Basketball
Psychological and Sociological Aspects of Basketball
Basketball is not only a sport but a massive cultural institution, both in the United States and abroad. Over the past three decades, the sport has grown exponentially in global popularity, and the representation of basketball players as changed as well. As with any cultural institution of similar influence, it is clear that there are many psychological and sociological effects. Not only is basketball a sport that requires specific psychological traits in order to succeed, but the way in which people perceive the sport and play it is tied to the representations of athletes from the National Basketball Association. This paper examines the psychological traits that are necessary in order to succeed in basketball, and then offers a more specific account of the way in which professional basketball can impact the way people think of basketball as a sport and how they play it.
For years, the field of sports psychology has attempted to arrive at an understanding of exactly what produces optimal in-game performance. A glance at the National Basketball Association reveals that there are a number of different personality types throughout the league. For example, LeBron James has a far more outspoken and, perhaps, arrogant personality than a more soft-spoken player such as Kevin Durant. However, the question arises whether players with different personalities exhibit similar mindsets while on the basketball court. Current and recent research has shown that there are in fact specific qualities that lead to superior success on the basketball court. Specifically, it has been shown that pre-performance routines are integral for success (Lonsdale, Tan, 2006). Pre-performance routines include the rituals that players do between plays, and they can be specific to the individual or include members of the team. Free throw routines are one of the best examples of pre-performance routines, and they usually involve both specific rituals performed by the individual, as well as broader rituals conducted by all of the players on the court who belong to a particular team. For example, the player might spin...
psychological concepts. In some questions, specific scenarios were also given and we had to analyse them with reference to psychological concepts. Over all, this assignment broadened our knowledge of psychology and improved our thinking skills. To answer this question, first we have to understand the meaning of gender. While sex refers to the biological differences between males and females, gender refers to the sociological differences between males and females. Gender
sport has come to be the leading definer of masculinity in mass culture." Bob Connell, 1995 This statement covers such a huge amount of sociological assertions, a doctoral dissertation would not be able to do it justice. What is "masculinity" defined as and how has that definition evolved? What about "mass culture?" How far back shall we trace "historically recent times," and what was the situation before said times? What
Organizational Change and Development This is an article on various aspects of change with special emphasis on the factors for change and subsequent OD activities. It has 11 sources. Change is invariable in any management setting though it is concerned with the whole organization or only certain key management roles. Even though change in any form is one of the most contentious issues to deal with, it must be said that change
The Nika riots, based on antipathy between Blue and Green racing teams resulted in 30,000 deaths ("The Nika Riot," 1997). In the 1980s fans were so violent that some English teams were banned from European competition. In high-stakes European soccer matches local governments regularly warn that violence could cause forfeiture of the game. Still, there remain a number of violent events from fans resulting in property damage, physical injury,
Furthermore, the significance of this theory also extends to issues relating to health. This refers to the fact that the individual differences in attribution style and perception can lead to positive and negative implications for the individual. For example, "…differences in attributional style may lead to depression…and health problems with those who had a more pessimistic explanatory style. Baseball players with a pessimistic style died earlier than optimistic players (
The Fun Principle stated that as "we take the fun out of physical activities, we take the kids out of them" (Martens, 1996, p. 306). Martens said that learning should be enjoyable and that when winning is pursued in the extreme, it produces behaviors that destroy children's self-worth and rob them of fun. However, adults frequently violate this principle by over organizing, constantly instructing and evaluating, over drilling and routinizing
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