Module 7, Aggression and Moral Behaviour in Sport

Question 1

Moral Behaviour

Answer 1

• 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)

Question 2

Factors that Influence Moral Behaviour

Answer 2

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

Question 3

1. Sport Environment

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

1. Sport Environment (coaches)

Answer 4

• 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)

Question 5

2. Motivational Climate (prosocial behaviour)

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

2. Motivational Climate (antisocial behaviour)

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

3. Team Norms

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

4. Bullying and Hazing in Sport

Answer 8

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

Question 9

physical bullying

Answer 9

when someone uses physical actions to gain power and control - ex. punching another player to gain power over them

Question 10

social or emotional bullying

Answer 10

when we spread rumours about other athletes, when we exclude others on purpose, sometimes referred to as relational bullying

Question 11

sexual bullying

Answer 11

vulgar gestures, innappropriate touching

Question 12

prejudical bullying

Answer 12

based on race, orientation, gender, culture

Question 13

electronic bullying

Answer 13

using social media to threaten and post images of others etc.

Question 14

What is Aggression? (4)

Answer 14

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)

Question 15

Modes of Aggression (3)

Answer 15

1. physical (the intent to harm is present in a physical manner - punching another athlete)
2. verbal (discriminatory comments, belittling others, intent to harm them in a verbal way)
3. 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

Question 16

Violent & Assertive Behaviour

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Two Types of Aggression

Answer 17

1. 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
2. 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

Question 18

Theories of Aggression

Answer 18

1. instinct theory
2. physiological explanations
3. frustration-aggression hypothesis
4. social learning theory
5. revised frustration-aggression theory
6. moral disengagement
   * explain why people engage in aggressive behaviour

Question 19

1. Instinct Theory

Answer 19

• 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)

Question 20

2. Physiological Explanations

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

3. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Answer 21

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

Question 22

4. Social Learning Theory

Answer 22

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)

Question 23

5. Revised Frustration-Aggression Theory

Answer 23

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

Question 24

6. Moral Disengagement

Answer 24

• 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

Question 25

Moral justification - moral disengagement

Answer 25

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)

Question 26

Euphemistic labeling - moral disengagement

Answer 26

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)

Question 27

Advantageous comparison

Answer 27

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)

Question 28

Displacement of responsibility (big one)

Answer 28

shift blame of their aggression to other people (ex. blaming coach for tactics they would normally use as well)

Question 29

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 29

making team members or group decision to engage in aggressive behaviour (diffuses the responsibility of individual)

Question 30

Distortion of consequences

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Dehumanization

Answer 31

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)

Question 32

Attribution of Blame

Answer 32

when athletes see themselves as victims rather than aggressors (punch someone because they pushed me first)

Question 33

Additional Considerations: Fan Aggression

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Additional Considerations: aggression and performance

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Reducing Aggression (punishment and encouragement)

Answer 35

1. 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)

Question 36

Reducing Aggression: educational interventions

Answer 36

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