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Morality Off the Field
Thursday, August 3, at 2 p.m., U.S. Eastern time
College athletes are routinely in the news for drunkenness, assaults, and other bad — even criminal — behavior off the field. Sharon K. Stoll, a University of Idaho sports ethicist who has measured thousands of college players' abilities to make ethical decisions, has found that athletes have significantly lower moral-reasoning skills than other students — and she says the competitive sports environment is largely to blame.
Ms. Stoll has designed an ethics curriculum for college athletes that a handful of top athletics programs are using. Can young adults be taught to think ethically, or is it too late in their development? How can coaches overcome many players' skepticism about ethics workshops? How can they help the players apply new reasoning skills to their behavior? Or is it inevitable that, given the privileges and fame that athletes enjoy, some will always behave badly?
» Morality Play (8/4/2006)
» From Inside a Police Car, a New Perspective (8/4/2006)
Sharon K. Stoll is a professor of physical education at the University of Idaho and the director of its Center for Ethical Theory and Honor in Competition and Sport. A former gymnastics coach, she has studied ethics in sports since the 1980s, measuring the moral-reasoning abilities of more than 70,000 college athletes.
Brad Wolverton (Moderator):
The Chronicle would like to welcome Sharon K. Stoll, a professor of physical education at the University of Idaho and the director of its Center for Ethical Theory and Honor in Competition and Sport. Ms. Stoll has been studying morality in sports since the 1980s and has developed a curriculum to teach players how to improve their moral reasoning. And welcome to all participants. We will now take questions for Ms. Stoll.
Question from Dee Swenson, U of I:
I wondered if you could incorporate other attitudes that could play into the moral conduct of athletes. Does pushing a "winning" attitude affect moral standards? What about age - kids are coached as young as 4 or 5 years old now...what should the focus be for coaches during the developmental years and then onto the collegiate level? This is a huge topic of discussion within our school system and recreation department and sadly I feel that our "town/school" is off-base. I wish there was a "coaching/pyschology" type class for any parent or existing coach that is working with children and young adults...this might help out the collegiate coaches with many issues.
Sharon K. Stoll:
Dee: very good questions - I will address one in particular. Does pushing "winning" affect moral standards? Maybe - it's not the winning that is the problem - it's what we are willing to do to gain the win that is the problem. If we are willing to violate the opponent, break rules, and so forth to win..then that will affect "moral standards".
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
How big of a role do coaches play in influencing athletes' moral reasoning? Shouldn't coaches be getting this training too?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Coaches as role models are a very large part of the moral development process for athletes. How they behave, how they think, what they value affects the athletes. Should they be getting training - I like to think that what we do is education and not necessarily training - should coaches also be educated - I believe every human being needs to spend important time in reflection about these important issues - So yes they should.
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Using your curriculum, how long does it normally take before an athletics program sees improvement in their athletes' moral-reasoning abilities? What should ADs and coaches expect to see in addition to improved "scores" on your measurements?
Sharon K. Stoll:
If all the factors are present, good role modeling, supporting environment, expected behavior with consequences - moral reasoning should improve within a three to four month period - however, we don't want to stop because results got better, we want to continue with the program over a four year period. What should ADs and coaches expect to see - again, our moral reasoning curriculum is about helping improve reasoning - behavior is complicated - if all the conditions are in place improvement in reasoning should help with behavior...a lot of ifs exist in that answer :-)
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
I know you study moral reasoning and not behavior, but what's your impression of student-athletes' behavior? Is it getting worse, or is it just publicized more often?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Tough question. The media has made a huge difference in how we are able to access "bad behavior"...and because we have limited ability to measure the magnitude of this from an incident to incident thing - I'm not sure that it's getting worse. I do know that moral reasoning scores have declined over the past 20 years, which in and of itself tells us that our young people need some help on thinking through and understanding the importance of ethics and morality.
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Aside from your program, can you suggest other ways that colleges or universities might work with athletes to improve their moral-reasoning abilities and off-court behavior?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Good question - wish I knew the answer. If what I know about moral development is correct, programs would have to: 1. Develop a clear vision of what athletics is, why it serves the mission of the institution, and what values should be supported, followed, and modeled. 2. Hire coaches and administrators who believe in this mission and serve as honorable role models. 3. Expect coaches and administrators to lead lives that support this mission and know that consequences exist for not following the mission. 4. Institute some sort of educational program that models the expectations and mission of the institution - Anymore and I give away the trade secrets :-)
Question from Terri Boggess, St. Mary's University:
It feels like women athletes are (unfortunately) closing the gap with male athletes in the "lack of concern" regarding ethical behavior in sport. My experiences with student-athletes in the classroom demonstrate that the women are not concerned with doing the right thing if it means jeopardizing a win. Have you experienced this?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Actually our research does show that women moral reasoning scores are decreasing over the past 20 years. I think the result of this has much to do with the culture of our society - I have argued that I'm not sure that young people today really do know "what is right". I know this sounds impossible - but I do believe so. All of which supports the importance of moral reasoning curriculum, role modeling, and environment.
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Moral reasoning is a tough concept to grasp. Can you describe antecdotally how athletes' moral reasoning has declined? What do you see in athletes when you teach ethics classes that might suggest a drop in moral-reasoning skills -- or is this just an internal thing that plays out in each person?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Yes - it is an internal thing - but moral reasoning is our reasoned response to a moral issue - I'm not so sure young people today know how to make a reasoned response - and I'm not so sure they have a clue as to what a moral issue is or why it is important in their lives.
Question from Paul Grafer, Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University:
Do you address specific student athlete transition issues for incoming freshman student athletes? If so, what issues do you target?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Specific student athlete transition issues - we address - I think most - cheating, sex, drugs, classroom behavior, being respectful of time and responsibility in classroom. We develop the curriculum based on the issues that coaches forward to us. We recently visited a series of lessons on "carrying guns" -- that tells you something about the climate of universities.
Question from Val Pfister, University of Florida:
From the article in the Chronicle, it seems as if the coaches are an intricate part of the educational program. Is it possible to cover the curriculum without coaches' participation?
Sharon K. Stoll:
The problem with character development is that if we want to improve moral reasoning, the individual working with the athletes on these issues has to be important role models - role models that affect them in the most powerful way. That's why we want the head coach to be a part of this process. I teach a class here at Idaho, and moral reasoning does improve in our classes - but that's not as powerful - I don't think it is anyhow because I am not the most important role model in their lives.
Question from Sara Lipka, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
What do you think about athletics-department conduct codes that penalize players -- with a three-game suspension, for example -- for bad behavior? Do you have a sense of whether an educational approach is more effective than a punitive one?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Consequences for actions are important. I wish the world was so ideal that education would inspire all folks to do the right. Athletes need to know that their are consequences, but I also think they need to know the importance of those rules and the ethical responsibilties that lie with them as a part of the human race.
Question from Val Pfister, University of Florida:
In an earlier response you mentioned that improvement is seen in a matter of months. Is this measured using pre and post surveys? Or a better question might be - how do you measure moral values of an individual?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Tough questions. We do use a pre and post test instrument. And we don't measure the moral values of an individual - we measure how one thinks about the issues of morality as applied to sport and athletics. As you know, moral development is a complex process. And collecting data from a pen and pencil text is limited - what we are trying to do is capture what these athletes think or how they think about what institutions say why athletics exist...do athletes reason this idealistic way...
Question from Joni Kirk, University of Idaho:
How can people find out more about your ETHICS program and the services you offer?
Sharon K. Stoll:
The Center for ETHICS* at the University of Idaho is found at: http://www.educ.uidaho.edu/center_for_ethics The program through which our materials are available is: winningwithcharacter.com
Question from Coach Bobby Lankford University of Georgia Football:
Sharon, The Barna Research Group says that 83% of todays youth say that moral truth depends on the circumstances, in other words if they get caught. Only 6% say that moral truth is absolute. Does this play a major role in their ability for moral reasoning?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Good question. We live in difficult times when most of us aren't quite sure what is right and wrong. I'm often asked about moral absolutes - I like to quote Christina Hoff Sommers who wrote an important piece in which she said, "Do absolutes exist?" She said, "Yes they do - it is absolutely wrong to rape. It is absolutely wrong to abuse children. and It is absolutely right to love." So if these absolutes exist, then we need to rethink the notion that no absolutes exist. Athletes and students need to also consider the same. Important points to consider.
Brad Wolverton (Moderator):
Folks, we have time for a few more questions from Ms. Stoll.
Question from Roger Blalock, Purdue University:
You've stated that in your measurement of moral-reasoning skills that the results are "significantly" lower for college student-athlete's than the results are for the general student population. How great is that gap? There seems to be a general feelings that today's college student shows a much greater lack of moral responsibility compared the students of a generaton ago. Is the lack of morality a trait for all today's college students?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Moral reasoning scores have dropped in the last 5 years - and I think that is a general condition. Athlete populations have always been significantly lower - especially and particularly revenue generated, male contact sport. Societal influences, moral role models, and perhaps lack of moral education is a direct effect. If you teach young people at a university and have been around for a while - like me - you know something's amiss out there.
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
So far football teams are the only college-sports programs investing in character education. Do you have a "bulk price," so to speak, so that various teams in one athletics department can buy your curriculum more economically?
Sharon K. Stoll:
The Chronicle article sort of infers that I'm the money man behind this whole thing... not true. If I were trying to raise the money, we would have gone out of the business of helping young people a long time ago. Winningwithcharacter.com is the organization that made all of this happen. And, we work with athletic populations because the folks here at the Center for ETHICS*, and my experience is based in sport. To write a good curriculum, one needs to have a very good background, history, and understanding of the ethos of that organization. We could help folks develop their curriculum, but we would be highly limited in doing what we do for other organizations and populations.
Question from Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Two more questions for Ms. Stoll. First, can you recommend any good resources (books, websites, etc.) to help people consider whether they should establish a moral-reasoning curriculum on their campus?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Wow... I could spend all day on this one. 1. A very good source about character development is the Center for 4th and 5th Rs with Thomas Lickona. His program is about character education K-12 - but the concepts still hold true. 2. Remember that moral reasoning is not moral behavior - moral reasoning is only one small facet of the overall process - establishing a moral reasoning curriculum is the easiest part of the process - finding role models to teach it and believe in it - establishing an environment that supports it - I think that's the trickier part. But then I write curriculums so I think that's easier - perhaps it's not so easy. Other sources - try the Character Education Partnership people, another great source is Brenda Bredemeier and her husband David Shields at St. Louis University...look them up on line...great people.
Question from Terri Boggess, St. Mary's University:
I knew something was amiss when student-athletes told me that there was a different code of ethics in sport than there was in life. So, I developed a course in Ethics in Sport. Could part of this be that athletes give all of the responsibility behavior to coaches and officials?
Sharon K. Stoll:
Probably - lots of factors out there. Coaches, fans, parents. I had an athlete from Africa tell me this morning that as a child he ran barefoot in races against kids at rich school that had track shoes - something really a miss when we let this sort of thing go on - what joy is there in competing against someone who doesn't even have shoes - that win must have meant a lot. Parents, fans, coaches - how we value competition or de-value it as David Shields states. All of that comes into play ... and athletes do think there is different set of ethics for them and athletics. Glad you are teaching that course...keep up good work.
Brad Wolverton (Moderator):
That wraps up our discussion about morality in sports. Thanks to everyone for participating, and to Ms. Stoll for offering such interesting feedback.