Social Facilitation Theory

The Effect of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy on Social Facilitation A plethora of psychological phenomena play a role in the lives of students, which have an impact on students’ performance. Students adhere to the rules and expectations of their schools, parents, teachers, and society. In the early stages of the American school system, such as elementary schools, most students have a single teacher that teaches them all subjects. Teachers play a large role in the overall success of the students, and also how the students develop thoughts about academics. The teacher is the most prominent authority figure in any classroom. With the large importance of the teacher figure, it is practical to ask questions about the impact of teachers’ behaviors on …show more content…
Social facilitation is one of the earliest developed social psychological theories in the field, and has many competing theories. One of the first experiments done on social facilitation was carried out by Triplett (1898). This study examined how the presence of an audience affect the performance of a cyclist. They found that those cyclists who actively raced other bikers had faster times than those who biked alone (Aiello, 2001). Later theories then arose about this phenomenon, such as the generalized drive hypothesis, proposed by Zajonc (1965). This theory states that social facilitation is explained by the increase in arousal that an individual receives when in the mere presence of a similar member of their species. Evaluation comprehension theory, proposed by Cottrell (1968), counters Zajonc’s theory. It explains that rather than mere presence impacting performance, it is the social experience of anxiety about being judged by others that impacts performance (Feinberg, 2001). These theories both help explain why individuals in front of an audience perform simple or well-learned tasks better, and difficult ones