Throughout my life I have marveled at amazing
athletes who seem to achieve impossible feats on the field or court and have
often wondered why certain individuals seem to rise to the occasion whenever they need to perform at high levels,
whereas other people seem to choke in
high pressure situations. The answer to this question became clear once I
learned about Social Facilitation Theory,
which states that a person’s performance will be influenced by the presence of
other people, either positively or negatively, depending on their level of
skill or comfort with the task at hand (Zajonc, 1965). In other words, if
someone is good at a task or well practiced, then the presence of other people
while performing that task will enhance their performance. Conversely, if a
person is not good at a task, or has little practice, then the presence of
other people while performing the task will inhibit their performance (Zajonc,
1965).
In my own life I have experienced social facilitation both positively and
negatively. For example, I tend to be uncoordinated when it comes to sports. As
much as I love to play them, I usually end up falling down, missing an
important defensive move, and losing the game for my team. It is something that
I have always been insecure about, and unfortunately it has led me to opt out
of playing games and missing out on the fun. Of course now it makes sense to me
that I may not be as horrible as I seem, but rather that being in the presence
of others makes me nervous and elicits my dominant
response, which is to be clumsy. Zajonc (1965) states that the dominant response is how you would
naturally perform when not in the presence of others. According to this idea,
because I am inherently bad at sports being in front of other people makes me
perform worse. However, if I were to practice and get really good at a sport,
then my dominant response would be to play well.
Of course, there have been times when I have seen
the positive effects of social facilitation as well. For example, I consider
myself to be a pretty personable and outgoing person, so when I am in a large
group of people I tend to become even more outgoing and try to form a good
impression on as many people as possible. Not to toot my own horn, as they say,
but I have often been told I am the life
of the party in certain social situations. Of course, when it comes to
giving academic speeches or presentations I often feel very nervous and make mistakes. So
it is interesting that I would exhibit such different characteristics in
somewhat similar situations. In my opinion, this discrepancy just gives further
weight to Social Facilitation Theory
and how prevalent it is in many aspects of our lives.
Word count = 483
References
Zajonc,
R. B. (1965). Social facilitation. Science, 149(Whole No. 3681),
269-274. doi:10.1126/science.149.3681.269
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