Sports in Society - Chapter 5

Which of the following scenarios exemplifies deviant overconformity?

An athlete training for the Olympics using extreme weight-control strategies.

_____ is the social condition that exists when widespread underconformity creates general lawlessness.

Anarchy

Informal Norms

Customs or unwritten, shared understandings of how a person is expected to think, appear, and act in a social world.

True or False: Most sociologists reject a constructionist approach and use an absolutist approach to identify and deal with deviance.

False. Most sociologists reject an absolutist approach and use a constructionist approach to identify and deal with deviance.

True or False: In the context of deviance in sports, subnormal attitudes and actions are not considered to be deviant.

False. Supranormal as well as subnormal attitudes and actions are considered abnormal and deviant.

Identify an accurate statement about norms.

Norms are violated when deviance occurs.

Formal Norms

Official expectations that take the form of written rules or laws.

Elite athletes and coaches use a(n) _____ to guide and evaluate attitudes and actions in the social world of power and performance sports.

Sport Ethic

An accurate statement about the constructionist approach to deviance is that it is based on _____.

a combination of cultural, interactionist, and structural theories in sociology

In the context of deviance in sports, ingesting substances thought to enhance performance is _____.

a taken-for-granted part of being an athlete today

People who possess power and authority generally have the most influence in determining normative limits, because they _____.

administer formal sanctions, including both punishments and rewards

A problem with an absolutist approach to deviance is that it leads many people to think that controlling deviance _____.

always requires more rules, better enforcement, and increasingly severe penalties for deviations from the ideal

In the context of deviant overconformity in sports, research suggests that substance use usually occurs _____.

among the most dedicated, committed, and hard-working athletes in sports

It is difficult to use studies of deviance in other contexts to understand what occurs in sports because norms are _____.

applied and enforced differently in sports

Deviant Overconformity

consists of supranormal ideas, traits, and actions that indicate an uncritical acceptance of norms and a failure to recognize any limits to following norms.

Due to its deviance and danger, hazing _____.

creates bonds and a form of vulnerability that coaches can use to control team members

In sociological terms, a norm around which a sport ethic is formed shows that athletes participate in a(n) _____ in which they accept the uncertainty, danger, and consequences of their actions.

culture of risk

An accurate statement about hubris is that it is _____.

developed due to an extreme sense of being unique and extraordinary.

The practice of overconformity among athletes makes it difficult to understand certain cases of deviance because they contradict the assumption that _____.

deviance always involves subnormal or underconforming attitudes and actions based on a rejection of norms

Anto-doping policies prior to the mid-1980s existed largely to _____.

discourage athletes from dropping dead of overdose

According to Jay Coakley, the relationship between sport participation, drinking, and other actions depends on _____.

factors such as team culture and the social activities that are a part of that culture

One of the challenges faced while studying deviance in sports is that training and performance in sports are based on such new forms of science and technology that people _____.

have not yet developed norms to guide and evaluate much of what occurs today in sports

Formal Deviance

involves a violation of an official rule or law, and is punished by official sanctions administered by people in positions of authority.

Informal Deviance

involves a violation of an unwritten custom or shared understanding, and is punished by informal sanctions administered by observers or peers.

In the context of the absolutist approach to deviance, an idea, trait, or action is deviant when _____.

it departs from an ideal

A _____ is a shared expectation that people use to identify what is acceptable and unacceptable in a social world.

norm

Most of the research on deviance in sports focuses _____.

only on deviant underconformity among athletes

A challenge faced by researchers while studying deviance in sports is that deviance in sports often involves _____.

overconformity to norms, rather than rejecting or not conforming to them

Norms exist in all social worlds and serve as the moral standards that _____.

people use to identify deviance

In the context of deviance in sports, the process of hazing has been studied less than processes such as rites of passage, initiation, and bullying because it is _____.

private and secretive and involves experiences that people keep private because they are embarrassing.

Institutional Corruption

refers to the established, widespread, and taken-for-granted processes and practices that, if publicly known, would be seen as immoral, unethical, or illegal to the point of destroying public trust in the organization and its leaders.

In the context of studying deviance in sports, one of the challenges is that the _____.

types and causes of deviance in sports are so diverse that no single theory can explain them all

Identify the actions that need to be distinguished from each other when studying deviance in sports. (check all that apply)

✓ Actions based on a blind acceptance of norms and a willingness to surpass normal limits of conformity. ✓ Actions based on indifference to or rejection of norms.

Identify the factors that are not taken into account by studies that deal with delinquency rates among high school students. (check all that apply)

✓ Athletes may receive preferential treatment enabling them to avoid being labeled delinquent. ✓ Deviance among high school athletes may be obscured by a "facade of conformity." ✓ Students who have histories of deviance are less likely to try out and be selected for sport teams than other students.

Identify the general norms around which a sport ethic is formed. (check all that apply)

✓ Athletes strive for distinction. ✓ Athletes are dedicated to "the game" above all other things.

On which of the following topics have studies on off-the-field deviance among athletes primarily focused? (check all that apply)

✓ Delinquency and sport participation among high school students. ✓ Particular felony rates among athletes. ✓ Academic cheating and excessive alcohol use among high school and college athletes.

Identify the suggestions on where to begin the process of effectively controlling the use of performance-enhancing substances in sports. (check all that apply)

✓ Establish rules clearly indicating that certain health risks are undesirable and unnecessary in sports. ✓ Critically examine the deep hypocrisy involved in elite power and performance sports.

Identify the problems with an absolutist approach to deviance. (check all that apply)

✓ It creates resistance to rules. ✓ It undermines creativity and change. ✓ It makes people defensive about their own attitudes and actions.

Identify the points that are emphasized by a constructionist approach to deviance. (check all that apply)

✓ Norms are socially constructed and are used to determine a range of acceptable ideas, traits, and actions. ✓ Negotiating normative boundaries and the range of social acceptance is influenced by the power dynamics that exist in a society or social world. ✓ Deviance is socially constructed as people negotiate the boundaries of their acceptance. ✓ Most ideas, traits, and actions in a social world fall into a normally accepted range.

Which of the following aspects of norms often make studying deviance tricky? (check all that apply)

✓ Norms take different forms. ✓ Norms vary in importance. ✓ Norms differ from one social world to another.

Identify the reasons why athletes use performance-enhancing substances. (check all that apply)

✓ They are part of a sport system in which therapies and supplements are needed to recover from intense training. ✓ They uncritically accept and overconform to the norms of the sport ethic.