The Social Facilitation Theory was examined through the different settings in which two tasks were completed. 18 college students enrolled in an Experimental Psychology class were the participants of this study. Each participant completed a Reading task and a Stroop Task once alone with just the instructor and then again in the presence of a group. Each task was timed, in seconds, and recorded by the instructor for full correct completion. Participants were asked to complete each task as fast as they could. The change in setting used to test the theory that the presence of a group would change the outcome of the time it took the participant to complete each task than the first time they completed the task in an alone setting. The presence of a group actually was found to have caused faster times than when the task was done in an alone setting. These findings suggest that there is a main effect for setting and task type. These results also indicate that Social Facilitation theory does apply in social settings like in group and alone differences in performance. .
Social Facilitation Theory For Strop Effect .
As explained in the article Social Facilitation From Triplett To Electronic Performance Monitoring, "Social facilitation theory deals with the impact of social presence on individual performance. It is one of the oldest social psychology theories in the history of the field. The theory focuses on changes in performance that occur when individuals perform in the presence of others versus alone." (Aiello, J. R.) By using this theory in combination with a Stroop Task and Reading task, each done once alone and then once in front of a group, the Social Facilitation theory could be tested. The Stroop Effect as defined by the Experimental Psychology Textbook, is characterized as "The slower or faster color naming under conditions of word/color conflict or congruency" (Experimental Psychology, 9th ed.
