The Theory of Externalities, Public Goods and Club Goods, Essay Example

Social facilitation can be defined as the idea that an individual is more likely to perform better carrying out a simple undertaking when others are watching him or her. However, an individual does not perform as well carrying out a complex task if he or she is being observed and/or assessed. One example of social facilitation is when a boss asks an employee to clean up the common work area, a task that is considered to be quite easy to carry out. According to the theory of social facilitation, the employee would put in extra effort in order to ensure that the common work area is cleaned up exceptionally well and that all loose objects are stowed area so that the area looks neat and tidy when being watched by others. If the boss asked the same employee to clean up the common area after work hours, it is less likely that the employee would be so meticulous in tidying up the area.

Attribution theory explains the human tendency to explain why an individual behaves in a certain way by pinpointing a certain cause of his or her decorum. To better understand human behavior, social psychologists often explain in terms of their inclinations and personality or in terms of externalities/contingencies. One example of this theory is explaining why a football coach criticizes his quarterback in the media in a harsh manner is due to the fact that his personality type is resentful and angry. His disappointment in his quarterback’s poor performance on the field despite the team winning the game can thus only be explained by the personality profile of the coach. Pinpointing the coach’s harsh treatment of his star quarterback to his personality profile means that an individual has made a fundamental attribution error because he or she has discounted how external influences or factors have affected the coach’s behavior.

A free rider is one who engages in the phenomenon of social loafing, which is the act of spending less effort in order to reach a goal hen working in a collective setting than if they work solo. As such, social psychologists believe that people working in group settings are often far less productive than if they work as individuals. The free rider theory within social psychology can explain this phenomenon and the following effect of a person exerting less effort to order to dodge having to shoulder the workload of the group in the hopes that other group members shoulder that burden. Free riders often reduce their effort because they believe that their efforts and contributions would not matter much to the productivity of the group as a whole.

References

Cornes, R. & Sandler, T. (1986). The theory of externalities, public goods and club goods. New York: Cambridge University Press.