SPORTS IN SOCIETY:
ISSUES AND CONTROVERSIES IN
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 4
SPORTS AND SOCIALISATION:
Who Plays and What Happens to Them?
Copyright  2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-1
Socialisation: Main Definition
Socialisation:
• 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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Socialisation: A Functionalist Approach
Based on an internationalisation model that
focuses on:
• The characteristics of those being socialised.
• The people and institutions believed to do the
socialising.
• The specific outcomes of socialisation, i.e., the
types of learning that occurs.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Socialisation: A Conflict Approach
Based on an internalisation model that
focuses on:
• How sports and sport participation divides people in the
working class.
• How people with few resources are denied opportunities to
play sports.
• The lack of rights among sports competitors.
• How money and power are used to control sports and
exploit others to maintain the status quo.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-4
Socialisation: Interactionist Models
• Utilise qualitative more often than quantitative
research methods.
• Goal is to obtain detailed descriptions of sport
experiences and cultures.
• Seek information on how people make decisions
about sports in their lives.
• Connect meanings given to sports and sport
experiences with the larger social and cultural
context.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-5
BECOMING INVOLVED
& STAYING INVOLVED IN SPORTS
Functionalist research indicates that sport
participation is related to:
• People’s abilities & characteristics.
• The influence of significant others.
• The availability of opportunities to play and to
experience success in sports.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-6
BECOMING INVOLVED
& STAYING INVOLVED IN SPORTS
Interactionist research indicates that sport
participation is related to:
• Ongoing processes in people’s lives.
• Decision making processes in which decisions:
– Change as social circumstances change.
– Are not made once and for all time.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Stevenson’s Findings
(1999)
Becoming an elite competitor involves:
• The process of introduction and involvement.
• The process of developing commitment.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Light & Nash, 2006 Findings
Becoming a surf lifesaver involves:
• Training – beach sprinting, paddling, flag races, watching
specialist videos.
• Patrolling and competition with patrolling understood to be the
‘core’.
• Fund raising activities.
• Incidental learning.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Wright & Burrow’s Findings (2006)
•
•
•
•
•
Clear and particular differences between government
schools and private schools:
Contrasting ideas about the ways that sport participation was
related to other interests and goals in their lives.
Their desires to develop and display competence so they
could gain recognition and respect from others.
Private Schools emphasize and support participation and
incorporate sport as a mandatory element of the extra
curricular program.
Memories of past experiences with physical activities and
sports.
Sport-related cultural images and messages that they had in
their minds.
Copyright  2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-10
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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Coakley’s Findings (1992)
Burnout among elite adolescent competitors was
most likely when:
• High performance sports were organised so that competitors
had little control over their lives.
• Sport involvement was perceived to interfere with
accomplishing important developmental tasks.
Copyright  2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-12
Wheeler’s Findings (1999)
When competitive sport careers ended, the main challenges
faced by competitors with disabilities were:
• Reinvesting time and energy into other spheres of life.
• Reconnecting with family members and friends.
• Going back to school and getting on with occupational
careers.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-13
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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-14
Being Involved in Sports:
What Happens?
In some cultures people believe that sports
automatically build positive traits and relationships
among all participants.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-15
Factors Often Overlooked in Research on
Character Building in Sports
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Different sports offer different experiences.
Selection processes in organised sports favour 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 characterbuilding experiences.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Sport Participation Is Most Likely to
Produce Positive Effects When (I)
1.
2.
3.
4.
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)
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Sport Participation Is Most Likely to
Produce Positive Effects When (II)
5.
6.
7.
Lessons learned in sports are applied to situations outside
of sports.
Participants are seen by others as total human beings, not
just competitors.
General competence and responsibility are learned.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-18
General Summary:
• If playing sports constricts or limits a person’s
life, expect negative socialisation effects.
• If playing sports expands or diversifies a person’s
life, expect positive socialisation effects.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-19
Power & Performance Versus
Pleasure & Participation Sports
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pleasure/Participation
Emphasis on
connections between
people
Ethic of expression,
enjoyment, health
Body = source of
pleasure
Inclusion & accommodation of differences
Democratic structures
Compete with others
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Fine’s Findings (1987)
The moral socialisation 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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-22
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 their lives.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Symons’ Findings (2002)
Gay sports participants are especially cautious about
coming out in sports
• Combining a gay identity with a sports identity is often a
challenging process.
• Individual sports and “cosmopolitan” sports are more gayfriendly than team sports and “macho” sports.
• Being out in sport is liberating, but it can also be dangerous.
• Being out is easier when friends, teammates, and
organisations provide active support.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Studies of the Social Worlds of
Sports
• Social world refers to a way of life and an
associated mindset that revolves around a
particular sport.
• Sport experiences and the actions of people in
sports can be understood only when placed in the
context of the social world in which they occur.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Hughson’s Findings (1992)
Croatia in Sydney
• Young men of the BBB became deeply engulfed in
their supporter identities.
• Social world of soccer support became the context
in which the young men identified themselves, set
goals, and viewed the rest of the world.
• No evidence to suggest that the BBB applied these
lessons to other aspects of their lives.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Klein’s Findings (1993)
The lives of bodybuilders revolve around issues of
gender and sexuality
• Men and women learn to project images of power while
experiencing doubts about their identities and selfworth.
• The social world of bodybuilding fosters a desperate
need for attention and approval.
• Ideas about masculinity are so narrow that male
bodybuilders develop homophobic attitudes and selfpresentations based on caricatured ideas about
manliness.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Crosset’s Findings (1995)
The lives of women competitors 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 neutralise the negative effects
of traditional ideas about femininity.
• Conformity to the ethic helped the women legitimise
their roles as professional competitors.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Studies of Socialisation 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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Socialisation
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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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Sport, Socialisation, & 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.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
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What Socialisation Research
Doesn’t Tell Us
• How socialisation processes operate in the lives of
people from various ethnic groups & social classes.
• The dynamics of sport participation careers among
young children.
• How people make participation decisions about
different types of sports.
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PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-32
The Most Informative Research on
What Happens in Sports Deals with:
• The everyday experiences of people who play
sports.
• The social worlds created around sports.
• Community and cultural processes that are related
to the ideological messages associated with sports
in society.
Copyright  2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Sports in Society by Coakley
4-33