Question

Many people have learned to think about deviance in absolutist terms: norms represent unchanging ideals, deviance occurs when norms are violated, and those who violate norms must be punished to preserve ideals and the society that is based on them. This is a clear and unambiguous way of thinking about deviance, but people who think about deviance in constructionist terms say that it distorts reality and prevents us from dealing realistically with deviance in society. Using sports as a focus, explain a constructionist approach to deviance and how it helps to see deviance in realistic terms.

Answer 1

By applying constructionist approach deviance in sports can be explained as follows:

· It has been observed that deviance in sports is not always because of deficient moral character of athletes. Instead it involves deviant overconformity for established norms in sports.

· As per social constructionist approach, deviance is associated with culture, interaction and structural theory.

· Deviance in sports is associated with sport cultures and structural theory i.e. sport ethic norms.

· Sport ethic norms deal with the standards that guide about traits and actions that are accepted in social world. These norms are created around power and performance sports.

· Athletes engage in deviant overconformity because for getting selected to play high-performance sports is connected with overconformity to the norms of the sport ethic.

· Exceeding these normative limits results in creation of excitement that in turn results in creating strong social bonds.

· Such bonds separate athletes from the general community and develop HUBRIS in athletes.

· Due to this HUBRIS (pride, arrogance and self-importance), athlete’s starts believing that common community norms do not apply to them.

· Deviance that involves overconformity are considered generally uncontrollable.

· Therefore, sport ethic can turn into a source of dangerous deviance in sports when boundaries are not set to limit overconformity to the ethic.

· Athletes that are determined to be engaged in deviant behaviour are usually punished or cut from teams.

· Constructionist approach helps to see deviance in realistic terms as it provides clear reasons for deviance in sports.