Thesis
The moral reasoning of student athletes and athletic training students: describing the relationship between athletics and higher education
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2007
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102315
Abstract
The ideal performance perspective is that through which sport is viewed as a channel of pure competition where only the best combination of natural ability, courage, determination to better oneself, and an emotional and kinesthetic intelligence will lead to victory. Unfortunately, this is the ideal, not the reality. Today, a win-at-all-costs mentality has clouded the ideal. Both higher education and the NCAA have explicitly stated ideal goals of character development. The purpose of this two part study is to: 1) conduct a pilot study for validation purposes of the Ergogenic Aids Moral Competence Inventory and 2) examine the general moral reasoning of Division I college student athletes' and athletic training students' compared with their moral reasoning about doping in sport as one measure of character development in higher education. In this study, 195 male and female athletic training students and student athletes from a variety of sports at an institution with division I athletic programs voluntarily completed two surveys. The HBVCI (Cronbach alpha .77-.88) measures moral reasoning with relationship to scenarios common in all aspects of sport. The EAMCI, currently in its second pilot stage, was used to measure moral reasoning of individuals with specific reference to issues of doping in sport. The results of this study were consistent with previous research and found a significant difference by gender on both instruments. F(1,183)=11.78, p=.001 (HBVCI). F(1,173)=11.54, p=.001 (EAMCI). No significant difference was found by status, F(2,183)=.50, p=.61 or with the interaction of gender by status, F(2,183)=2.52, p=.08 on the HBVCI. A small significant difference was found by status, F(2,173)=3.03, p=.05, and no significant difference was found with the interaction of gender by status, F(2,173)=.94, p=.39 on the EAMCI. It appears that the character development mission of the NCAA and in higher education may not be supported in practice. Overall, the results showed that the moral reasoning scores of student athletes and athletic training students, were on the average low and from an ego-centered and rule based view.
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Details
- Title
- The moral reasoning of student athletes and athletic training students
- Creators
- Patricia Lynne Davenport
- Contributors
- Jennifer Marie Beller (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Education, College of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525020701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis