The Theory of Social Facilitation - Research Paper Example

?What is mere presence what phenomenon of human behavior is explained, to some degree, by mere presence? Explain social facilitation and social inhibition. What factors are involved that determine whether facilitation to inhibition will occur? What part does awareness play in facilitation/inhibition? Give an example of high, medium, and low awareness. Mere observation is a term used in the theory of social facilitation to explain the impact of a non-interactive audience on the performance of an individual. Mere presence explains the self consciousness of an individual. An individual who believes in his/her abilities performs well in such a setting whereas lack of confidence declines performance. An individual’s awareness of the fact that he/she is being observed by other people in the surrounding greatly impacts his/her performance in the task he/she is doing at a certain point in time. The awareness may improve or decline the performance depending upon the perceived complexity of the task. In a vast majority of cases, when the task at hand is perceived to be easy by an individual who is aware that that he/she is being observed by other people in the surrounding, the individual’s performance in the task increases. This is known as social facilitation. On the other hand, when an individual finds a particular task at hand difficult, his/her performance in it is quite likely to be lowered because of the awareness that he/she is being observed by other people in the surrounding. This process is known as social inhibition. There are several factors that influence human behavior when it is being observed. In such circumstances, the breath rate increases, there is increased perspiration, muscles are tensed and the heart rate also increases. All sorts of positive and negative emotions are intensified in a group or crowd. Three of the main factors that influence the human behavior in a crowd are evaluation apprehension, distraction and self-consciousness. Evaluation apprehension is essentially the fear of judgment of others. The thought that others are reacting to one’s actions affects one’s performance, and cause distraction. The awareness of presence of other people in the surroundings influences a person’s tendency and behavior. A lot of research has historically been conducted to explain this phenomenon. Most of the research involves experimental studies. Triplett (1898) observed that the speed of bicycling increased when the bicycle riders raced in a group. Several experiments drew the conclusion that group activities improve the precision in simple motor tasks and increase speed of simple calculations. Hence, the term social facilitation was defined as the tendency of people to perform better in simple tasks in group or when they know they are being observed. Yet other studies have shown that if the problems or tasks are complex, the presence of other people can significantly decline the performance. According to Zajonc (1965 cited in Bordens and Horowitz, 2002, p. 323) , performance of an individual is related to the awareness that results in arousal state in addition to the existence of others in the surroundings. In case of simple tasks, the increased arousal resulting from others’ presence improves performance but the increased arousal in complex tasks has a negative effect on performance. Micheals et al (1982 cited in Jarvis, 2006, p. 101) conducted a study on pool players in a university in order to understand the phenomenon of social facilitation and social inhibition. They found that good pool players, who made 71 per cent shots on an average made 80 per cent shots in the presence of 4 observers. The researchers also found that average pool players who made 36 per cent shots on average in the absence of observers, could not shoot more than 25 per cent in the presence of 4 observers. The awareness can be classified into three types, i.e. high, medium and low awareness. In high awareness, an individual thinks that others are reacting to his/her actions. In medium awareness, an individual just considers that others are observing him, whereas in low awareness, an individual thinks that others are there but no one is paying attention. Cultural standards play a role in the diagnosis of mental illness. Find a diagnosis in the current DSM and describe (in detail) a culture/country where this would not be seen as a disorder and why it would not be seen as a disorder. Then, describe a "typical American" behavior and where and why it might be seen as a disorder. Cultural standards play an important role in the diagnosis of mental illness. This can be estimated from the way schizophrenia is perceived in many regions in the underdeveloped countries in the East including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The three countries share the same culture. Despite the religious differences between the people, some of the people commonly hold a belief that a human being can be occupied by a Jin. Schizophrenia is a kind of mental illness in which the patient sees images in the space. The images can be of people or freaking faces. Most of the patients of schizophrenia believe that they are friends with certain characters which, to others, have no existence in the real world, though the patients deny their non-existence in the real world. The patient of schizophrenia asserts that the character does exist in the real world and the patient talks to the characters just like he would talk to a real human being. This appears so confusing and intimidating to the people in the surroundings that they get freaked out. Most people in the West do have a knowledge of schizophrenia, so the patient is immediately referred to a psychiatrist. In the East, however, not many people are aware of this disease, so the patient of schizophrenia is considered to be under the control of a Jin. Accordingly, most patients of schizophrenia are taken to Babas who are thought to have attained the spiritual powers. These Babas are generally frauds who cash the curiosity, lack of knowledge, and frustration of the people. They treat the schizophrenic individual with sticks, beat the patient until he/she loses consciousness. The Babas then tell the patient’s relatives that the spell of the Jin has been broken and that the patient will now be free of the control of the Jin, though this hardly ever happens! Sometimes, this practice results in very unfortunate circumstances for the family. This can happen when the Baba sexually harasses the girl or makes love with her after taking her to a private room. A victim of such an incident said, “They admitted us in the guise of providing counselling but exploited us” (NDTV, 2011). The fact of it that schizophrenia is acquired by young adults when they are in their late teens (wiseGEEK, 2011) has a strong relation to the parents’ tendency to take their children to these spiritual Babas. Babas say that some Jin has fallen in love with the young girl and wants to marry her, and has thus occupied her. The parents tend to believe such stories because there are numerous stories based on similar subjects in the South Asian literature. West adopts a more realistic approach towards the resolution of such problems with the teenagers. A typical American behavior towards such a patient would be his/her referral to a psychiatrist. In America, more than 2.7 million people are diagnosed schizophrenia every year (PBS, 2001). This is a fairly large population and is enough to generate awareness in a highly modernized and educated society about schizophrenia and its symptoms. Therefore, people take the patient to the psychiatrist and the patient’s disease is treated with the help of suitable medication instead of any spiritual treatment. The American society is increasingly becoming conscious about the psychological disorders. This can be attributed to the fact that more and more people are suffering from depression with every passing day. People are frequently visiting psychologists and psychiatrists for their everyday matters. Many people visit psychiatrists without a sound reason for the same, but this lends them satisfaction. The resulting awareness causes people to take rational steps when a loved one suffers from schizophrenia. References: Bordens, K. S., and Horowitz, I. A. (2002). Social psychology. Routledge. Jarvis, M. (2006). Sport psychology: a student's handbook. Volume 10. Psychology Press. NDTV (2011). Kerala: Girls allege sexual harassment at 'spiritual' centre. Retrieved from http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/kerala-girls-allege-sexual-harassment-at-spiritual-centre-35016. PBS (2001). Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/inthebalance/archives/whocares/awareness/dir_schizophrenia.html. Triplett, N. (1898). The Dynamogenic Factors in Pacemaking and Competition. The American Journal of Psychology. 9(4). WiseGEEK (2011). What is Schizophrenia? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-schizophrenia.htm. Read More