Norms change from one society to another. Some actions or behaviours are accepted in sports but may become deviance in society and vice versa. Deviance is a violation of social norms depending on the time, place and social context. Sociologists use deviance to refer to any act to which people respond negatively. From today’s lesson, I have learnt that there are two types of deviance which are positive and negative deviance. Positive deviance refers to behaviour that is outside the norm but with no intention of harming or breaking the rules – overconforming to what is expected of high-performance sport. Examples of positive deviance are over training, commitments to playing sports with pain and injury and unhealthy eating behaviours/eating disorders. …show more content…
An example would be Cathy Rigby, a 1972 Olympian gymnast. She suffered from bulimia and anorexia for 12 years of her life. She went into cardiac arrest on two occasions as a result of it. In 1988, a US judge told her that she was too fat and needed to lose weight if she hoped to make the Olympic squad. Therefore, she resorted to bulimia and anorexia to control her weight. However, she died at the age of 22 of multiple organ failure. This shows that in order to please the coaches and judges that being thin can have a competitive advantage. Negative deviance refers to behaviour that goes against the norm and has a negative effect on individuals and on society in general – under conformity. Examples of negative deviance in sporting situations are deliberately fouling another player (dirty play), taking performance enhancing drugs to cheat, violence, gambling and assaults. Their main reason for doing all these actions or behaviours is to win at all costs. Negative deviance attracts media attention as athletes are considered as role