The participants should be able to rate their performance both in the experimental situation involving a small audience and in that involving a large audience.
This is also a measure of their self-efficacy prior to exposure to the audiences. The purpose of this act is to see whether the change in their self-evaluation is due to exposure to the audiences. The self-evaluation is done by using a self-administered questionnaire. The second stage is the exposure to the two types of audience. After performing in front of the two types of audiences, the group of gymnasts is asked to rate themselves using the same self-administered questionnaire. Using the subjects' self-evaluation it is possible to identify the changes. And by taking into consideration the changes it would be possible to decide whether the size of the audience had any impact on the performance. However, in such a study it is possible to control the number of people in the audience or not. Moreover, the audience may be made up of accomplices or volunteers. Another important issue that should be established even from the beginning of such research is obtaining the informed consent of the participants. They should agree to...
It is important to note, that any suggestions to a better design should take into account the current state of research on the topic. With respect to this matter, various mechanisms have been proposed to underlie social facilitation (e.g., cognitive distraction or conflict, anxiety, or arousal) and may interfere with performance and, therefore, should be taken into account (Lambert et al. 2003).
References
Presence of others, Retrieved at http://myclassonline.com/pub/content/ad080d01
Lambert, a.J., Payne, B.K., Jacoby, L.L., Shaffer L.M., Chasteen, a. (2003) Stereotypes as Dominant Responses: On the "Social Facilitation" of Prejudice in Anticipated Public Contexts, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 84, No. 2, 277-295
Social Facilitation, Retrieved at http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/social_facilitation.htm
