Evaluation Apprehension model

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The Evaluation Apprehension model was proposed by Cottrell in 1972. He argued that we quickly learn that social rewards and punishments (for example, in the form of approval and disapproval), that we receive from other people are based on their evaluations of us. When we find ourselves with a social presence, we will experience an acquired arousal based on evaluation apprehension.

Support for this theory comes in the form of a 1968 study conducted by Cottrell that found that there was no social facilitation effect on three well-learned tasks when the audience, comprised of two persons, were inattentive (e.g. blindfolded) and merely present. This sort of audience would be very unlikely to produce severe apprehension. By contrast, however, an audience that carefully watches the individual would produce a great deal of apprehension.

[edit] References

Cottrell, N.B. (1972). Social Facilitation. In C. McClintock (ed.), Experimental Social Psychology (pp. 185-236). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Cottrell, N.B., Wack, D.L., Sekerak, G.J. and Rittle, R.H. (1968). Social facilitation of dominant responses by presence of others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 245-50.