KIN 350 Final

Deviance occurs when a persons ideas, traits or actions are perceived by others to fall outside the normal range of acceptance in a society. 2 types of deviance are formal and informal.

Absolutist Approach

Constructionist Approach

Assumes that social norms are based on essential principles that constitute an unchanging foundation for identifying good and evil and distinguishing right from wrong

Assumes that deviance occurs when ideas, traits, and actions fall outside the socially determined boundaries that people in a social world generally use to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable in a society or social world

1. The types and causes of deviance in sports are so diverse that no single theory can explain them all.

2. Actions accepted in sports may be deviant in other spheres of society, and actions accepted in society may be deviant in sports.

3. Deviance in sports often involves an uncritical acceptance of norms, rather than a rejection of norms.

4. Training and performance in sports are based on such new forms of science and technology that people have not yet developed norms to guide and evaluate the actions of athletes and others in sports.

Consists of subnormal ideas, traits and actions that indicate a rejections of norms or ignorance about their existence, such as bar fighting and sexual assault.

CH 6 definition- consists of supranormal ideas, traits, and actions that indicate an uncritical acceptance of norms and a failure to recognize any limits to the following norms, such as playing despite broken bones and torn ligaments or using pain killing drugs to stay in the game.

Athletes engage in overconformity due to three factors:

- Playing sports is so exciting and exhilarating that athletes will do almost anything to stay involved

- Being selected to play high-performance sports often depends on a perceived willingness to overconform to the norm of the sport ethic; coaches praise over conformers and use them as models on their teams

- Exceeding normative boundaries infuses drama and excitement into peoples lives because it increases the stakes associated with participation and bonds athletes together through a “bunker mentality” in which putting one’s body on the line is mutually expected and respected.

To help control overconformity, athletes must learn how and when to set limits as they play sports. Another way to control overconformity is to directly assist athletes to connect more meaningfully with people in their community. Under certain circumstances this helps athletes identify with the community and its norms and it decreases their sense of hubris.

The sport ethic is an interrelated set of norms or standards to guide and evaluate ideas, traits and actions in social worlds created around power and performance sports. . Founded on four norms: athletes are dedicated to “the game” above all other things, Athletes strive for distinction, Athlethes accept risks and play through pain, and athletes accept no obstacles in the pursuit of success in sports.

Sport ethic is related to deviance because over-conformity to norms is expected in sports, i.e. over training, playing while hurt, can lead to fascism.

8 main challenges:

The visibility and resources associated with sports today have fueled massive research and development efforts, and this dramatically increased the number and availability of performance enhancing substances

People in post industrial societies are deeply fascinated with technology and want to use it to extend human limits.

The rationalization of the body has influenced how people conceptualize the relationship between the body and mind.

There is a growing emphasis on self medication.

Gender relations are changing in contemporary society.

The organization of power and performance sports encourages overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic.

Coaches, sponsors, administrators, and fans clearly encourage deviant overconformity.

The performance of athletes is closely monitored within the social structure of elite sports.

• Pros:
• Guarantee fairness and a level paying field

Protect children who might imitate athletes

Maintain normal law enforcement

Preserve the current meaning of sports and athletic achievements

Cons:

Athletes remain one step ahead of testing, making tests ineffective

Testing violates privacy rights

Testing drains valuable resources

Testing can’t detect all performing enhancing drugsencourages athletes to seek other technologies such as genetic engineering

Five interrelated factors since the mid-1960s:

New opportunities

• Government legislation mandating equal rights
• - Title IX

• The global women’s rights movement
• - Women are enhanced as human beings when they develop their intellectual and physical abilities.
• - Has brought about changes in the occupational and family roles of women.

The health and fitness movement

Increased media coverage of women in sport

Proportionality test: equity exists when a school has nearly the same proportion of women playing sports as the proportion of women enrolled as full-time undergrad students

History of progress test: equity exists when a school has a clear history and continuing practice of expanding its sport programs for women

Accommodations of interest test: equity exists when a school demonstrates that its sports program fully accommodates the interests of female students and potential students

There is an underrepresentation of women in coaching and sport administration positions.

Women are discouraged from participating in male-dominated sports.

Sports worlds are usually male-dominated, male-identified, and/or male-centered (p. 246)

There are still disagreements about women playing certain contact sports, playing certain sports with men, and having access to the same resources that men have.

Factors that stall equity in participation are both ideological (webs or ideas and beliefs about what is and isn’t appropriate for girls and women to do) and structural (the organization of opportunities and the distribution of resources to take advantage of opportunities)

Gender ideology: a web of ideas and beliefs about masculinity, femininity, and male-female relationships

Gender ideology is socially constructed. Therefore, it outlines what participation is acceptable in society for males and females. If something is not in accordance with the prevailing gender ideology (i.e. girls playing tackle football), it is usually looked down upon by society with negative connotations attached.

Women as seen as “invaders” because they reallocate attention and resources from males, especially in intercollegiate sports. I feel that analogy is present only because in a lot of cases, women are seen as physically inferior. This means that competition with and between women is usually not as physical as it is with and between men. I do not necessarily agree with this analogy because I feel that the term “invaders” carries a negative connotation. However, I do see where the root of the analogy comes from in that females came into the male-dominated institution of sport.

• There should be new cultural space for alternative definitions of masculinity
• - Masculinity organized around empathy,, inclusion, and integrity.

Alternative definitions of femininity are needed to reduce the over-protectiveness associated with girls so that they can explore and connect with the power of their bodies across many activities, including competitive sports.

There needs to be changes in the ways sports are defined, organized, and played.

Race refers to a population of people who are believed to be naturally or biologically distinct from other populations.

Ethnicity refers to a cultural heritage, descent, or nationality that people use to identify a particular population

Minority group is a socially identified population that suffers disadvantages due to systematic discrimination and has a strong sense of social togetherness based on shared experiences of past and current discrimination

Racial ideology consists of a web of ideas and beliefs that people use to give meaning to skin color and evaluate people in terms of racial classifactions

The influence of race and racial ideologies in sports has been and continues to be significant in the U.S.

Athletic achievements of African Americans are often dismissed as one-time, superhuman feats.

White people are expected to win

When athletes are white, racial ideology focuses attention on social and cultural factors.

When athletes are of a minority, racial ideology focuses attention on biological and genetic factors.

Young blacks, especially men, grow up believing that the black body is superior when it comes to physical abilities in certain sports. They also believe that it is their biological and cultural destiny to play certain sports and play them better than others.

White kids are less likely to run shorter distances in track and play basketball than the are to play soccer and run cross country. For the sports that involve speed, so kids, like the one in the book, say that as competition increases with age, black kids will prevail.

As far as social class and race, at one time white males felt intimidated by black men and discriminated against them. Then from here, the black men adopted the “cool pose” to minimize the discrimination, or at least keep it at bay. Then the theory is that the white men who were typically wealthy and owned the sports institutions that the black men played in saw the black men’s “cool pose” as “too black” so they instituted behavior requirements and dress codes for the sports institutions.

Several factors help eliminate racial and ethnic exclusion:

The people who control teams in commercials sports can maximize their profits when they employ the best players regardless of skin color or ethnicity

Athlete performance can be measured in concrete, objective terms that are not usually influenced by racial ideology

All players on a sport team benefit when a teammate performs well, regardless of the teammates skin color or ethnicity

When ethnic minority athletes excel on the playing field they are not automatically promoted into leadership positions where they would have control over white players.

Friendships and off the field social relationships between teammates are not required for team success

All athletes with scholarships or pro contracts are controlled by coaches, managers, administrators, and owners who are almost always white

Social class refers to categories of people who share an economic position in society based on their income, wealth (savings and assets), education, occupation, and social connections

The ways that social class is incorporated into our everyday lives

Refers to structured forms of economic inequalities that are part of the organization of everyday social life

1. They involve students in school activities and increase interest in academic activities.

2. They build self-esteem, responsibility, achievement orientation, and teamwork skills required for occupational success today.

3. They foster fitness and stimulate interest in physical activities among students.

4. They generate spirit and unity and maintain the school as a viable organization.

5. They promote parental, alumni, and community support for school programs.

6. They give students opportunities to develop and display skills in activities valued in society and to be recognized for their competence.

1. They distract students from academic activities and distort values in school culture.

2. They perpetuate dependence, conformity, and a power and performance orientation that is no longer useful in society.

3. They turn most students into passive spectators and cause too many serious injuries to athletes

4. They create a superficial, transitory spirit that is unrelated to educational goals.

5. They deprive educational programs of resources, facilities, staff, and community support.

6. They create pressure on athletes and support a hierarchical status system in which athletes are unfairly privileged over other students.

Studies in the United States consistently show that high school athletes as a group generally have higher grade point averages, more positive attitudes toward school, lower rates of absentee-ism, more interest in attending college, more years of college completed, greater career success, and better health than students who don’t play school-sponsored sports.

Athletes are different because school- sponsored sports, like other sponsored activities, attract students who have good grades and are socially popular in school.

The most important social consequences of high school sports are not their impact on grades and popularity but their impact on young people’s ideas about social life and social relations.

For young men, sports provide opportunities to demonstrate the physical and emotional toughness that is associated with masculinity today, and successfully claiming a masculine identity is assumed to bring acceptance, autonomy, and recognition as an adult.

For young women, sports are not used so much to claim a feminine identity that brings acceptance, autonomy, and recognition as an adult, but they are used to achieve and express the personal power that enables women to achieve these things.

An overemphasis on “sports development”

Limited Participation Access

Athletes are Privileged Over Other Students

Problem: Some high school administrators, athletic directors, and coaches think that high school sports should emulate big-time intercol- legiate sports. This leads to excessive concerns with winning records and building high-profile programs that become the focus of attention in the school and community.

Creating and maintaining high-profile programs often leads to administrative decisions that overlook the educational needs of all students in the school. Instead, decisions focus on maximizing wins, minimizing losses, and being “ranked” in the state

Solution: Regular evaluations and opportunities for program reorganization, coach-teacher education programs, and parent/booster education. State education departments should conduct research on the educational value of state and national rankings and post season tournaments.

Problem: Organizing interscholastic sports so that all students in the United States play the same sports ignores educational theory and the diversity of sport interests among high school students.

• When high schools emphasize power and performance sports, they discourage participation by some boys and many girls who prefer sports emphasizing pleasure and participation.
• - Not meeting gender equity goals.

Where are the disability sports in high schools?

Solution: There is a need for teams in Ultimate Frisbee, disc golf, racquetball, flag football, softball, in- line skating, skateboarding, and other sports for which there is enough local interest to field teams.

• One strategy for achieving gender equity is to have more gender-mixed (co-ed) sports.
• - Gender-mixed sports would facilitate social development, promote interest in life- time sports, and improve overall fitness.

Competitive sport participation by students with disabilities should occur through a combination of creatively designed programs.

Problem: This favoritism generates tension and feelings of animosity among other students and leads some athletes to believe that they have the power to do as they wish.

Solution: Administrators, teachers, and coaches are responsible for knowing about the ways that systems of privilege operate in schools.

An effective strategy is to bring diverse students together in policy-assessing and policy- making groups so that they can learn about one another and develop reasons for interacting in civil and respectful ways.

Friendship Groups

Equalize treatment is to give equal attention and recognition to students’ accomplishments in activities other than sports—and to encourage local media to do the same.

Commercialization

Lack of Athletes Rights

Gender Inequities

Distorted Racial and Ethnic Priorities

Problem: Big-time college sports have been turned into part of the entertainment industry, with commercial goals and operating methods that are unrelated to or in conflict with the educational mission of U.S. universities.

Financial issues have become so important that they interfere with the academic progress of many college athletes.

Commercialization and organizing sports around an entertainment model undermines most efforts to sponsor sports for athletes with disabilities.

Solutions: The only way to bring about real change is for the U.S. Congress to intervene and force universities to follow certain rules or lose their status as tax-exempt, nonprofit educational organizations—an outcome that would have serious financial consequences for the NCAA, universities, and the boosters who support big-time programs.

Corporate support should also be regulated so that intercollegiate sport programs are not dependent on the advertising and profit needs of private companies.

Problem: The lives of many intercollegiate athletes are con- trolled by coaches whose careers depend on making sure that athletes are completely dedicated to their sports.

• If they have athletic scholarships, they are at the mercy of coaches who determine whether their scholarships will be renewed each year.
• Solutions: Athlete representatives should be voting members on certain NCAA and all university athletic committees; they should have a formal means to register com- plaints and have them investigated without jeopardizing their status on teams; they should have regular opportunities, like students in courses, to evaluate coaches and team programs on their educational merits; and they should be in charge of athlete advisory/disciplinary committees that handle team issues.

Every university should provide an independent ombudsperson— an appointed official who investigates issues raised by “employees”—to whom athletes can go when they think their rights have been compromised.

There should be guidelines for allow- ing athletes to earn money and form economic relationships outside the university.

• Problem: Current patterns of opportunities and financial support show that inequities continue to exist.
• Solution: Women should be given the same amount of time to build their programs and make one or two of their sports into popular attractions like men’s sports had in the past.

Problem: Nearly 70 percent of all black male athletes played football or basketball—the only sports that produced revenues and the sports with the lowest graduation rates.

This also means that, in some big-time sport programs, black male athletes have consistently generated revenues that funded other sport teams on which all or nearly all of the players were white.

The problem is that universities have capitalized on the racist myth that blacks can use sports to improve their lives, while ignoring their responsibility to recruit black students and to change the social climate on the campus so that black students feel welcome, supported, and respected, even if they don’t score touchdowns or score 20 points a game.

Feelings of social isolation.

Solution:Universities must be more aggressive and creative in recruiting and supporting ethnic minority students who aren’t athletes and in doing the same for ethnic minority coaches and faculty.

When universities effectively included racial and cultural diversity within all spheres of campus life, recruiting black athletes would not indicate a distorted set of campus priorities.

Religions are integrated and socially shared beliefs and rituals that people accept on faith and use as a source of meaning, guidance, and transcendence.

Both religions and ideologies are used by people as sense-making perspectives and guides for action. Although ideologies are linked with a supernatural realm, they often overlap, making it difficult to clearly differentiate them. For example, if people have a religious belief that God created male and female as two distinct human forms, they could use it to develop and support a gender ideology organized around male-female sex differences and the assumption that it is neither moral nor natural to blur of make light of those differences.

• Secular - Has no connection to the the supernatural
• i.e.: Sports Stadiums

• Sacred - Has a perceived connection to the supernatural
• i.e.: Churches

Similarities

Have places for communal gatherings

Emerge our of a disciplined quest for perfection

Are controlled through structured organizations and hierarchical authority

Evoke intense emotions and give meaning to people’s lives

Can be used to influence political and social factors

Religion

Tied to sacredGoal is transcendenceRooted in faith

Rituals/services are expressive and process oriented

Based on a spirit of humility and love

Sport

Secular

Goal is victories

Rooted in fact

Rituals/events are instrumental and goal-oriented

Based on a spirit of achievement and conquest

Buddhism and Hinduism emphasize physical and spiritual discipline but their beliefs don’t lead to seeking competitive success in physical activities. Christians use meditation practices and rituals to improve sport performances and give spiritual meaning to competitive sports. Hindus used exercises, games, and sports to develop loyalty and affection for Hindu culture. The caste system consisted of complex norms and beliefs that regulated activities and relationships throughout Indian society.

Muslims put an emphasis on peace through the submission to Allah’s will. Those who participated in sports were regulated by their beliefs about what pleases Allah. Islamic beliefs legitimize patriarchal structures and maintain definitions of male and female bodies that discourage girls and women from playing sports and restrict their everyday access to sport participation. Islamic male sport participation is tied to learning about life and gaining acceptance in their new cultures than expressing Muslim beliefs through sports. They do have organized programs that enable Muslim women to train and play sports under conditions consistent with their modesty norms.

Some Jews are attracted to sports as a reaction to anti-Semitism, assimilation, to fit in at a time when being like everyone else keeps them from being different in their school/community. They hold the Maccabiah Games every year after the Olympics to foster Jewish identity and traditions and to showcase highly skilled Jewish athletes.

Shinto, meaning “the way of god,” is tied to Sumo, Japanese wrestling, consists of a system of rituals and ceremonies designed to worship nature rather than reaffirm an established theology. Referees are dressed as priests and the rings are consecrated through purification ceremonies. Sumo wrestlers never refer to their own religious beliefs in connection with their sport.

Tai chi is a form of exercise based on this cultural approach to life and living. Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist ideas and practices make it difficult to separate religious beliefs from cultural ideology as a whole. Each emphasizes the notion that all human being should strive to live in accord with the energy and forces of nature. The body and physical exercise are seen as important parts of nature, but the goal of movement is to seek harmony with nature rather than to overcome or dominate nature or other humans.

Native Americans often include sports in religious rituals to reaffirm social connections within specific native cultural groups and gain skills needed for group survival. Many native cultures maintain animistic religious beliefs emphasize the spiritual integration of material elements (sun, wind, moon, plants, animals). They use their beliefs to give their participation a meaning that reaffirms their ways of viewing the world and their connection with the sacred.

• Religion uses sport by:
• Promoting spiritual growth
• Recruiting new members and promote religious beliefs and organizations
• Promoting fundamentalist beliefs and evangelical orientations

Sport uses religion by:the same answers as the next question

• Cope with uncertainty
• Stay out of trouble
• Give meaning to sport participation
• Put sport participation into a balanced perspective
• Establish team solidarity and unity
• To reaffirm expectations, rules and social control on teams
• To assert autonomy in the face of power
• To achieve or explain competitive success
• To market games and sell tickets

Media portrays power and performance sports as heroic figures,as warriors who embody a corporate emphasis on productivity, efficiency, and dedication to performance in the face of all barriers.

Because power and performance sports involve pushing limits it is easy for the media to emphasize the personal lives of athletes and their families

New and less knowledgeable fans that are often attracted to more dramatic tabloid style information about players’ lives

There are four alternatives that factor the support growth of participation sport:

Concerns about Health and Fitness

Participation preferences among older people

Values and experiences brought to sports by women

Groups seeking alternatives to highly structured, competitive sports that constrain their experiences

Profit driven national and global expansion

Starting mega events connected with national and urban redevelopment projects

Using public funds to facilitate and expand private consumer attractions

Athletes and owner / promoters seeking “collective bargaining agreements” CBA’s that fairly reward athlete labor and owner / promoter investments

Growing resistance from people who disapprove of using public funds to subsidize private investments in pro sports

Escalating expenses for big time spectator sports

Struggles over gender equity

Athletes in revenue producing sports seeking rights to profit from their skills

Students seeking more opportunities to play school-sponsored sports

Faculty resisting the use of university resources to subsidize big time sports

Increasing financial and public relations stakes associated with sports

Parents and athletes viewing high school sports as a way to obtain college scholarships and admission into college of their choice

Struggles over gender equity

Increasing elitism favoring skilled and highly specialized athletes

Emphasis on playoffs, championships, state titles and national rankings

“outsourcing” certain team sports to private clubs

Declining public programs due to budget constraints

Increased privatization benefiting people who can pay club and facility fees

Increasing de facto segregation of sports by socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity

Decreasing availability of opportunities for children in low income families and communities

More children seeking alternatives to adult controlled organized sports

More people disabled by war, land mines, lack of medical care, and poverty

Increasing recognition that people with disabilities want to play sports and have a right to do so

Continuing use of sport participation as therapy for people with disabilities

New technology that facilitates sport participation

Make sports safer

Detect and treat injuries more effectively

Assess physical limits and potential

Expand the experiences available in sports

Train bodies to perform more efficiently

Increase the speed at which bodies move

Decrease the risks involved with sportsenhance the size and strength of bodies

Alter bodies to match the demands of particular sports

Identifying rule infractions and enforce more accurately

Measure and compare performance with precision

Improve the durability and functionality of equipment

Goals:

Growth (conservative goal)

Improvement (reformist goal)

Transformation (radical goal)

Conservative goal

Using management and marketing techniques to expand make sport organizations more efficient while maintaining the culture of sports as they are.

Reformist goal

Requires changes that promote fair competition, character-building experiences, and appropriate opportunities for everyone to participate.

Radical Goal

Requires a critical assessment of dominant sports and the ability to create reorganized or new sports in which previously disenfranchised segments of the population share power with others in determining policies,controlling sports resources and facilities, and developing opportunities that meet their needs and concerns.