Ethics in Sports Administration and Coaching

Ethics

High stake decisions that affect fairness, health, role models, and identity

Morals

Emphasizes widely-shared communal/societal norms about right and wrong

Fairness

Impartial or just treatment without favoritism or discrimination

Integrity

The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles

Responsibility

The state of being accountable for something; the ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization

Respect

Admiration as a result of abilities,qualities, or achievements

Gamesmanship

The art of winning games by using various ploys and tactics to gain a psychological advantage

Sportsmanship

fair and generous behavior or treatment of others in a sporting contest

Game

Any activity with rules, a goal, and often a recreational or competitive purpose

Sport

A specific type of game that emphasizes physical exertion and athletic skill within a competitive, rule-bound structure, often with the potential for professional participation and an organized audience

Objective question

The answers and claims are clear and uncontroversial

Subjective question

The answers are personal preference in context of a situation

Normative question

Prescribe how we should act in certain circumstances - NOT describing what is happening in the circumstance

Four key virtues of ethics

Fairness, integrity, responsibility, and respect

Prudential values

A value that we place on our own well-being

Aesthetic values

A value that we place on something based on it's beauty/pleasing features

Moral values

Values that bear directly on our relationships/interactions with others

How is sportsmanship displayed in athletics?

Having respect for the opponent; goal is not just to win, but to win based on putting forward the better effort

Four primary elements of a game

Mechanics, story, aesthetics, and technology

Requirements for game to be considered a sport

Physical ability

3 types of reasoning used in ethical arguments

Motivating reasons, desires, and values

Motivating reasons

Explanation of intentional actions by accounting for various psychological states accompanying beliefs

Problems associated with desire and value-based reasoning

Not a valid way to answer normative questions (emotion vs logic)

These often come at the same time; we desire things we value and value things we desire

What about when we desire something that we don't value?

Types of play from most spontaneous/least formal to least spontaneous/more formal.

1. Game

2. Sport

3. Athletics

What is a professional foul?

Acting explicitly against the stated rules of the game, but accepting responsibility and punishment for the action

Weak gamesmanship

Goes along with the idea that sport is a "mutual challenge to achieve excellence"

Strong gamesmanship

Focused on winning the game by any means necessary.

Contractarian theory

Moral norms should be rooted in the agreement of all of those who are subject to the constraints and principles they put in place

Metaethics theory

Focuses on the intrinsic features of our moral actions, not the consequences

Utilitarian theory

Focuses on the consequences of our actions and seeks to find the rules that produce the greatest balance of good over bad

Virtue theory

Ethical considerations should be concerned with the development of moral character, not the formation of moral rules