Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Athletes--Attitudes; Athletics--Psychological aspects; Small groups--Psychological aspects;
Abstract
In-group membership status has recently been found to influence individual members' ratings of one 's own in-group and a relevant out-group (Noel, Wann, & Branscombe, 1995). The current research examined how in-group status, core versus peripheral in-group membership, influenced collegiate football athletes' ratings of themselves, fellow teammates, and their opponents in general. The research also examined in-group membership's impact on attributions of success in sports and team members' perceptions of team cohesion. Core status was derived by asking team members whom they viewed as the most important members of the team regardless of starter or reserve status. Data were collected before the start of the 1995 football season and at the completion of the regular season. Core team members were hypothesized to be more cohesive as a unit than the peripheral team members. Peripheral in-group members were predicted to be more negative in the ratings of the opposition than core in-group members. In addition, both core and peripheral members would rate the opponents more negatively than they would rate themselves or fellow teammates. Core members were hypothesized to agree with internal attributions regardless of the team 's success, while peripheral member attributions were hypothesized to be dependent upon the team 's overall success. The data indicated that core versus peripheral in-group membership was related to starter versus reserve status and academic and athletic eligibility classification. There were no significant differences found between core and peripheral team members in terms of cohesion as measured by the four subscales of the Group Environment Questionnaire. However, core members' perceptions of the team 's cohesion changed over the course of the season. Results showed that core, not peripheral, in-group members were more likely to rate the opposition more negatively than either themselves or their own team. Both core and peripheral players displayed a preference for internal attributions over external attributions when making causal inferences about success in sports. Limitations of the study and directions for future research using core versus peripheral in-group status are discussed.
Year of Submission
1996
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
M. Shelton Smith
Second Advisor
David Whitsett
Third Advisor
Jack Yates
Date Original
1996
Object Description
1 PDF file (118 leaves)
Copyright
©1996 Brian A. Johnson
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Brian A., "Core Versus Peripheral Membership in an Intercollegiate Athletic Team" (1996). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 3075.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/3075
Comments
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