ABSTRACT
The term social motivation refers to the activation of these processes by situations in which other people are in close contact with the individual. The modern era of research on social facilitation began with a major theoretical paper by Zajonc. An approach to social facilitation and inhibition that is similar to the foregoing has been proposed by Manstead and Semin, who emphasize the difference between automatic and controlled processing of information. To understand the changes that have come about in conceptualizations of social facilitation, it is necessary to note that theoretical explanations have generally involved two sequential steps. The first is the impact of the presence of others on the individual, which places the individual in a state that mediates subsequent behaviour. The second is a process activated by that state that produces facilitation or inhibition of behaviour.
