Leadership, Social Facilitation and Inhibition

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Leadership, Social Facilitation and Inhibition

• Mr P. Leighton
• Group Dynamics of Performance
• Sports Psychology.

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Todays Session

• Look over Chellandurais work into leadership to
  start
• Discuss the theories associated with Social
  Facilitation and Social Inhibition- basically
  what makes us do what we do in sport!
• Look over the key words from this area of study
  Mastermind task

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(No Transcript)
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Do we understand this?

• Chellandurai recognised that 3 behaviour types
  can impact upon the leader

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The Leadership Scale for Sports
Category of Leadership Explanation
Training and Instruction Behaviour Improving the performance of athletes through hard training and conditioning. Instruction is given on tactics and techniques Example?
Democratic Behaviour Leader allows group members to make decisions regarding strategies, practices and group goals.
Autocratic Behaviour Task Centred decisions are made by the leader without consultation of the group Example?
Social Support Behaviour Concerned with the welfare of the members. This is characterised by warm group/leader relations.
Rewarding Behaviour Positive feedback rewards group and individual performance, reinforcement of group cohesion.
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Young People in Sport

• Which leadership style/s do you think would
  satisfy youth in sport?
• Conversely, which leadership style/s do you think
  would satisfy those training for
• The Olympics (2012)
• A Sunday league game
• A Premier League Clash

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Social Facilitation and Inhibition

• Example Juggling/ Plate Spinning!
• It is well documented that the presence of other
  CO-ACTORS or SPECTATORS can influence the
  performance of an individual.
• Think about a time when you have been playing
  well/poorly and the presence of someone on the
  sideline/more people watching or a harder/easier
  opponent has changed the way you play.

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Arousal

• An increase in arousal can have positive or
  negative influences on performance.
• When arousal is positive, performance is enhanced
  and SOCIAL FACILITATION is said to have taken
  place.
• When it is negative, SOCIAL INHIBITION is
  present.
• The two theories that explain this are
• Drive Theory of Social Facilitation.
• (Zajonc, 1965)
• Evaluation Apprehension Theory. (Cottrell, 1968)

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Zajoncs Model of Drive Theory and Social
Facilitation
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The Model Explained

• Zajonc theorised that passive others are enough
  to increase our arousal levels. Drive Theory
  indicates that there is a relationship between
  arousal and performance

• Zajonc proposed the presence of others in itself
  is arousing. Arousal enhances the production of
  our dominant responses as opposed to the
  subordinate responses.
• Actions that have already been learnt are termed
  Learned responses and are seen as Dominant
  responses- Fight or Flight?

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Arousal Beginners Vs. Elite

• High levels of arousal should benefit those at
  the autonomous stages of learning why?
• A Dominant response should be towards the
  correct response.
• Novices (associative or cognitive) showing a high
  level of arousal would have an inhibited
  performance due to their dominant behaviour being
  incorrect.

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Continued

• Martens (1969) confirmed Zajoncs research
  stating that the presence of an audience in
  beginners increases arousal and impairs learning
  of complex skills.
• Landers and McCullage (1976) challenged Zajoncs
  assumptions.
• They stated that co-actors being present aids the
  learning of Sports Skills but co-actors need to
  be of Slightly superior ability.
• Q What can we assume then?
• A Presence of co-actors enhances learning of
  motor skills while the attention of an audience
  will inhibit learning.

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Evaluation Apprehension

• Cottrell (1968) stated that others being there
  did not sufficiently arouse someone to allow
  social facilitation or inhibition.
• He stated that arousal did only occur when the
  performer believed that the audience were
  assessing or judging them.
• Evaluation Apprehension, however, does not take
  into account the need for evaluation in some
  performers to stimulate arousal.

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The Home Advantage Effect

• Large supportive home crowds are believed to
  provide the home team with an advantage i.e. the
  12th Man.
• It appears to be stronger, according to Nevill
  and Cann (1998) when the crowd is bigger.

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Proximity Effect

• Schwartz (1975) proposed that the location of the
  audience in relationship to the performance was
  an important factor in social facilitation.
• This is best seen in Basketball or Ice Hockey.
• Schwartz stated that outcome is not dictated by
  the difficulty of the skill or the audience but
  the level of performer, personality and level of
  experience that are key.

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Distraction-Conflict Theory

• Baron (1986) proposed that the limitations of the
  performers attention span can explain the effects
  on performance.
• Information processing models indicate that
  attention can only be given to a set number of
  environmental cues.
• Spectators require as much attention (to block
  out) as the actual sporting situation.
• Simple tasks requiring little attention are
  performed best in front of an audience while
  under similar conditions actions would be
  impaired.

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Strategies to combat the effects of Social
Inhibition in practical activities

• Selective attention would narrow the focus of the
  performer to relevant cues.
• Mental rehearsal and imagery could enhance
  concentration, help block out the audience which
  can be the source of inhibition i.e BBC SPORT
  Football My Club Portsmouth James is boosted
  by psychologist.mht
• Positive self-talk to block out negativity.
• Practice in front of an audience to get used to
  the effects supporters may have.
• Rest on pg 241-242.

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Mastermind

• Look through your notes for the next 5 mins.
• You are each going to prepare 5 questions for
  each other on the topics covered so far in the
  style of mastermind i.e. short answers!
• Winner gets a prize!