Athlete's Identity Term Paper

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Athlete's Identity

Interactionist Theory and the Female Athlete

The social role is the group of expected behaviors that a person in a certain social situation has given to him or her. Role confusion is when an individual has difficulty figuring out what the expected behaviors are in a certain situation. Role strain is when fulfilling the expectations of one social role conflicts with filling those of another social role. Social roles, as well as these two elements of the social role, are important to interactionist theory, which may also be referred to as the social action theory. The concept of the role was adapted from anthropology, and to interactionists it represents the constantly changing and adapting set of expected behaviors which are negotiated between the people in a situation. The interactionist social role is rather meaningless if looking at one individual isolated from others, as it develops only through the social interactions between people. When an individual works with or competes with another person in some way, the social role is created; people will observe behaviors in others, adapt those behaviors onto themselves, then use interaction to figure out whether that is the appropriate behavior to adopt, and finally modifying the behavior as needed. Defining one's situation, or coming to an understanding of what one's role is within the situation, is the key to interactionist theory, and the individual will seek support from others for the decided role.

Due to the importance of social groups in interactionist theory to define the role, an athlete is an ideal individual to analyze to understand the functionality of interactionist social roles. Athletes are a part of many overlapping social circles in which he or she has to define the social role. An athlete is a part of the team, which may be part of a larger organization such as a school, and also part of a larger segment of society.

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As a part of the team, the athlete has to define his or her role not only as a teammate to the others on the team, but also the social role as it relates to the relationship with the coach, with the fans, and with team sponsors. Additionally, other social factors affect the role identity, such as the athlete's race, age, and gender. Role confusion and role strain are almost inevitable for an athlete. In a personal interview with a high school basketball player, Mormour, the importance of defining interactionist social roles in order to create an identity of being a basketball player was clear.

Mormour is sixteen years old, and moved to America from France ten years ago. She is of South African decent, and therefore has both a French accent and a dark complexion. She attends a middle-class suburban high school, but previously played basketball on an inner-city, urban middle school team. She maintains a GPA of 3.75, and in addition to being a prominent athlete, she also spearheaded the creation of an extracurricular art appreciation club. Mormour plans to double major in psychology and the performance arts in college, and at the time of the interview, she already held a deep understanding of social role theories. Mormour appears to be an incredibly well-rounded and confident individual, yet she feels the strain of creating a social identity for herself while meeting the social expectations of others.

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