Essay on Development of Self and Youth Sports

42 percent polled say it is appropriate for children to begin playing tackle football younger than age 14. Parents are starting to hold their kids out of football and other sports which is keeping them from learning the game and learning social skills early in life. Youth sports have been a part of many kids’ lives for as long as the sports have existed. Youth sports keep kids active and helps them get out of the house. Youth sports help kids develop social skills at a young age and they gain a better understanding of the game. As a result, youth sports are important parts in kids’ lives because they help kids develop social skills and they help them get a better understanding of the game, even though there are some safety issues.

Mead’s “theory of self” is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such as observing and interacting with others, responding to others' opinions about oneself, and internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about oneself. The social aspect of self is an important distinction. That’s because other sociologists and psychologists of Mead's time felt that the self was based on biological factors and inherited traits. This was the normal and conventional type of mindset from psychologists at the time. According to Mead, the self is not there from birth, but instead it is developed over time from social experiences and activities.

Four principal scholars explored the symbolic interaction theory, George Herbert Mead, Charles Horton Cooley, William Isaac Thomas, and Herbert Blumer (Smith & Hamon, 2012). George Herbert Mead proposed that through interaction with others, we learn about ourselves—this is done through three stages; play stage, game stage, and generalized other (Smith & Hamon, 2012). He identifies the movement between “I” and “me.” “I” being the spontaneous, immediate reactions to a situation, “me” being the roles learned from prior experiences (Smith & Hamon, 2012). Charles Horton Cooley had the idea of the “looking-glass self”—which explains individuals consider how they appear to others in order to create their own concept of themselves (Smith & Hamon, 2012). The third scholar, William Isaac Thomas, was known for the definition of the situation, which led to the idea that understanding perspective of the people involved in the situation was necessary to understand human behavior in general (Smith & Hamon, 2012). The Thomas Theorem stated

One thing almost every young child looks forward to is the activity of play. Kids love nothing more than to go outside, run around with friends, and get dirty. If children are already active at a young age, why not encourage them to continue by enrolling them in an organized youth sport program? Young people will gain many positive experiences by participating in organized physical activities, but none as important and influential as the social skills, physical skills, and mental skills developed and nurtured during their time in youth sport. As a result, the young participants can continue to build upon and cultivate these skills which will ultimately be transferred into their development as successful adults. Along with the social and

Another contributor who acknowledges the sociological imagination is Anthony Gideons, Gideons who is a supporter of the sociological imagination mentions the need for us to withdraw from our daily activities and experiences to gain an understanding of this theory in greater detail. He believes by withdrawing from our activities, it will assist us in coming to terms of the concept by taking into consideration the issues and problems that are around us. One of the reasons this is needed is because it requires us to be more receptive. By being open, we are able to have a sense of freedom and belonging by being capable to fully incorporate ourselves into society. This includes examining how all of us are shaped by our external and internal surroundings within our society such as friends, family, and trends which contribute to the outcomes of who we are. C. Mills stressed the importance of how imagination allows us to enhance relationships by building connections with ourselves and in the world because it allows us to step outside of our comfort zone. For instance, one way in which we can relate to the social problems that Mills was trying to convey in The Sociological Imagination is by learning how to connect our personal troubles to public issues. This is important lesson can be

A lot of parents think that sports are too hard and too physical for teens and children, but sports are,actually, the best thing that will happen to these minors. Sports are a huge influence on children and teenagers, because participating in sports can actually influence the future of young men and women of today's generation. For the children and teenagers that start to play at a young age, sports can help children develop physical skills and learn how to work as a part of a team.

Nearly every child, at one point or another in his young and impressionable life, has particiapated in sports. Whether it is a pick-up basketball game at a playground after school, or organized Little League, complete with ninety-foot bases and replicated major league uniforms, sports play an intricate part of the development and maturation of a youngster. Beneath it’s presumed purity, however, lies an occasionally seedy underbelly. Win-at-all cost coaches and tyrannical, overbearing parents have turned this innocent recreational activity into a nightmarish hell for some juvenile participants, and have left many wondering if sports is a helpful or a harmful stage in a child’s life.

Acts of violence, drug use, promiscuous or aggressive sexual attitudes, and cheating are some common issues on college campuses today. These behaviors things can happen amongwithin athletes and non-athletes alike. HoweverYet, most people perceive sports as being pure, and are regarded as highly instrumental in developing an enhanced morality, a propensity to follow rules and regulations, and a general respect for others, all of which in turn makes them good citizens in everyday life. Conversely, sports psychologists suggest that involvement in sports does not necessarily beget better character development. (Weiss & Smith, 2002)

Character development is not something that can be gained or developed over night. Character development is the multiple life skills that an individual builds within themself throughout their lifespan. When a person develops good character in their early years of life, they will benefit in the long run because they used the life skills they gained and put them to use, becoming a successful individual in all aspects of life.

I saw in his eyes sheer delight and the joy of accomplishment. He had successfully faced a pitcher older and bigger and had fought off pitch after pitch before knocking a single into left field. His base hit drove in a run, continued an inning and fueled a rally which brought the team a victory from what looked like a certain defeat. He was willing to be taught and was willing to try. Success was secondary to the life skills he was mastering. Character traits will certainly be developed as one participates in team sports, but to attain positive character traits will require deliberate efforts by parents, adults, teammates and even leaders of the organization itself.

The article that we have chosen for our scholarly article was “Athletics as a Source for Social Status among Youth”. The main reason for this article is to further the understanding of sport as a source for youth popularity among a national US sample of 3rd through 12th graders. They first review previous work on the issue to discuss the roles gender, grade level, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status might play in the association between sport and social status and present there hypotheses regarding the relationship of each of these variables. Then they examine the relationship between athletic status and popularity using quantitative descriptive analysis and logistic regression to determine if this relationship varies according to gender, race/ethnicity, grade level, and socioeconomic status. The central purpose of this study is to examine first, whether youth perceive sport as a status enhancer for themselves and their peers. Second, to determine if variation in this perception can be accounted for by student’s athletic status, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and grade level.

Being in an American school begins a student’s search to find who they are considered in the system. From a nerd to a punk, many academic ties are also involved with this identity. The one group of students who get the most academic ties with his or her extra-curricular activity is the “jock”. As having the title as a jock, a child learns that many people look at someone who plays football or basketball doesn’t have the ability to learn as fast or as well as someone who just studies and doesn’t have extra-curricular activities. Studying this topic is not as stressed as it should be, even when many programs claim to get more physical activity in students. The articles that have been reviewed were testing whether the athlete gets good grades

Although he was a member of the Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago, George Herbert Mead’s greatest academic impact was felt within the school of sociology (Athens 2005). George Herbert Mead was a pragmatic sociologist, incorporating the importance of community and social freedom into his work; and as a pragmatist held the view that knowledge develops as a response to problems arising, that truth requires communication and agreement, and to realise the importance of consequences (Athens 2005). These pragmatic views, along with building on the work of previous philosophers such as William James and Wilhelm Wundt, Mead’s sociology focused on the origins of the self and society (Burkitt 1991, p. 28-29). Mead combined elements from philosophy, sociology and psychology to create his theory of social origins, and developed a sociological theory surrounding the complexity of consciousness and identity in a social setting. Through the interplay between the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’, Mead’s stages of development, the ability of an individual to take on the role of the generalised other and utilizing the necessity of language and symbols within his work, Mead has composed a brilliant sociological concept, from which different sociological schools of thought have sprung up, such as pragmatism, social behaviourism, and social interactionism (Burkitt 1991, p. 28, Hannan 2008, p. 220).

children away from the focus of the game (Kohn and Nelson, 1990). It is also clear that

Children pretend to be other people in their play and in so doing learn what these other people expect of them. Younger children take the role of significant others, or the people, most typically parents and siblings, who have the most contact with them; older children when they play sports and other games take on the roles of other people and internalize the expectations of the generalized other, or society itself.