The form of participation may affect moral development as individuals ... questioned Kohlberg's definitions of Stage 6, defining them as "moral musi- ..... REST, J. R. (1999) Postconventional moral thinking: a neo-Kohlbergian approach.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2004,99,633-642.
O Perceptual and Motor Skills 2004
MORAL DEVELOPMENT AND FORM O F PARTICIPATION, TYPE O F SPORT, AND SPORT EXPERIENCE ' MILTIADIS PROIOS, GEORGE DOGANIS
IOANNIS ATHANAILIDIS
Aristotle University of Tbessaloniki
Democritus University of Tbrace
Summay.-The present study investigated aspects of moral development in sport, according to the form of participation, type of sport, and sport experience. 510 participants, 14 to 49 years of age (M=24.9, SD=8.3) who came from organized competitive sports included athletes (n=327), referees ( n = 138), and coaches (n=45) in football ( n = 161), handball ( n = 198), and basketball ( n = 150). Years of sport experience ranged from 1 to 6, 7 to 14, and 15 to 30 years of participation in sports. The Defining Issues Test was given; analysis showed no significant differences in development of moral reasoning among participants across different types of sports, forms of participation, and years of experience in sport.
The context of sports presents many ethical problems due to its competitiveness. * Thus, although it seems important to understand moral development in this context, study has been quite limited so far (e.g., Bredemeier & Shields, 1998). However, there are enough studies related to moral functioning, moral atmosphere, and sportsmanship to identify certain important factors (e.g., Priest, Krause, & Beach, 1999; Kavussanu & Roberts, 2001). In sports, moral development may be influenced by a number of factors. The form of participation may affect moral development as individuals who take part as referees, coaches, or athletes may have different goals, values, and principles. For example, a referee may see good performance as a combination of fairness in decision making, accuracy of judgments, and consistency (Weinberg & Richardson, 1990; National Officiating Program, 1999). The athletes' main goal is probably to complete well and to win. However, Lumpkin (1990) stated that, when winning becomes the primary objective, other potential outcomes are lost. Studies have shown that the pursuit of victory alters moral values in sport (e.g., Mison, 1982; Beller & Stoll, 1995). Stephens (1998) suggested that competitive sports frequently reward aggressive behaviors, even though they are contrary to social norms. Similarly, Webb (1969) postulated that, with increase in athletic experience, the values held by athletes change as the competitive orientation of athletes becomes more professionalised. Finally, most coaches may be mainly concerned about victorious results and could be led to actions that are not considered moral (Snyder & Purdy, 1987; Beller & Stoll, 1993). 'Please send correspondence to Miltiadis Proios, Iatrou Zanna 17, 54643 Thessaloniki, Greece yr e-mail (mproios@ hed.auth.gr). Shields, D., ei ~ r e z m e i e rB. , (2000) Moral reasoning in the context of sport. Retrieved from the web 2/10/2000 (http://www.uic.edu/-Inucci/MoralEd/Shields.htm).
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Each sport has its own unique character and set of values.' Concretely, there are collision sports, contact sports, and noncontact sports, and it seems that the inherent characteristics of different types of sports affect moral development in a dissimilar manner (Bredemeier, Weiss, Shields, & Cooper, 1986; Tucker & Parks, 2001). Additionally, moral decision making is influenced by the moral atmosphere prevailing in the environment (Higgins, Power, & Kohlberg, 1984). Factors that may influence the moral atmosphere are the competitive structure of the league, the nature of the sport itself, i.e., extent of contact, the motivational orientation of coaches, parents, and players, the leadership style of coaches, the moral dialogue taking place within the team setting, and the cumulative experiences of players who make up the team (Stephens & Bredemeier, 1996). Miller and Jarman (1988) suggested that team sports (e.g., basketball) and individual sports (e.g., swimming) have different ethical climates. Furthermore, experiences gained from participation in sports may contribute to the cognitive development and, as a consequence, moral reasoning (Piaget, 1932/1965; Kohlberg, 1969, 1976). The explanation is that the experiences differ among people participating in sports, as age, social encounters with adults like parents, coaches, athletes, and friends, and also the character of fellow players and opponents vary and therefore affect the type of experiences one can have (Weiss & Bredemeier, 1991). Shields and Bredemeier (1995) reported that, within some sports, there is a generally negative relationship between participation and stage of moral reasoning development. Bredemeier and her colleagues indicated that children's involvement in sports affects their ethical development (Bredemeier, Weiss, Shields, & Shewchuk, 1986). Moreover, Beller and Stoll (1993) showed that the longer the subjects reported participating in sports the lower was the moral reasoning score. The evaluation of people's moral reasoning in the present research was based on cognitive development theory. Many moral philosophers have raised questions about the cognitive development theory and specifically the view of Kohlberg, that the development endpoint of morality can be defined in terms of the individual's mental operations. They have therefore also questioned Kohlberg's definitions of Stage 6, defining them as "moral musical chairs" (e.g., Beauchamp & Childress, 1994). Philosophical critics object to the view that the most advanced form of moral thinking is the individual's cognitions, the reflections of his own mind, in isolation from the other people who may also be involved in the moral decision. However, without doubt, the theorists of the cognitive development model have had a great influence in many educational areas (Salkind, 1985). This has been highlighted 'Quieto, M. (1998) Does sport promote moral develo ment. Retrieved from the Web 27/11/ 2001. (http://u?Ml.spectrum.iroysr.edu/-ltatum/ethmora~html).
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by the fact that, apart from the social context, the cognitive development theory has been the main tool used to evaluate the ethics of children in the context of sports, as it provides a better understanding of behavior in the sports. In general, this model is very helpful in the description and explanation of the changes of behavior observed in people over time (Weiss & Bredemeier , 1983). According to a review of the literature, the research on the development of moral reasoning in sports focused mainly on physical education classes (Weiss & Bredemeier, 1991). The importance of the present study is that it examines this development in competitive sports and not in other forms of athletic exercise. It is important to note that participants in sport are part of wider society and face the same social issues as other people. The aim of this study was to examine whether some particular characteristics of sports such as the form of participation, type of sport, and sport experiences are related to the development of an individual's (athletes, coaches, and referees) moral reasoning about life's ethical dilemmas. Based on the conclusions of previous relevant research projects, in the present study it was hypothesized that forms of participation in sports and sport experience would be significantly associated with moral reasoning scores of individuals who participate in sports. Moreover, it was assumed in this study that the moral reasoning of individuals who participate in team sports could vary significantly. Participants There were a total of 510 subjects (males, n =399; females, n = I l l ) . All subjects were Greek. Their age range was 14 to 49 years (M= 24.9, SD = 8.3). All were involved in organized competitive sports and of the total sample, 327 were athletes and participated in soccer (n = 102), handball ( n = 128)) and basketball (n=97). The sample of 138 referees was involved in soccer (n = 5 I), handball (n = 36), and basketball (n = 5 1). Finally, 45 coaches who took part were in football (n = 12), handball (n = 14), and basketball (n = 19). Their sports experience ranged from 1 to 30 years (M= 8.3, SD = 5.6), and their experience could be categorized as 1 to 6 years of experience (45.3%), 7 to 14 years (40.7%), and 15 to 30 years (14%). Procedure These individuals participated in public sports organizations. Before the research began, permission for their participation was requested from the relevant authorities. All athletes and coaches were contacted at the training site and referees in administrative offices. All subjects were asked to complete the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979, 1986), which consists of six stories de-
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scribing ethical dilemmas. In the present study, the Greek version by Margoulis (1989) was used. Specifically, the short version of three stories was used (Heinz, Prisoner, and Newspaper). Every story has 12 issues the subject is asked to evaluate on a 5-point scale according to the importance attributed to the dilemma, with 1 = n o importance and 5 =great importance. Then, the subjects consider a set of 12 items and rank the four most important ones. The majority of these items were set by Kohlberg (1969) and correspond to his stages of development of moral judgment. From this ranking, a P score is derived. According to Rest (1986, p. 6.2) "The P score (sum of weighted ranks given to Stages 5 and 6 items) has been the most used index from the DIT. This score is interpreted as the relative importance a subject gives to principled moral considerations in making a decision about moral dilemmas." Moreover, the P items represent a mix of postconventional judgments: some P items seem to reflect utilitarian principles (e.g., "would stealing in such a case bring about moral total good for the whole society or not?"); some items are libertarian, rights-oriented (e.g., "Whether the law in this case is getting in the way of the most basic claim of any member of society"); and some P items are inspired by a Rawlsian view (e.g., "Which values are going to be the basis for governing how people act towards each other"). What all these P items have in common is justification of an act by appealing to a sharable social ideal (Rest, 1999, p. 55). Additionally, there are two checks on the reliability of each subject's responses. One check is the M score. According to Rest (1986), "M items were written to sound lofty and pretentious but not to mean anything. These items do not present any stage of thinking but rather represent tendency to endorse statements for their pretentiousness rather than their meaning. The second check on subjects' reliability is the consistency check. This involves a comparison of a subject's rating with a subject's ranking" (p. 3.4, 3.5). Both checks were applied in the present study. Based on the results of these reliability checks, 20 of the questionnaires were eliminated. RESULTS Two internal checks were performed to ensure the questionnaire's reliability. People with high M scores were initially rejected. The evaluation of the 12 items of each category was also checked. Participants who did not follow instructions for filling in the questionnaire were also rejected (see Rest, 1986, for details). The Cronbach alpha was used as a measure of internal consistency, which for the P index was .71. Descriptive statistics according to the form of participation (Table 1) showed that mean P scores were higher for coaches than those for referees and athletes. Specifically, basketball referees had higher scores than handball and football referees, and handball players had the
MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN SPORT TABLE 1
MEANSAND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF P SCORES ACCORDING TO FORMOF PARTICIPATION, TYPEOF SPORT,AND SPORTS EXPERIENCE Participation
Sport
Experience (yr.)
n
0-6 14 7-14 20 15-30 17 Total 51 Handball 0-6 8 7-14 15 15-30 13 Total 36 Basketball 0-6 19 7-14 18 15-30 14 Total 51 Total 0-6 41 7-14 53 15-30 44 Total 138 Athletes Football 0-6 34 7-14 48 15-30 20 Total 102 Handball 0-6 30 7-14 83 15-30 15 Total 128 Basketball 0-6 31 7-1 4 52 15-30 14 Total 97 Total 0-6 95 7-14 183 15-30 49 Total 327 Football 0-6 1 Coaches 1 7-14 15-30 10 Total 12 Handball 0-6 4 7-14 5 15-30 5 Total 14 Basketball 0-6 0 7-14 8 15-30 11 Total 19 (continued on next page) *One subject. ?No subject in this group. Referees
Football
M
SD
26 23 31 27 33 31 21 29 32 33 32 32 30 29 28 29 24 24 22 24 28 30 37 29 26 26 29 26 26 27 28 27 37 73 40 43 18 37 24 27
12 11 13 12 18 18 14 17 17 17 11 16 16 15 14 15 14 14 10 13 11 15 19 13 13 11 17 12 12 14 15 13 &
22 22 2 9 15 14
t
t
24 32 29
14 8 11
M. PROIOS, ET AL. TABLE 1 (CONT'D) AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF P SCORES ACCORDING TO FORM OF MEANS PARTICIPATION, TYPE OF SPORT, AND SPORTS EXPERIENCE Participation
Sport
Experience (yr.)
Total
Total
Football
Handball
Basketball
Total
n
M
SD
0-6 7-14 15-30 Total 0-6 7-14 15-30 Total 0-6 7-14 15-30 Total 0-6 7-14 15-30 Total 0-6 7-14 15-30 Total
"One subject. ?No subject in this group.
highest scores compared to basketball and football players. O n the other hand, football coaches had the highest scores when compared with basketball and handball coaches. Moreover, subjects participating in basketball (athletes, coaches, and referees) scored higher than the rest of the subjects involved in other sports (Table 1). To investigate whether mean differences in P scores were statistically significant for forms of participation, sport, or years of experience, a 3 (Participation: referees, athletes, coaches) x 3 (Sport: football, handball, basketball) x 3 (years of experience: 0-6, 7-14, 15-30) analysis of variance was conducted, with P scores as the dependent variable. The analysis indicated no significant main effects but yielded a significant interaction for form of participation x sport (F4,4,,9=4.92, p
