Doping practice and sport: dialogic identities within different levels of sporting practices Gian Piero Turchi, Gilberto Guastalla, Eleonora Braga Cambridge, August 26 – 29 Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale

The epistemological frame of the research Narrativistic Paradigm: Doping is a discursive configuration, generated by the discursive processes carried out by speakers to know it; The discursive processes used are socially available and culturally characterised; The consumption of doping drugs and its consequences on the athletes’ health are the pragmatic effects of the way in which the reality called “doping” is generated

Methodology Method : M.A.D.I.T. (Methodology of Textual Processing Data Analysis, Turchi G. P., 2007) 1) AIM: to describe the discursive processes constructing the reality called “doping”; 2) STRATEGY: preparation of questionnaires with open and closed questions, in order to gather the accounts and narration generating the discursive configuration “doping”; Account (to talk about oneself): ex. “I take drugs to obtain greater physical performances and surpass myself” Narration (to talk about someone else): ex. “The one who takes doping drugs is not a real sportsman” 3) INSTRUMENTS: Spad.T (textual data analysis) Spss (numeric data analysis)

Groups object of study: two experimental groups (group of athletes and group of trainers) and a control group. Methodology Athletes469 Trainers50 Control290 Total809 The ‘athletes’ differ for the level of competition (professionals, amateurs, not-agonists). Professionals52 Amateurs326 Not-agonists91

Results  Non-agonist athletes: performance/competition and desire of relaxing  Amateurs: improvement of the athletic performance  Professionals: reaching of a personal satisfaction, accepting their own limits What are, in your opinion, the three most important results to obtain as a sportsman?

 Non-agonist athletes: strengthening of the performances and of the physical power  Amateurs: improvement of the results, increasing of power, excelling  Professionals: profits, good looking, physical performance Results What are, in your opinion, the objectives of a sportsman who uses doping drugs?

The three categories of athletes highlight the urgent request of:  Increase in the endurance to the stress  Keeping high standard of results Results Which are the characteristics of the sports contest that can favour the use of doping drugs? The athletes also underline the “fear of looking weak” And of not feeling part of the group

Conclusions The discursive configuration “doping” is generated through the use of two peculiar discursive ways: “ of justification” to argue expressing the reason at the basis of the behaviour of having doping drugs (ad es. “sport, and sportsman as a consequence, dope because they are subject to too many external pressures”); “of competition” to argue referring to the competitiveness and success at all costs, independently of the ways to reach them (ad es. “sports practice is permeated with competitiveness to the detriment of sports values ” ”).

Conclusions Anticipated scenarios: Considering the specific discursive ways used, it is possible to anticipate that the sportsman that has doping drugs is the one who, through this practice, adapts to the rules of the contest.  constant formation of sports operators, in particular of athletes, from a prospective of “health promotion”;  Athlete as an active role in promoting an ethical code and not as a passive role who adapts to the contest and who justifies the consumption of drugs. Operative consequences

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