social loafing. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Social Facilitation and Group Dynamics organised?

By the OCR H555 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.