Norman Triplett
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Norman Triplett (October 1, 1861 – 1934Cherie G. O'Boyle: History of Psychology - A Cultural Perspective, S. 264, Psychology Press, 2006, ) was a psychologist at
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...
.


Biography

Triplett was born on a farm near
Perry, Illinois Perry is a village in Pike County, Illinois, Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 397 at the 2010 census. Geography Perry is located at (39.782493, -90.744990). According to the 2010 census, Perry has a total area of , all la ...
in 1861. In 1898, he wrote what is now recognized as the first published study in the field of sport psychology (Strubbe, 2005; though see Stroebe, 2012 for a dissenting argument). His experiment was on the
social facilitation Social facilitation is a social phenomenon in which being in the presence of others improves individual task performance. That is, people do better on tasks when they are with other people rather than when they are doing the task alone. Situation ...
effect. Triplett noticed that
cyclist Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
s tend to have faster times when riding in the presence of a counterpart as opposed to riding alone. He then demonstrated this effect in a controlled,
laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...
and concluded that children perform a simple lab task faster in pairs than when performing by themselves. He arranged for 40 children to play a game that involved turning a small fishing reel as quickly as possible. He found that those who played the game in pairs turned the reel faster than those who were alone. Triplett's design involved the creation of two groups (A and B) with the sequence of trials differing for each. The rationale for this design was to eliminate practice and fatigue effects. He concluded that moving from isolation to a group context can reduce our sense of uniqueness, but at the same time it can enhance our ability to perform simple tasks rapidly. Triplett discussed several possible explanations for his findings and concluded that the "bodily presence of another contestant participating simultaneously in the race serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available" (Triplett, 1898). Social facilitation has received much attention from social psychologists since Triplett's time, with a number of causal factors implicated, including mere presence, evaluation apprehension, competition, attention, and distraction. Although the phenomenon of social facilitation is now well established, Triplett's original experiment did not produce strong results, at least by modern standards in psychology (Strube, 2005). Triplett did not have the advantage of sophisticated statistical procedures available today and for his study he simply eyeballed the data. He decided that some children performed better when competing, some performed worse, and others were not affected. The fact that half of his participants showed no evidence of social facilitation would suggest that one should avoid overstating these findings. In Michael Strube's 2005 article he conducted an analysis of the data from the famed 1898 study. First he conducted a between-group analysis and found no evidence of significance. The results show that in 4 of 5 of the between group comparisons, the performance of participants in the presence of a co-acting peer was faster than the performances of the participants winding the fishing reel alone. The differences however are quite small and none of them are close to statistically significant. He also conducted two within subjects comparisons. A trial main effect was found that showed better performance on later trials, however the Trial X Order interaction was not significant. The analyses of Triplett's data hardly indicate an effect of social facilitation. In addition to his pioneering work in social and
sport psychology Sport psychology was defined by the European Federation of Sport in 1996, as the study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport. Otherwise, sport is considered as any physical activity where the individuals engage for competi ...
, Triplett was also interested in the psychology of
magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
. He developed an extensive list of conjuring tricks and detailed some of the principles involved, such as concealment and suggestion (Triplett, 1900).


Note


References

* Stroebe, W. (2012). The truth about Triplett (1898), but nobody seems to care. "Perspectives on Psychological Science", "7", 54-57. * Strube, M. J. (2005). What did Triplett really find? A contemporary analysis of the first experiment in social psychology. ''American Journal of Psychology'', ''118'', 271-286. * Triplett, N. (1898). The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition. ''American Journal of Psychology'', ''9'', 507-533. * Triplett, N. (1900). The psychology of conjuring deceptions, ''American Journal of Psychology'', ''11'', 439-510.


External links

* * http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Triplett/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20060915051551/http://www.has.vcu.edu/group/trip.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Triplett, Norman American psychologists Social psychologists Sports psychologists 1934 deaths 1861 births Indiana University faculty