Lecture 24: Character Development in Sport Flashcards
When people encourage their children to participate in sport, they assume that participation will automatically be….
positive! (re psych development)
What are these supposed “positive benefits”?
- CHARACTER – ‘moral’ development
- Fair Play
- Sportsperson ship
- self-discipline, autonomy
- self-concept, self-esteem
How is character and moral development positively effected by sport?
- moral, prosocial connotations
- socially approved personality traits
- a major goal of successful socialisation
Most research on character-in-sport has focused on…
Moral Reasoning and Sportsmanship (fair play)
Does Sport Develop Moral Reasoning?
in general… NO!
- Doesn’t mean it can’t, or doesn’t in some situations but overall all of the negative examples highlight the fact that it doesn’t
Why is it said that sport does not develop moral reasoning?
(i) Players are assigned limited responsibility for their moral actions in sport.
(ii) An implicit, “socialised” neutral or negative attitude about fair play/sportsmanship.
How are players assigned limited responsibility for their moral actions in sport?
Many moral “decisions” (e.g. definition of foul play) are placed in the hands of officials and umpires.
e.g. professional foul (end-justifies-means)
- People think its ok to bend the rules because the end justifies the means
What is the implicit, “socialised” neutral or negative attitude about fair play/sportsmanship?
“It’s not cheating unless you get caught”
“You play to the referee not the rules”
===»> ‘Game’ Reasoning
What is game reasoning?
Sport = Play = Fantasy = ‘Not real’
- Therefore I don’t need ‘normal’ morality
- because sport is different I don’t need my normal morality
What ideas prove that character development in sport is fiction?
(i) Game Reasoning (moral disagreement)
(ii) Self-selection
(iii) Over-generalisation
What is self-selection?
People with certain “traits” may be attracted to sport; and the sport process tends to “eliminate” those who don’t have ‘the’ traits
Sport may be more accurately described as a situation in which character may be…
Displayed rather than developed
- Many participants in sport already possessed what many people call good character before they began
What is over-generalisation?
Sports tend to focus their attention on the most outstanding in their programmes/schools/clubs
- People assume sport built the character of outstanding people, but that every participant benefits as well
Character is a product of…
Socialisation
- Sport is ONE agent of socialisation
