Audience Effects and Extroversion

Essay by deliriousityUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, July 2013

download word file, 10 pages 0.0

The Impact of Extroversion and Audience Effects on Performance

Abstract

The aim of the experiment was to explore the effects of extroversion and audience effects on social facilitation from a cognitive perspective. A total of 70 participants volunteered for the experiment: 44 were identified as extroverts and 26 were introverts. A pattern recognition task was selected as a cognitive activity, and participants were required to complete the task as quick and accurate as possible. Participants were randomly assigned to perform the task alone or with an audience. Results indicated a significant difference in performance for introverted participants between audience and no audience condition, with increased performance in the absence of an audience. However, there was no significant effect of audience condition on extroverted participants. It was concluded that extroversion-introversion is an important factor of social facilitation and implications for future research were discussed.

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The Impact of Extroversion and Audience Effects on Performance

The presence of an audience is an inevitable and fundamental part of human development, influencing social competence, motivation and cognitive reactions (Dowd, 1990).

Subsequently, the topic of audience effects and its impacts on performance is essential in the field of social psychology. Furthermore, a variety of theories have been constructed to further understand the specific causes and results of social presence on performance.

Audience Effect

Audience effect has been explored since 1898 and is defined as the effects on task performance due to the presence of a passive audience (Triplett, 1898). The presence of an audience has two overarching effects: social facilitation and social inhibition. Social facilitation and inhibition, respectively, are described as an increase and decrease in performance due to the presence of another that does not interact with the actor (Guerin, 1993). Many theories following Zajonc's drive theory (1965) emphasises uncertainty in task, evaluation apprehension...