Social Facilitation, Psychology of Cultural Dimensions

Social Behavior
PLAN:

1. Social Facilitation, Psychology of

2. Cultural Dimensions

3. 
   Conformity and Obedience
   

4. Social Anxiety and the Self

5. Action, Theories of Social

6. 
   Identity and Identification, Social Psychology of
   

Social Behavior
Daniel I. Rubenstein, Dustin R. Rubenstein, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Second Edition), 2013
Abstract
Social behavior characterizes the interactions that occur among individuals. These can be aggressive, mutualistic, cooperative, altruistic, and parental. When individuals interact repeatedly, social relationships develop and these can form among strangers, relatives, members of the same or opposite sex, and members of the same or different generations. Sets of consistent social relationships produce social systems or social organizations that can be variations on monogamous or polygamous themes of reproduction and involve various types of helpers in cooperative relationships. The nature of any social system is ultimately determined by ecological and social circumstances, demography, and kinship.

Social Facilitation, Psychology of

C.F. BondJr., in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

2 Effects of the Presence of Others

Social facilitations have been observed in a number of species. Chickens peck at food more quickly when other chickens are pecking; rats press a bar faster in the presence of other rats; cockroaches run with greater speed when running alongside other cockroaches. To the biologically oriented psychologist (e.g., Clayton 1978), these demonstrations of animal social facilitation hold profound interest.
People can be affected in many ways by the presence of others. Physiologically inclined researchers report social facilitations of human heart rate, blood pressure, and electrodermal activity. If often the presence of others increases an individual's physiological arousal, sometimes affiliation with others can reduce high levels of arousal (Mullen et al. 1997). Psychological investigators have documented social facilitations of various behaviors (Kent 1994). In the presence of others, people eat large meals, express conventional judgments, and show a tendency to smile. Gender and cultural differences in social facilitation are sometimes observed. In the presence of others, males (but not females) display a heightened tolerance for pain. In the presence of others, Japanese (but not American) students conceal facial signs of distress.
Since Triplett's pioneering investigation, psychologists have reported hundreds of experiments on the social facilitation of human task performance. The evidence that they have amassed indicates that the term social facilitation may be a misnomer. If sometimes the presence of others facilitates a person's task performance, often it has the opposite effect. In the presence of others, people have trouble unscrambling anagrams; in the presence of others, people lack motor coordination; in the presence of others, people do poorly on memory tasks.
When is a person's task performance facilitated by the presence of others, and when it is impaired? Psychologists had been pondering this question for decades before they found a convincing answer. In 1965, social psychologist Robert Zajonc published an article in the prestigious journal Science. There, Zajonc contended that the impact of the presence of others on task performance depends on the complexity of the performer's task. The presence of others serves to facilitate the performance of simple tasks and to impair the performance of complex tasks, Zajonc claimed. Subsequent evidence verifies that the impact of the presence of others does, indeed, depend on task complexity. At the same time, it indicates that social impairments of complex performance are stronger than social facilitations of simple performance. People perform simple tasks more quickly in the presence of others. However, there is little evidence that others' presence has any effect on simple performance quality, a quantitative review of 241 ‘social facilitation’ studies concluded (Bond and Titus 1983).