Does Gender Matter in Sports? Identity, Inequality & Injury
In the modern Western world, gender matters in sports for at least two reasons: gender identification and injuries, specifically concussions. The masculine identity traditionally developed to include strength, toughness, competitiveness, aggression and the ability to endure pain. Rightly or wrongly, those concepts have included males in sports while excluding females. Based on the writings of Michel Foucault, some modern thinkers are challenging those traditionally oppressive male-centered concepts in sports, though males still dominate. In addition, female high school athletes reportedly sustain a far greater number of concussions than do male high school athletes. Researchers have suggested several reasons for this phenomenon. However, the fact remains that gender matters in terms of high school athletic concussions. Consequently, as of the date of this paper, gender matters in sports.
Inverted U Hypothesis and Arousal in Sports Psychology
No one can deny from the importance and applications of psychology in our daily life. It has become an essential tool for finding any person's behavior, attitude and personality aspects and has been there since historic times. Many philosophers of ancient times were psychologists too, who treat people with both the knowledge in hands. As far as today's world is concerned, there have been so many subjects to study and to explore that one could only specialize in a particular subject. But still, the interconnection of psychology with other sciences cannot be denied. Amongst several branches of psychology, there is sport psychology, which only deals with sports and provides a deep inside into the psychology of athletes and sports professionals. Sports psychology tells us about several factors which affect upon the performance of athletes and provide theoretical and practical basis which can help in enhancing and improving the performance. Also, applied sports psychology works in the same way as applied psychology work in different other fields of life, i.e., it includes a cooperation with trainers, parents and the sports person him/herself to tackle with sports related problem psychologically. Such problems may include fitness issues, communication issues if the person is part of a team and other such problems. Thus sport psychology plays a vital role in the development of a good sports person (Jarvis 2005).