NonsoNelch Blog

Social facilitation can be defined as ‘an improvement in performance produced by the mere presence of others’. There are two types of social facilitation: co-action effects and audience effect. Studies on social facilitation concern the extent to which a given piece of an individual's behavior is affected by the real, imagined or implied presence of others. Perhaps the first social psychology laboratory experiment was undertaken in this area by Norman Triplett in 1898. In his research on the speed records of cyclists, he noticed that racing against each other rather than against the clock alone increased the cyclists' speeds. He attempted to duplicate this under laboratory conditions using children and fishing reels. There were two conditions: the child alone and children in pairs but working alone. Their task was to wind in a given amount of fishing line and Triplett reports that many children worked faster in the presence of a partner doing the same...

Social psychology is about understanding individual behavior in a social context. Baron, Byrne & Suls (1989) define social psychology as ....... “ the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations ”. (p. 6). It therefore looks at human behavior as influenced by other people and the social context in which this occurs. Social psychologists therefore deal with the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior/actions and feelings occur. Social psychology is to do with the way these feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors, in turn, influence our interactions with others. Topics examined in social psychology include: the self concept , social cognition, attribution theory , social influence, group processes, ...

David Kolb published his learning styles model in 1984 from which he developed his learning style inventory. Kolb's experiential learning theory works on two levels: a four stage cycle of learning and four separate learning styles.  Much of Kolb’s theory is concerned with the learner’s internal cognitive processes. Kolb states that learning involves the acquisition of abstract concepts that can be applied flexibly in a range of situations.  In Kolb’s theory, the impetus for the development of new concepts is provided by new experiences. “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (David A. Kolb, 1984). The Experiential Learning Cycle Kolb's experiential learning style theory is typically represented by a four stage learning cycle in which the learner 'touches all the bases': 1. Concrete Experience - (a new experience of situation is encountered, or a reinterpretat...

Erik Erikson (1950, 1963) does not talk about psychosexual Stages , he discusses psychosocial stages . His ideas, though, were greatly influenced by Freud, going along with Freud’s ideas about the structure and topography of personality. However, whereas Freud was an id psychologist, Erikson was an ego psychologist.  He emphasized the role of culture and society and the conflicts that can take place within the ego itself, whereas Freud emphasized the conflict between the id and the superego . According to Erikson, the ego develops as it successfully resolves crises that are distinctly social in nature. These involve establishing a sense of trust in others, developing a sense of identity in society, and helping the next generation prepare for the future. Erikson extends on Freudian thoughts by focusing on the adaptive and creative characteristic of the ego, and expanding the notion of the stages of personality development to include the entire lifesp...

Humanistic, humanism and humanist are terms in psychology relating to an approach which studies the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual.  Essentially, these terms refer the same approach in psychology. Humanism is a psychological approach that emphasizes the study of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at human behavior not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person doing the behaving.  Humanistic psychologists believe that an individual's behavior is connected to their inner feelings and self concept . The humanistic approach in psychology developed as a rebellion against what some psychologists saw as limitations of the behaviorist and psychodynamic psychology. The humanistic approach is thus often called the “third force” in psychology after psychoanalysis and behaviorism (Maslow, 1968). Humanism rejected the assumption of the behaviorist perspective...