Andrew W. Miracle

Do high school sports build character? A quasi-experiment on a national sample

Abstract Popular sport culture, conventional social wisdom and promotional ideology by athletic associations suggest that participation in high school varsity sports programs has positive effects on prosocial personality traits (i.e., sport “builds character”). While it is an open ended process to specify which facets of personality are affected during the high school years by playing sports, we use a broad array of personality measures in a secondary analysis of a five-wave panel of U.S. males. Drawing from the nationally representative Youth in Transition panel (n = 1,628), we employ a quasi-experimental design incorporating pre- and post-sports participation measures of personality to evaluate the “sport builds character” argument. Few statistically significant effects of varsity sports participation on social character are observed in these data on males during the late-60s and early-70s. Since little positive evidence was found, we challenge the “sports builds character” myth of conventional high school sport programs.

Rhythmicity, Ritual, and Motor Performance: A Study of Free Throw Shooting in Basketball

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of timing during an auto-communicative ritual to successful performance. Eight members of a university varsity basketball team served as subjects for this study. Each subject performed 15 free throws in each of four different conditions. Condition 1 required subjects to use their standard free throw ritual prior to shooting. Condition 2 required subjects to maintain the relative timing of ritual behaviors but reduce the absolute time of the ritual by one-half. Condition 3 required that relative timing be maintained but that the absolute time of the ritual be doubled. Condition 4 required the same behaviors and the same absolute time as the standard ritual but that the relative time of the ritual be altered. Data were collected with a 16-mm high-speed camera. Types of behaviors, timing aspects of the ritual, successful attempts, and shot mechanics were dependent measures. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of dependent measures and Fishers scores from correlation coefficients of dependent measures indicate that relative timing of behaviors (rhythmicity) is more important to success than the absolute time of rituals. Behaviors most important to free throw success are those that may be totally controlled by the subject and yet remain stable with changing conditions.

Ritual and free‐throw shooting in basketball

The purpose of this study was to determine the nature and effect of certain highly patterned behaviours utilized prior to free-throw shooting in basketball. Ten female basketball players comprising the varsity squad of Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA served as subjects for this study. Subjects were filmed with a high-speed camera and monitored for heart rate during the performance of 10 free throws in each of two conditions: ritual and non-ritual. For the ritual condition, subjects were given unlimited time and freedom of movement prior to each free-throw attempt. For the non-ritual condition, subjects were not restricted by time, but were instructed to shoot the ball without utilizing any movements other than those required to project the ball to the goal. Dependent measures were characteristics of behaviours, physiological changes measured by heart rates, mechanical data (speed, height and angle of release), and number of successful attempts. Condition x trials analyses of variance and low standard deviation concerning characteristics of behaviours indicated that the idiosyncratic behaviours prior to free-throw shooting were rituals of the auto-communicative type. Results indicated no significant difference between conditions for free-throw success. However, partial correlation between dependent measures and successful free-throw attempts indicated that duration of behaviours was most crucial to free-throw shooting success.

Conflict Resolution in Games and Sports

Structural elements which seem to limit and control conflicts in games and sports are examined. How these elements may be developed within sport environments is then discussed. Valuable lessons can be learned (a) from sports and games in non-Western societies where conflict is often controlled by ritual, (b) from the informal games of children, where the play element often is maintained, and (c) from the concept of subordinate goals, developed as a way of ensuring association. Finally, these three forms of conflict resolution are demonstrated in the game of rugby football.

Cross-cultural research and the role of anthropology in criminal justice

This study involves the application of traditional perspectives from anthropology to an examination of criminal justice research. The survey of several samples of published research confirms the paucity of criminal justice research in non-Western settings. Moreover, most of the reported research is not broadly representative, having been concentrated in a few non-Western countries. The implications of these findings for criminal justice education, research and theory are discussed, as are means for promoting cross-cultural research. The concepts of holistic and traditional comparative criminal justice are contrasted.

Law and Social Control in China: An Application of Black's Thesis

The relationship of law and other forms of social control is examined by using data derived from traditional Chinese society, as well asfrom the contemporary situation in the Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan. The specific focus is Blacks theory of the behavior of law. The evidence presented here generally supports Blacks position regarding the relationship of law and social control; however, some caveats are in order.