|
COPYRIGHT 2007 University of South Alabama
Soccer (association football) officials are routinely subjected to a wide range of potential stressors. Analyses of English (Catterall, Reilly, Atkinson, & Goldwells, 1993), Danish (Krustrup & Bangsbo, 2001) and Japanese (Asami, Togari, & Ohashi, 1988) referees reveal a considerable physical toll, with about 10 km distance covered in a typical match. Of this distance, it is estimated that 47% is spent jogging, 23% walking, 12% sprinting, and 18% reverse running, with an average heart rate of 165 beats per minute recorded.
In addition, referees experience immediate, unrestrained negative feedback throughout and after a match. As England Premiership referee David Elleray stated, "Almost every time you blow the whistle, you upset half the players and at least half the crowd" (Learning English, 2006).
Soccer referees identify spectators, players, coaches, trainers and other personnel as sources of aggression (Folkesson, Nyberg, Archer, & Norlander, 2002). At the extreme, referees and their assistants have been pushed, punched, kicked, and even shot to death by players, managers, coaches and fans. In April, 2002, two referees were attacked by players in separate incidents in Africa when a teammate had been sent off and when a goal had been disallowed. Referees and their regulating bodies are well aware of these sources of threat, and some attempts have been made to provide psychological training to help them cope (Mahoney, 2003).
In addition, match-specific demands are extreme. The referee must have a thorough knowledge of the current laws of soccer and implement them while keeping constant vigilance over complex activities and interactions. Considerable amounts of time must also be spent on pre-match preparation, travel, and post-match reports.
A few studies have examined referee responses to stress in basketball (KaissidisRodafinos & Anshel, 2000; Burke, Joyner, Pim, & Czech, 2000), volleyball (Van Yperen, 1998), baseball and softball (Rainey, 1995), rugby union (Nesti & Sewell, 2003) and soccer (Taylor & Daniel, 1988), but little was found about the mechanisms which motivate officials to continue their involvement despite the variety of potential physical, social and cognitive factors which are regularly encountered. The present study was designed to allow referees to convey their perceptions, particularly with regard to their methods for coping with demands and abuse and their reasons for remaining referees.
Social psychologists have identified a number of cognitive strategies that help people explain and deal with negative experiences. Blaming others for failure while taking personal credit for success, distorting or ignoring unpleasant information, and interpreting one's motives as principled and righteous, are among the variety of available methods of maintaining confidence in difficult circumstances. Misrepresenting reality with 'positive illusions' (Taylor & Brown, 1988, 1994) can ultimately be healthy and adaptive. Indeed, they serve a vital function of removing perceptions of self-blame, protecting from external censure, and providing palatable explanations for disturbing events. In the longer term, they may lead to more positive expectations about the future, greater persistence and self-efficacy. Taylor and Brown (1988) suggest that people who fail to use these strategies are more likely to be anxious or depressed.
Sports performers and coaches often make use of self-serving attributions (Biddle, 1993; McAuley & Duncan, 1989) to explain their own disappointing results. External factors such as bad luck or other people's incompetence are used to deal with unpleasant experiences, defeats, and rejection, while internal factors such as skill and effort are seen as responsible for victories and other successes. Lau and Russell's (1980) analysis of newspaper reports showed that players and coaches were more likely to attribute their successes to internal factors (such as skill and determination) and their losses to external factors (such as cheating opponents and poor weather) than sportswriters describing exactly the same events.
Another potentially useful mechanism is 'illusory superiority' or self-aggrandizement, where people adopt the view that they have more positive qualities than others (Alicke, 1985) and describe their personal strengths as above average compared with those of other people their age (Kleinke & Miller, 1998). The illusory nature of this is demonstrated by Lewinsohn, Mischel, Chaplin, and Barton (1980), who found that individuals made more flattering judgments about themselves than others made of them. Individuals also believe their personal relationships are of a higher quality than the relationships of others (Buunk & van der Eijnden, 1977) and remember experiences as more successful than they really were (Taylor & Brown, 1988).
Illusory superiority may be accompanied by unrealistic optimism (Hoorens & Buunk, 1992). Many studies show that people expect more positive and fewer negative outcomes for themselves than others. Weinstein (1980) found that students believed they were more likely than other students to live past the age of 80 and have a mentally gifted child, and less likely to lose their job, be sterile, or have a heart attack. This study also revealed that the greater the perceived controllability of the event, the greater the optimism. This...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
