This case study examined interpersonal communication in sport in the form of verbal aggression among elite athletes in the Australian Football League (AFL). It focused on the experience and motivation of athletes who use athlete-to-athlete verbal aggression and the responses of athletes who have been the targets of verbal aggression during games. In addition, the reasons athletes have for not engaging in verbal aggression were also examined. Purposive sampling procedures produced a select sample of elite male athletes known for their aggressive approach to playing Australian football. Qualitative methods and deductive analysis procedures, informed by J.H. Kerr’s categories of sport aggression, were used to interpret the interview data. Meaningful insights into verbal aggression in the AFL were obtained. Based on the underlying motivation, interview transcript descriptions of incidents were identified as examples of power, thrill, and anger verbal aggression.
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John H. Kerr and Pippa Grange
Lori Rittenhouse-Wollmuth, Cindra S. Kamphoff, and Jon Lim
Historically, the world of sport is considered a masculine domain characterized by power, aggression, and physical contact (Hall, 1996). The exclusionary elements of the male culture of sport have created gender inequities in participation (Birrell & Theberge, 1994), and a gendered perception of male and female coaches (Frankl & Babitt, 1998; Weinberg, Reveles, & Jackson, 1984). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of male and female collegiate athletes of a hypothetical male and female coach, and to determine if female coaches are more accepted compared to Weinberg et al.’s study investigating male and female athletes’ perceptions of a hypothetical coach. The Attitudinal Questionnaire (Weinberg, Reveles, & Jackson, 1984) was utilized to determine athletes’ attitudes about a hypothetical coach. A 2 × 2 MANOVA indicated a significant interaction between the gender of a hypothetical head coach and the gender of an athlete, and a significant main effect for gender. Univariate ANOVA results indicate that males and females differed in their attitudes and perceptions of both a hypothetical male and female head coach. The female athletes, compared to male athletes, were more likely to be accepting of coaches regardless of the coaches’ gender. Furthermore, male athletes were less accepting of female coaches. In addition, when comparing the means of the current study to Weinberg et al.’s (1984) study, results indicate that female coaches were not more accepted than in 1984.
John Kerr
“Did you enjoy being physically aggressive in games?” (sanctioned play aggression), “When you were playing did you ever try to physically or verbally intimidate opponents?” (unsanctioned power aggression), “Have you ever personally experienced a situation in terms of your physical aggression when you
Kim Gammage, Alyson Crozier, Alison Ede, Christopher Hill, Sean Locke, Desi McEwan, Kathleen Mellano, Eva Pila, Matthew Stork, and Svenja Wolf
classrooms across four elementary schools. These children were asked to identify up to 10 friends in their classroom, as well as to nominate their peers based on a series of social variables (i.e., prosociality, leadership, popularity, power, aggression, bullying). Assessments of the 15 unique social
