Social Psychology Commons^™

The Effect Of Race On The Evaluation Of Quarterbacks, Kian R. Sohrabi

Psychology Honors Projects

Black quarterbacks have faced stereotypes and biases about their performance for decades. While Black quarterbacks are more common in the NFL nowadays, it is not clear whether their performance is being evaluated without bias. Black quarterbacks are often discussed in ways that emphasize their physical abilities but criticize their mental attributes. This current study sought to investigate the effect of race on quarterback evaluation. Study 1 examined the effect of race on fans’ evaluations of quarterbacks; Study 2 looked at the effect of race on evaluations by high school football coaches. Participants completed an online experiment in which they were …

Adding Insult To Rivalry: Exploring The Discord Communicated Between Rivals, Jennifer L. Harker, Jonathan A. Jensen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to extend current knowledge regarding rivalry communication among sport consumers to better understand how rivals behave with one another when they communicate.

Design/methodology/approach – This national survey of US sport consumers used a novel approach to explore whether and with whom rivals discuss National Football League (NFL) game outcomes. The survey captured both uniplex and multiplex data by asking respondents to name rival discussants with whom they had recently interacted, and the fan behaviors they exchanged with those named rival discussants.

Findings – Through use of this novel data collection approach, new …

Does Transition Experience Improve Newcomer Performance? Evidence From The National Basketball Association, Joseph R. Radzevick

Management Faculty Publications

A substantial body of research has highlighted the effects of experience on individual performance in groups. However, the challenges individuals confront after moving between groups require the adoption of more finely grained categorizations of experience to understand how they will help or hinder performance in novel group environments. This article develops a distinct form of experience here termed transition experience to deal specifically with insights individuals accumulate as they shift membership between different groups and contrasts its impact with that of the frequently examined component of related task experience. Player movement data from the National Basketball Association is used to …

Motivational Differences In Why Sports Fans Attend Minor League Baseball And Roller Derby Events, Anissa S. Pugh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The aim of the current study was to examine the differences in sport fan motivation factors between mainstream (Minor League baseball) and atypical (roller derby) fans. Eighty-one fans (40 Minor League baseball and 41 roller derby) completed an 8 question demographic survey, a 26-item Sport Fan Motivation Scale, a 7-item Sport Spectator Identification Scale, and a 10-item Sport Fan Exploratory Curiosity Scale. It was believed that fans of Minor League baseball would be more motivated by the entertainment factor than roller derby fans. While roller derby fans would be more motivated by eustress, group affiliation and family factors at the …

The Bathsheba Syndrome: When A Leader Fails, Donelson R. Forsyth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Another leader—no, an entire cadre of leaders—has been found to be a moral failure. Legal authorities have charged Jerry Sandusky, who retired as the defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team in 1999, with the sexual abuse of children who he targeted through his involvement in the charitable organization The Second Mile. Additionally, a number of other administrators and leaders at Penn State University—the university’s president Graham Spanier, vice-president Gary Schultz, athletic director Tim Curley and long-time football coach Joe Paterno—face charges or have been fired from the university because of their failure to take action when Sandusky’s crimes …

Social Goals In Urban Physical Education: Relationships With Effort And Disruptive Behavior, Alex C. Garn, Nate Mccaughtry, Bo Shen, Jeffrey J. Martin, Mariane Fahlman

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

This study investigated the relationships among four distinct types of social goals, effort, and disruptive behavior in urban physical education. Social responsibility, affiliation, recognition, status goals, along with effort and disruptive behavior in physical education were reported by high school physical education students (N = 314) from three urban schools. Findings from correlation and structural equa- tion modeling analyses revealed that social responsibility goals had a positive relationship with effort and an inverse relationship with disruptive behavior. Social status goals demonstrated a positive relationship with disruptive behavior and no relationship with effort. Social recognition goal results were mixed, as …

It's That Efa* Time Of Year (*Extreme Fan Addiction), Donelson R. Forsyth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

What an odd lot our ancestors must have been to let themselves get caught up in crazes like the 10th century dancing mania in Italy, or the alarming outbreak of biting mania in 15th century Germany, Italy, and Holland. Holland's 17th century tulipmania proved only economically painful, when wealthy families spent their savings buying and hoarding tulip bulbs, and were left in financial ruin when prices plummeted.

We are not so different from those long-gone dancers, biters, and tulipophiles, because a modern mania is about to descend upon us: March Madness. Sixty-four colleges and universities send their basketball teams into …

Social Psychology, Calamities, And Sports Law, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the role of situational pressures, fundamental attribution errors, and legal frameworks in how professional sports actors respond to the threat and occurrence of calamities. Both natural and manmade threats to American health are likely to rise over the next decade. Such threats may include catastrophic weather, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and communicable disease pandemics. In response to these threats, professional sports leagues, professional athletes, fans, and media might engage in unprecedented behavior. Consider, for instance, increasingly-devastating weather patterns, and how they might animate leagues to relocate franchises to cities with more favorable forecasts. The same outcome might …

Training And Performance Self-Efficacy, Affect, And Performance In Wheelchair Road Racers, Jeffrey J. Martin

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

In the current study, social cognitive theory was examined with athletes with disabilities. More specifically, hierarchical and self-regulatory performance self-efficacy, self-regulatory training self-efficacy, outcome confidence, and affect were examined with wheelchair road racers (N = 51). In accordance with social cognitive theory, moderate to strong significant relationships among 3 types of self-efficacy and outcome confidence were found (rs = .41 - .78). All forms of self-efficacy and positive affect (rs = .39 - .56) were also related providing additional support to social cognitive theory and the important relationships among training and performance related efficacy and affect in …

Friendship Quality In Youth Disability Sport: Perceptions Of A Best Friend, Jeffrey J. Martin, Kerry Smith

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine friendship quality with a best friend in youth disability sport with an international sample of moderately experienced athletes with disabilities ages 9 to 18 years. Participants were 85 males and 65 females from four countries who competed in track and field and swimming. Data were collected with the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (Weiss & Smith, 1999). An exploratory factor analyses indicated that participants viewed their friendship quality with a best friend in disability sport as having both positive and negative dimensions. The latter focused exclusively on conflict experiences. Females reported stronger …

Social Support Mechanisms Among Athletes With Disabilities, Jeffrey J. Martin, Carol Adams Mushett

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of this investigation was to describe social support mechanisms of swimmers with disabilities and examine relationships among social support, self-efficacy, and athletic satisfaction. Results indicated that athletes felt satisfied with the social support they received. Mothers and friends provided primary support in a variety of areas requiring non-sport-related knowledge. Additionally, there were important secondary sources of support in areas requiring sport-specific knowledge. Coaches were primary sources of support in areas that required sport expertise. Fathers were also important sources of secondary support in areas that required both sport expertise and nonsport expertise. Correlational results suggested that athletes who …

Athletic Identity And Sport Orientation Of Adolescent Swimmers With Disabilities, Jeffrey J. Martin, Carol Adams Mushett, Kari L. Smith

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

Measures of athletic identity and sport orientation, developed from self-schema theory, social role theory, and achievement motivation theory, were used to examine international adolescent swimmers with disabilities. The multidimensional Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993) was used to assess self-identity, social identity, exclusivity, and negative affectivity. The Sport Orientation Questionnaire (Gill & Deeter, 1988) measured competitiveness, win orientation, and goal orientation. Swimmers reported (a) a strong self-identity, (b) a moderate to strong social identity, (c) negative affectivity with lower levels of exclusivity, (d) strong competitiveness and goal orientation, and (e) moderate win orientation. Self-identity was correlated …