4: Deviance, Physical Culture, Sport and Health

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers concepts of deviance, labelling, stigma, and various sociological ideologies related to health and risk within the context of sport and physical culture.

Deviance (Atkinson, 2026 definition)

An act, thought, expression, performance, or presentation deemed non-normative as negatively reacted to by an audience.

Labelling

The application of socially undesirable words, phrases, or images to a person or group to highlight them as different.

Stigma

An attribute (or action, or subject) that is seen as deeply discrediting.

Objectivist Perspective

The assumption that there is something inherent in a person, behaviour, or characteristic that is necessarily deviant.

Subjectivist Perspective

The assumption that notions of deviance are socially constructed and that there is nothing inherently deviant about a person or behaviour or characteristic.

Tolerable deviance

A form of non-normative behaviours, actions, or rule violations that technically break norms but become accepted, normalized, or overlooked because they are seen as common or useful.

Positive deviance

Deviance that arises out of over-conformity to norms that are specific to a given context, such as following the norms to excess.

Sport ethic

The criteria accepted by many as defining what it means to be a real athlete, which often leads to behaviours understood through tolerable deviance like playing through injury.

Health (WHO definition)

A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Healthism

A moralizing ideology that frames health as a matter of personal choice and individual responsibility, perceiving behaviours in terms of good or bad.

Sport-Health Paradox

The contradiction where sport goals involve building and enhancing the body, but results often involve hurting and damaging the body with intensity and competition.

‘Sport as Panacea’ Ideology

The 'cure all' approach that views sport as the ultimate tool for positive development and a common sense solution to physical, psychological, social, and emotional health issues.

Culture of Risk

A sport culture where athletes tolerate pain, injury, and other health-compromising practices as signs of strength, dedication, and proof of being a good athlete.

Institutional Culture of Risk

The structural and institutional organization of sports that favors and promotes risk-taking behaviours, such as tackling in football or fighting in hockey.

Social Culture of Risk

The socialization within sport and team-specific cultures that promotes risk-taking and health impairing behaviours through hierarchal norms.