- 72,000 individuals evaluated with the Hahm-Beller
Values Choice Inventory (HBVCI): 15,000 females athletes in 45 studies. The
HBVCI is a valid and reliable instrument to measure moral reasoning which is
one component of moral character. The HBVCI is theoretically based on the
belief that sport builds "MORAL" character. That is, it is believed that
sport supports and builds the ideal premise of honesty, justice, and
responsibility. We also know, as Thomas Lickona (See: Cortland State and
Lickona's Educating for Character, Bantam Books, 1990) has
stated that moral character is comprised of moral knowing, moral valuing, and
moral behavior. For any consistent moral behavior to occur, there must be a
moral knowing, "moral reasoning" component and ability. In our studies of over
72,0000 individuals, the research is rather clear: the environment of
athletics has not been supportive of teaching and modeling moral knowing,
moral valuing, and moral action. Perhaps, because there are very limited
consequences for immoral behaviors in the sport environment, but very large
consequences in the real world.
- Most HBVCI studies have found male team sport
athletes score significantly lower than individual sport athletes. Perhaps
because competition is taught as, what David Shields (See: Notre Dame
Mendelson Center for Character and Culture) has called, de-competition,
whereby the opponent is not seen as an honorable opponent, but rather an
obstacle, of little worth, to be overcome. This is important because
reasoning is linked to moral behavior and conscience. It is also important
in linking the problem of violence to conscience.
- Moral Reasoning scores of athlete populations can
significantly improve with an exact, critical, scientific educational
program in very short periods of time. Stoll & Beller have argued that this
is because of moral masking. Athletes become morally calloused from their
competitive environment (do whatever you gotta do to win), and morally
justify their actions. (See R. Scott Kretchmar, Practical Philosophy of
Sport, 1994). This over time masks the normal moral development of
contact, revenue producing athletes.
- Results on male athletes' moral reasoning have
been fairly consistent -- the longer they participate in sport, the more
morally calloused (R. Scott Kretchmar, 1994) they become -- the same appears
to be happening with female athletes, especially team sport athletes. It
appears that female athletes are being socialized into the current
capitalistic, commodified model (See: John H. Gibson, Performance Versus
Results, 1994) of moral callousness -- less of a concern for others and
more of a concern for self. Typical scores for men range in the low 40s to
50s.
- Scores in the mid 50s and low 60s reflect
reasoning perspectives that a typical junior high school student would
reason from: What's in it for me; What it takes now to win; What someone
tells me is right; little or no concern for others. Scores in the high 60s
and above reflect reasoning that takes into account social order and
principles.
- Most HBVCI studies have found that female team
sport athletes score significantly lower than their non-competitive peers.
- Research by Rudd, 1999, suggests that sport may
build and support a sort of "anti" character or social character, attributes
such as hard work, dedication, loyalty and sacrifice. In Rudd's study of
over 5,000 competitors it appears that these attributes are strong and
cognitively supported. However, using 10 questions from the HBVCI, it is
also clear that moral reasoning scores of the same population showed the
same negative relation of all the earlier HBVCI studies. We must also
understand that social character without moral character is dangerous...for
one can be a highly dedicated, hard working rapist. Social character without
the honorable traits of moral character is dishonorable behavior.
- Female team sport athletes are becoming more
morally calloused: lack of respect, honor, and dignity toward fellow
competitors, teammates, rules, and the spirit of the rules.
- A trend exists that female athletes' moral
reasoning scores are lowering. Scores from 1987-1990 = high 60s; 1991-1993 =
mid 60s; 1994-1997 = low 60s (on a scale of 21-105) (Hahm, 1989; Beller,
1990; Beller & Stoll, 1992; Beller & Stoll, 1995; Beller, Stoll, Burwell, &
Cole, 1996; Stoll & Beller, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997).
- Women have the equal right to participate in
athletics and receive the benefits of that participation i.e. "Health, the
self-respect to be gained by doing one's best, the cooperation to be learned
from working with teammates and the incentive gained from having opponents,
the 'character' of learning to be a good loser and a good winner, the chance
to improve one's skill and learn to accept criticism -- and just plain
fun". (English, 1978).
- Carol Gilligan, Chair of the Women's Studies
Program at Harvard University, in "In a Different Voice" (1982) holds that
there is a voice intrinsically related to other people, the ethic of care.
While the ethic of care is not specific to one gender, she states that
females have a supposed greater concern for personal relationships, care,
and nurturing. Her model is based on an anthropological & sociological
history of how women perceive themselves to be different than men and men
perceive women to be different than men.
- Although Gilligan's care-giving, nurturing model
was not formulated at the time, the DGWS, NAGWS, and the AIAW models were
based on a care-giving nurturing approach to girls' and womens'
participation in sport. In 1980, when women began participation in
championships under the auspices of the NCAA guidance, the care-giving,
nurturing model was replaced by one without a clear philosophic foundation,
one that is more capitalistic commodified, than educative (Chu, 1989; Sage,
1986; Hoberman, 1984; Sperber, 1990; Gibson, 1993).
- It is not participation in the current
implementation of Title IX that is of concern, but rather how the current
competitive model is being managed and its concomitant effects on women and
their care-giving and nurturing natures.
- Title IX may not be the savior for women
participating in sport, that so many believe it to be. The authors are not
so naive as to believe that this movement will be abrogated by research.
"The wagon is loaded, the horses are hitched, and WE are going to the
promised land." We argue that the promised land does not does not appear to
be "Beulah land" or "Nirvana"; it could well be "Hades".
- In our zeal to be equal and our desire to have
girls and women enjoy the same sport opportunities as men, quite possibly we
have not adequately examined the entire picture of the current competitive
model and suffer a blindness to the hard, real facts.
- Kant states that things either have dignity or
they have a price -- perhaps we have sold our dignity. Perhaps women have
sold out the best part of themselves to the current competitive,
male-dominated, capitalistic commodified sport arena. (See: Gibson, 1994).
AS such we may be the lesser for it.
- If we are at all concerned about the nature of
women and their mental, physical, and social growth through sports, we as
parents, coaches, teachers, professors, administrators, and media must
challenge the status quo and DEMAND changes in governance and management of
the current competitive model.
- Administrators of any athletic program should be
governed by the premise that rules, justice, and obligation should "...be a
critical friend that does not get in the way of good judgment" (Peters,
1997). Empathy, respect, for others, and honor should be the foundation.
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program for Division I athletes: Can athletes learn not cheat? Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, University of Idaho, ID.
Beller, J.M., & Stoll, S.K. (1992, Spring). A moral
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Beller, J.M., & Stoll, S.K. (1995, November). Moral
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Beller, J.M., Stoll, S.K., Burwell, B., & Cole, J.
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