Sport Sociology Midterm

 Sociology
the study of the social worlds that people create, organize, maintain, and change through their
relationships with each other.
 Social World
an identifiable sphere of everyday actions and relationships. Can be as large as an entire
nation or as small as your family
 Culture
the shared ways of life and shared understandings that people develop as they live together.
 Social Interaction
people taking each other into account and, in the process, influencing each other's feelings,
thoughts and actions.
 Social Structure
the established patterns of relationships and social arrangements that take shape as people
live, work, and play with each other.
 Sports
a well-established, officially governed competitive physical activity in which participants are
motivated by internal and external rewards.
 Play
an expressive activity done for its own sake.
 Dramatic Spectacle
a performance meant to entertain an audience.
 Contested Activities
activities for which there are no timeless and universal agreements about meaning, purpose
and organization.
 Social Constructions
parts of the social world that are created by people as they interact with one another under
particular social, political, and economic conditions.

 Social Capital
the social resources that link them positively to social worlds.
 Ideologies
webs of ideas and beliefs that people use to give meaning to the world and make sense of
their experiences.
 Gender Ideology
a web of ideas and beliefs about masculinity, femininity, and male-female relationships in the
organization of social worlds.
 Racial Ideology
web of ideas and beliefs that people use to give meaning to skin color and evaluate people
and forms of social organization in terms of racial classifications.
 Class Ideology
web of ideas and beliefs that people use to understand economic inequalities and makes sense
of their own positions of others in an economic hierarchy in society.
 Meritocracy
deserving people become successful and where success is achieved by those who deserve it.
 Social Research
consists of investigations in which we seek the answers to questions about social worlds by
systematically gathering and analyzing data.
  Social Theories
logically interrelated explanations of the actions and relationships of human beings and the
organization and dynamics of social worlds.
 Personal Theories
summaries of our ideas and explanations of social life and the contexts in which they occur.
 Socialization
a process of learning and social development, which occurs as we interact with one another
and become familiar with the social world in which we live.
 Discourses
the combination of commentaries, images, and other representations of people, events and
things that create sports and give them meaning.
 Hegemony
a process of maintaining leadership and control by gaining the consent and approval of other
groups, including those who are being led or controlled.
 Neoliberal Societies
societies in which individualism and material success are highly valued and there is a decline
in publicly funded programs and services.
 Preformance Ethic
set of ideas and beliefs emphasizing that the quality of sport experience can be measured in
terms of improved skills, especially in relation to the skills of others.
 Hybrid Sports
combine features of player-controlled informal games and adult-controlled organized sports.
 Functionalism
sports serve functions for the betterment of society. Sports do something to help for the
betterment of society. Problem is that it has a static view of society
 Conflict Theory
class relations determine much about sport. Sports reproduce an equality. Economic structure
and class relations have a lot to do with sport. The people who have power and money are the
ones who benefit. Problem is that it focuses almost completely on economic stratification
 Interactionist Theory
everyday lives are impacted by sport. Relationships, sub groups and others effect how you
are introduced to sport/teams. Problem is that it doesn't focus on power
 Critical Theories
social order is negotiated and culture comes from those in power. They see things as fluid,
things change over time. Believe in the dynamic nature of sports and ideas. Activist oriented.
Problem is that people go to far and goes against dominate norms.
 Feminist Theories
social order is based on male values and experiences. One of the big problems in sports is
that it is completely male oriented and dominated. See what happens in sports as a privilege
and advantage of men. Tends to reproduce gender inequality. Problem is that it focuses on

gender inequality and leaves out other problems.

Edwards' Continuum of Activities
Play Recreation Contest Game Sport
Edwards Dominant American Sports Creed
1.) Character building. 2.) Discipline. 3.) Competition. 4.) Physical fitness. 5.) Mental fitness.
6.) Religiosity. 7.) Nationalism.
  Life-Cycle Socialization
We continue to be socialized throughout our life times. People make decisions about sports
all throughout your life-cycle

 Models of Socialization
1.) Reinforcement. 2.) Coaching Model (Mentoring). 3.) Observational Learning/Modeling
*** 4.) Symbolic Interaction Perspective.

 Stages of Role Socialization

Anticipatory, "Formal" Period, "Informal" Period, "Personal" Stage
Explanations of Home Field Advantage
Psychological explanations, Territoriality, Site familiarity/learning, Travel, Officials,

 APR
Not a measure of graduation. Just means they are on track from graduating. Loss of
scholarships can be tied to low APR ratings. An APR of 930 is projected to a graduation rate
of 60%

 Quantitative Approach
collecting information about people and social worlds, converting the information into
numbers, and analyzing those numbers using statistical procedures and tests.
 Qualitative Approach
collecting information about people and social worlds, identifying patterns and unique
features, and analyzing the information by using interpretive procedures and tests.
 Outside Observers
detached from the people and situations being studied.
 Participant Observers
are or become personally involved in the social worlds being studied.
 Ethnography
fieldwork that involves observations and interviews. It essentially means writing about
people and how they live with each other.