Social facilitation can be described as the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks or a task that one has perfected when in the presence of other people. This is a popular psychological situation that affects our behavior. A good example of this in the real world is in a sporting event, an athlete may do better when there is a large number of fans there to watch them. When in the presence of a lot of people watching them perform the task, here that is an athletic task, that person will perform better. In comparison, if a person was told to complete a task that was very difficult, they might do worse in the presence of a lot of people. With this type of situation, someone might find an audience unnerving and make them feel too pressured to complete the task. A good example of this in the real world would be when someone has to give a presentation to a group and they would do worse with more people there than only a few. I know most people have experienced both these situations in their life, although they may not be situations that are commonly noticed by those performing tasks.
Social Facilitation
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Social facilitation, I believe, is largely effected by our personality traits, so you can connect this chapter with the Big 5 traits. People who are extraverted may be socially facilitated by large groups and introverted people would probably want to hide in a large group. That is thing that I like about psychology is that everything seems to relate back to one another.
While reading this post, I believe that a lot of people participate in social facilitation even if we may not realize it. A good example was stated about that a person may do better in a sport in the presence of others. I believe this happens because when other people are present, a person becomes excited because they want to show off or maybe even show there best potential.
I like how you brought up sports. After reading this chapter I had a greater understanding of how being clutch works. It now makes sense why the great players always seem to come up big when it really counts but the rookies seem to choke.
I also feel that social facilitation is something that varies from person to person. I know that I tend to do better when there is more people because there is a pressure to do better, yet others crumble under the pressure and have a harder time succeeding. I think it's important that although social facilitation can be true, it doesn't apply to everyone and every situation.