1. Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies
Chapter 4
Sports and Socialization:
Who Plays and What Happens to Them?

2. Socialization: Main Definition
Is an active process of learning and social development
Occurs as we interact with others
Involves the formation of ideas about who we are and what is important in our lives

3. Stevenson’s Findings (1999)
Becoming an elite athlete involves:
The process of introduction and involvement
The process of developing commitment

4. Donnelly & Young’s Findings (1999)
Becoming an athlete in a sport subculture involves:
Acquiring knowledge about the sport
Associating with people in the sport
Learning the norms of the sport
Receiving recognition and acceptance from other athletes

5. Coakley & White’s Findings (1999)
Deciding to play sports depends on:
Ideas about sport’s connection to other interests and goals
Desires to develop & display competence
Social and material support
Memories of past experiences in sports
General cultural images and messages about sports

6. Functionalist and Conflict Theory: Research on Dropping Out of Sports
People don’t drop out forever, nor do they cut all ties with sports
Dropping out is tied to other changes and transitions in a person’s life
Dropping out is not related only to bad experiences
Dropping out may cause problems among those who
Have identities grounded totally in sports
Lack social & material resources

7. Burnout among elite adolescent athletes was most likely when:
Coakley’s Findings (1992)
Burnout among elite adolescent athletes was most likely when:
High performance sports were organized so that athletes had little control over their lives
Sport involvement was perceived to interfere with accomplishing important developmental tasks

8. Koukouris’ Findings (1994)
Ending or reducing sport participation was associated with:
The need to find a job and become independent
Realistic assessments of sport skills and potential for future achievements
Efforts to stay physically active and connected with sports

9. Summary: Changing or Ending Competitive Sport Participation
Changes in participation are grounded in decision-making processes tied to people’s lives, life courses, and social worlds
Identity issues and developmental issues are important
Problems are most likely when sport participation has constricted a person’s life

10. Being Involved in Sports: What Happens?
In some cultures people believe that sports automatically build positive traits and relationships among all participants

11. Factors Often Overlooked in Research on Character Building in Sports
Different sports offer different experiences
Selection processes in organized sports favor some characteristics over others
Different people define sport experiences in different ways
Meanings given to sport experiences often change over time
Social relationships mediate sports experiences
Many activities other than sports can provide character-building experiences

12. Sport Participation Is Most Likely to Produce Positive Effects When (I)
New non-sport identities are formed
Knowledge is gained about the world beyond sports
Experiences go beyond sports
New relationships are formed that go beyond sports
(continued)

13. Sport Participation Is Most Likely to Produce Positive Effects When (II)
Lessons learned in sports are applied to situations outside of sports
Participants are seen by others as total human beings, not just athletes
General competence and responsibility are learned

14. General Summary:
If playing sports constricts or limits a person’s life, expect negative socialization effects
If playing sports expands or diversifies a person’s life, expect positive socialization effects

15. Power & Performance Versus Pleasure & Participation Sports
Emphasis on connections between people
Ethic of expression, enjoyment, health
Body = source of pleasure
Inclusion & accom-modation of differences
Democratic structures
Compete with others
Power/Performance
Use power to push limits in pursuit of victories
Excellence proved through winning
Body = tool and weapon
Competence-based inclusion/exclusion
Hierarchical structures
Opponents = enemies

16. Studies of Sport Experiences
The voices of sport participants indicate that
People define and give meaning to their sport experiences in connection with their social relationships
Meanings given to sport experiences are grounded in cultural definitions about gender, race & ethnicity, social class, sexuality, and other characteristics defined as socially important

17. The moral socialization that occurs in little league baseball
Fine’s Findings (1987)
The moral socialization that occurs in little league baseball
Depends on how the boys “hear” and apply the moral messages from adults
Emphasizes masculinity as involving toughness and dominance

18. Theberge’s Findings (2000)
The locker rooms of women’s ice hockey teams are key places in which
Women bond with each other and form a sense of community
The players use relationships with each other to develop meanings for their sport participation and apply those meanings to to their lives

19. Crosset’s Findings (1995)
The lives of women athletes in the LPGA were influenced by gender relations in U.S. culture
The women developed an “ethic of prowess” – a mindset highlighting a commitment to physical competence as a basis for evaluating self and others on the tour
This ethic existed to neutralize the negative effects of traditional ideas about femininity
Conformity to the ethic helped the women legitimize their roles as professional athletes

20. Wacquant’s Findings (1992)
The social world of the boxing gym
Was created in connection with the social forces in the black ghetto and its masculine street culture
Sheltered black men from the full destructive impact of social and cultural forces in their lives
Provided a disciplined regime of body regulation that established a positive identity and separated the men from the negative influences of a chaotic environment

21. Studies of Socialization As a Community & Cultural Process
Sports are sites for struggling over how we think and what we do
Sports are sites where people create and learn “stories” they can use to make sense of the world
Sports consist of vocabularies and images that influence ideology

22. Socialization and the Formation of Ideology
Hegemony is the process of forming agreement about particular ways of viewing and making sense of the world
Sports are important sites for hegemonic processes because they provide pleasurable experiences to so many people
Corporate sponsors use sports to establish “ideological outposts” in people’s heads

23. Sport, Socialization, & Ideology
Research shows that none of us live outside the influence of ideology
The stories that emerge in connection with sports and sport experiences generally reproduce dominant forms of ideology, but they also can challenge and even transform dominant ideology