Module 7, Aggression and Moral Behaviour in Sport Flashcards
Moral Behaviour
- the carrying out of an action that is deemed as right or wrong
◦ learned through the processes of reinforcement
(reinforced or punished) and modelling (observing
others) - many of the athletes’ actions in the video were counter to their goals
- many engaged in these actions because it was the “right” thing to do (sportsmanship like behaviour that can hinder their performance but shows their morals)
Factors that Influence Moral Behaviour
factors that impact the development of moral behaviour (not something we are born with, instead we develop overtime) in sport:
1. sport environment
2. motivational climate
3. goal orientation (whether they are task or ego involved)
4. team norms
5. bullying and hazing in sport
6. aggression
- Sport Environment
- sports can provide an environment for moral practice and development
◦ athletes can learn rules and fair play in sport
‣ thus, good moral behaviour (eg. co-operation,
team loyalty, respect for opponents etc.) can
develop
* can provide a space for moral practice
that then leads into a display of moral
behaviour
‣ sport can also provide opportunities to
engage in unfair play, illegitimate aggression
and intimidation (engagement in bad
behaviour and anti-social behaviours)
* for example, coaches that teach their
players that cheating is alright
- Sport Environment (coaches)
- sports can provide an environment for moral practice and development
◦ coaches act as role models
‣ can stop disrespect and rule violation and encourage positive moral behaviour in athletes (promote fair play and encourage respecting opponents)
‣ emphasizing winning or immoral behaviours can lead to unsportspersonlike conduct in athletes (consistently yells and swears at referee, shows athletes that is perfectly fine to do the same as the coaches are their role models)
- Motivational Climate (prosocial behaviour)
- athletes who have coaches that emphasize cooperation and learning from past mistakes may engage in more prosocial behaviour
- for example, if you have coaches, peers, teammates who are task orientated and mastery orientated are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviour
- whereas, if they are more ego oriented and believing in winning at all costs, they will engage in more antisocial behaviours (behaviours that is intended to harm or put you at advantage over others)
◦ prosocial behaviour: behaviour intended to
benefit or assist another individual or team
- Motivational Climate (antisocial behaviour)
- athletes who have coaches that emphasize winning and competition among teammates may engage in more antisocial behaviour (like interteam competition, and coaches emphasize that)
◦ antisocial behaviour: behaviour intended to harm
or disadvantage another individual or team
- Team Norms
- team norms are “standards or expectations that influence team members’ behaviour”
- teammates,’ coaches,’ and parents’ expectations have a significant impact on athletes’ moral behaviour (norms within culture, what is expected, what is allowed, what behaviour is rewarded)
◦ if it is normal for players on a team to yell at an
official then individual players are more likely to
yell at the official - team norms are more interpersonal and within specific teams
- Bullying and Hazing in Sport
bullying:
- based on the imbalance of power between peers
- one peer is more powerful and repeatedly attacks the less powerful with intention to harm
- various types of bullying in sport: physical bullying, social or emotional bullying, sexual bullying, prejudical bullying and electronic bullying
can increase when team norms do not prohibit them as it is not punished within the team by others
hazing:
- any potentially humiliating, degrading, abusive or dangerous activity expected of an individual to belong to a group, regardless of their willingness to participate
- for example, seniors make rookies do hazing activities, like initiation activities (use peer pressure, aggression and intimidation) - to keep seniors in power hierarchy
physical bullying
when someone uses physical actions to gain power and control - ex. punching another player to gain power over them
social or emotional bullying
when we spread rumours about other athletes, when we exclude others on purpose, sometimes referred to as relational bullying
sexual bullying
vulgar gestures, innappropriate touching
prejudical bullying
based on race, orientation, gender, culture
electronic bullying
using social media to threaten and post images of others etc.
What is Aggression? (4)
any overt verbal or physical act that in intended to injure another living organism either psychologically or physically (key thing is there is intent)
4 components to aggression:
1. it is a behaviour, not an emotion or a feeling
2. it ca be verbal or physical (sometimes both)
3. it is intended to physically or psychologically harm
4. it is directed toward another living organism (typically humans)
Modes of Aggression (3)
- physical (the intent to harm is present in a physical manner - punching another athlete)
- verbal (discriminatory comments, belittling others, intent to harm them in a verbal way)
- relational (more covert or indirect - through damage to relationships or social status, for example spreading rumours about teammates that damages their image or leaving out teammates (excluding))
* verbal is more direct towards the person and relational is indirect, other ways then directing confronting the living organism
Violent & Assertive Behaviour
violent behaviour:
- an extreme act of physically aggression that bears no direct relationship to the competitive goals of sport (ex. two athletes do not get along and in the parking lot their begin to fight but it has nothing to do with winning the game, just brawl unrelated to goals of game)
- relates to incidents of uncontrolled aggression outside the rules of sport (can happen on pitch but not directed to game related reasons)
assertive behaviour:
- forceful, vigorous and legitimate actions with no intent to injure opponent
◦ for example you can be tackling someone hard,
but the intent is not to hurt the other, rather for
the purpose of the sport
Two Types of Aggression
- instrumental aggression:
A. aggression is used as a way to achieve a goal
(intent is to harm the other but it is by the means
to achieve a goal, like to win or advantage in the
game)
a. for example, hockey player bodychecks
opponent as they have the the intention to
harm the player so that the opponent is
aware next time and gets intimidated
B. injury is impersonal and designed to limit the
effectiveness of the opponent - hostile aggression:
A. the aggressive act is an end in and of itself
a. primary goal is to injure someone
deliberately (intent here is to make victim
suffer physically, verbally, psychologically)
B. typically preceded by anger
-> an attempt to harm in both types
Theories of Aggression
- instinct theory
- physiological explanations
- frustration-aggression hypothesis
- social learning theory
- revised frustration-aggression theory
- moral disengagement
* explain why people engage in aggressive behaviour
- Instinct Theory
- innate instinct to be aggressive (born with it)
◦ common to all people - aggression ‘builds up’, must inevitably be released
◦ catharsis: the release of aggressive tendencies
through socially acceptable means
‣ sport often identified as a method of
catharsis
‣ sport is an acceptable place to release that
aggression
evidence for instinct theory: - no evidence for aggressive instinct
- no evidence that ‘catharsis’ types of behaviours decrease aggression (release of aggression
through sport is not a thing, can increase aggression instead)
-> rejected theory (was used at one time, not anymore)
- Physiological Explanations
- aggression is physiological in nature (things that happen within our body that lead us to be aggressive)
two supportive mechanisms
1. brain pathology:
A. research indicates aggressive behaviour is
characteristic of people with brain tumors (when
certain areas of the brain are stimulated we are
more aggressive)
2. blood chemistry:
A. aggression linked to the hormone testosterone
(no real pattern here)
B. more prominent in animals than humans
a. steroid use is one exception (frequently been
associated with higher levels of aggression)
1. when athletes stops taking steroids that
aggression can decrease, but not strong
enough research - not very supported because not everyone with high levels of testosterone is aggressive
and vice versa
- Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
frustration -> aggressive drive -> aggressive behaviour
two key proposals:
1. frustrations always leads to some form of aggression (or can be ‘blown off’ via catharsis)
A. frustration within game lead to the aggression
behaviour
2. aggression always is a result of frustration
evidence for frustration-aggression:
- does not account for other ways in which people can cope with frustration (do not use always display aggression and blow off frustration in other ways)
- lack of support for catharsis
-> do not use this theory because it does not account for other things because frustration does not always lead to aggression, there are other ways to get rid of frustration
- Social Learning Theory
aggression, like other behaviours, is learned via:
modeling/observational learning: learning by watching others do, and how they are behaviours are punished or reinforced
- for example, when fighting in hockey is cheered on by fans and others watching will think it is accepted behaviour
reinforcement: learning by being rewarded (reinforced) or punished for one’s behaviours
- reinforcement - when coach reinforces aggression like swearing
social comparison: exhibiting behaviours in an effort to fit in with one’s peer or comparison group
- often within sport, we exhibit behaviour to fit in, so we learn aggression is okay because the rest of the team does it and we want to fit in
- concern with “role models” of aggression, and medial portrayal
- rewards given to aggressive acts (parent that reinforce behaviour their children display)
- Revised Frustration-Aggression Theory
frustration (failure, goal blockage) -> increased arousal (pain, anger) -||> aggressive behaviour
- frustration is not always going to lead to aggressive behaviour, instead lead to the readiness to aggressive behaviour
- when we are frustrated, it increases our arousal
socially learned cues signal appropriateness of aggression in between increased arousal and aggressive behaviour (socially learned cues will determine if you engage in aggressive behaviour or not)
- for example, this player that watches NHL players be rewarded for fighting, if they have learned that it is appropriate to be aggressive, they are likely to do the same
- in golf, you learn social cues to not engage in sports misconduct like that
- just dependant on the social cues you learn
- Moral Disengagement
- extension of social learning to address moral behaviour
- individuals refrain from behaviours that violate their moral standards (violates moral beliefs, however that does not always happen (can go against it))
- how do individuals justify their choices for engaging in aggression? - justified it by moral disengagement
8 mechanisms of moral disengagement:
moral justification, euphemistic labeling, advantageous comparison, displacement of responsibility (big one), diffusion of responsibility, distortion of consequences, dehumanization, attribution of blame
- even if it is against ones morals they will act on aggression due to their factors above
Moral justification - moral disengagement
when a person reconsiders aggression as not being negative and makes it acceptable by portraying it as fulfilling a social purpose (ex. he and she fought an opponent to protect their teammate)
Euphemistic labeling - moral disengagement
when athletes change the language to make the aggression appear less harmful (ex. hockey players often justify the existence of fighting by claiming it lets players let of steam - naming it something that makes it appear less harmful)
Advantageous comparison
when an athlete compares an aggressive behaviour with something worse (for example, athlete says well i did this, but not as bad as someone else doing that)
Displacement of responsibility (big one)
shift blame of their aggression to other people (ex. blaming coach for tactics they would normally use as well)
Diffusion of responsibility
making team members or group decision to engage in aggressive behaviour (diffuses the responsibility of individual)
Distortion of consequences
when an athlete minimizes harm caused by their action (football player attacks their opponent and opponent suffers a concussion, the player may then say the hit was not that bad and concussion results from opponent falling on ground after) - maybe i engaged in the act but the consequences were not as a result of me
Dehumanization
cognitively relive people of their human qualities - makes it more acceptable to act aggressively towards them (calling opponents animals or beasts making it more acceptable to act against them aggressively)
Attribution of Blame
when athletes see themselves as victims rather than aggressors (punch someone because they pushed me first)
Additional Considerations: Fan Aggression
Fan Aggression:
* identify with teams, increases emotional stability (particularly when things begin to go wrong with your team)
* crowd situations
* alcohol
* associated with aggression on the field (more in sports like hockey as opposed to golf)
* aggression on the field associated with fan enjoyment in some sports
◦ reinforcement for media to highlight -> players
aggress
Additional Considerations: aggression and performance
aggression and performance:
* some support has been found that aggression facilitates sport performance
◦ eg. may pay off to injure or intimidate an
opposing players
* other sport research:
◦ aggression does NOT facilitate performance
◦ aggression elevates a person’s arousal level and
shifts attention to non-performance issues
Reducing Aggression (punishment and encouragement)
- punishment and encouragement
A. parents and coaches need to make sure that the
punishment for an aggressive act outweighs the
benefits
B. parents and coaches also need to encourage and
reward positive behaviours (e.g., a great move,
good effort, unselfish play)
Reducing Aggression: educational interventions
educational Interventions
◦ workshops teach coaches, parents, officials, kids
etc. what aggression is, the consequences of
aggressive acts, and how to control aggression
◦ e.g., Parents take classes on how to behave at
sporting events
