1. Quick Quiz What’s the difference between aggression and assertion?
Name and briefly describe the 4 theories views on aggression (4)

2. Psychological factors affecting performance
Sports Psychology
Individual Differences – Social facilitation

3. Learning Objectives Learning Objective:
Understand the effects of others on performance
Learning Outcomes:
All: Describe the effects of others on performance
Most: Explain the effects of others on performance and strategies to minimise social inhibition
Some: Apply the effects of social facilitation and inhibition to a variety of sporting examples

4. Key Terms Social facilitation Social inhibition
Evaluation apprehension

5. Key Terms
Social facilitation – the positive influence of others on sports performance.
Social inhibition – the negative influence of others, which leads to a decrease in sports performance.
Evaluation apprehension - negative effects of an audience due to a perception by the performer that they are evaluating or judging them.

6. Effects of social facilitation on performance
Home/away effects
Personality factors
Level of experience
Type of skill / activity
Other influences

7. Home/away effects Teams win more often at ‘home’ than ‘away’.
Nature of the audience
Hostility – opposition supporters
Numbers
Closeness
Issues with travel, different changing rooms, routines etc
Some argue that playing at home can be a disadvantage – more pressure from the home crowd.

8. Personality factors
High anxiety (Type A) individuals perform less well in the presence of others than individuals with a low anxiety (Type B)
Extroverts tend to seek situations with high arousal levels and therefore perform better with an audience.

9. Level of experience
Previous experiences in front of an audience affect future responses.
Elite or highly skilled performers are more likely to do well in front of an audience due to their dominant response
Crowd’s knowledge of the sport may increase evaluation apprehension, or the performer may feel supported because of the crowd’s well-informed empathy
Performing in front of people you know can increase anxiety levels and hinder performance. If the performer is an expert the presence of peers can increase the sense of pride, thus enhancing performance.

10. Type of skill / activity
Simple or gross skills – audience can lead to higher arousal which can facilitate performance – e.g. long jumper interacts with audience
Complex or fine require lower levels of arousal e.g. snooker – audience must be silent.

11. Other influences
Nature of audience – noisy, competitive can cause the performer to feel more anxious
Physical proximity of the audience – closeness can cause the performer to feel threatened if they are also hostile.

12. Strategies to minimise social inhibition
Train with an audience present
Selective attention
Stress management / relaxation techniques
Decrease the importance of the event
Support from other team members

13. Exam Questions
June c – Explain the factors that affect social facilitation and social inhibition when applied to performance in sport. (6)
June d – Explain the possible positive and negative effects of an audience on sports performance. Describe strategies to combat effects of social inhibition on performers in sport. (20)
Jun 2012 – 3b – Zajonc states that when an audience is present, arousal is raised. Explain how different levels of arousal affect those performing sport in front of an audience. Refer in your answer to: type of task involved; ability level of the performer; personality of the performer. (5)