Friday, October 17, 2008

Some social psych concepts...

Was told to read up on those stuff so here it is, in my own words.

Social facilitation
- The ability to increase performance while doing simple tasks, in the presence of a group of people.
- Something like what happens during those large running events where people usually perform better than when they usually run alone? [I'm not sure; i'm only gathering from my mom, Aunty Jo and my experiences]. I can't really think of a better example; my brain kinda died while i was in the tutorial earlier.

Social impairment
- The inability for a person to function at his/her normal level while doing more complex tasks, in the presence of a group of people.
- Something like stage fright/autism [depending on the degree]?
- Possibly what happened to me during my secondary school class BBQ? Although i'm not sure what's complex about interacting with people -.- Lol never mind stupid example.

What i was thinking was maybe this could be somehow interrelated with esteem. Like when it comes to simple tasks, people know for sure they can do it, so they do their best and end up performing really well [which they would have already expected], so it boosts their esteem. On the other hand, when performing more complex tasks, people are afraid of being judged with what they're doing, because they're not sure if they can do it well. So that might impair their performance.

That's merely what i think la. To apply it in a simple example, i think social facilitation is what happens when i do a choreo [simple because it's just following and reproducing], and social impairment is what happens when i have to freestyle [more complex because i gotta think on my feet].

Did i mention i felt a lot better freestyling with my eyes closed on Wednesday? -.- I may not have performed better, but it definitely felt better. To me at least.

I digress.

Social loafing
- When a person puts in less effort while working in a group; free-riding.
- Diffusion of responsibility? The more people there are around, the less likely for an individual within the group to take action.
- "Everybody thought somebody would do it, but nobody did it."
- I'm wondering if this really applies to everyone or whether there are individuals who will put in their best whether working in a group or alone.

Yup. So these are the 3 concepts i was told to read up on :) I hope i'm not wrong =/

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