Psych (ed)

A place for essays I've wrote for my degree, articles related to Psychology and personal experiences of Mental Health.

[jfmcfaull-blog]

‘Sport reflects and creates differences and inequalities’ (Woodward, 2014, p. 73) Explain how different sorts of evidence used in DD102 support this claim.

Sport can serve many purposes within society; as exercise for one’s well-being, or as a social activity between friends and as entertainment. Sociologists such as Woodward have argued, however, that sports creates and reflects differences and inequalities within our society as well[. In this brief essay I will be discussing factors of inequality such as disability, gender and class within in Sports, both in contemporary Western society and ancient Roman society, I will do so by discussing the increasing costs of ticket pricing for the historically working man sport; with specific regards to football in the Premier League, and the social hierarchy displayed at the Roman Amphitheatres as gladiators fought for sport and then finally to the modern-day Olympics.

Connell (Connell, 2005) used the term hegemonic masculinity as an argument that power is dominated by males through social and cultural norms that value male characteristics over their female counterparts and thus, that the woman must replicate male characteristics in order to obtain power. When we consider this in the context of sports as defined by the Oxford Dictionary as ‘a competitive activity involving physical effort or skill’. This definition of Sport indicates things normally attributed to masculinity, such as strength and competitiveness. In a recent report by Forbes (2016), the top ten highest earning female athletes were present in only three sports: mixed martial arts, NASCAR, and tennis. The latter of these three is undoubtedly the most egalitarian in terms of gender representation whereas the former of the two are considered male dominated sports. This is due to most of the popular sporting competitions and governing bodies viewing their sports as traditionally single sex activities, which is enacted through their regulations. Connell’s argument of hegemonic masculinity collated with the earning potential of male dominated sports is an example of how sports reflects the inequalities of Western society and the United Kingdom in particular; as per a government report by the ONS (Office for National Statistics, 2016) there is a gender pay gap based on median hourly earnings of 9.7%, which demonstrates that the earning potential for females both in sport and in the workplace is below that of that of their male counterparts.

Class inequality is also reflected through sports, an example of this would be the rising cost of season tickets in The Premier League. Football as a sport has historically been considered a working man’s sport with clubs like Manchester United, now the most profitable club as per a report by Forbes (Forbes, 2016); originally formed by the workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Not only was football played by the working class but it was also represented by the supporters who would watch at the ground. However, in recent decades the costs have risen considerably even when inflation is taken into consideration. Evidence for this is provided by a report by the BBC (BBC Sport, 2014) where between 2011 and 2014 the average price of a match day ticket increased by 13% whilst the cost of living increased by 6.8%. The accessibility for those of a lower socio-economical class has been reduced thus ground visiting supporters are now those who have the expendable income to spend on such expenditure, the middle class. Engles (1969 [1845]) report on working-class rows of housing in Manchester in the early 1840’s, Engles spoke of how those of a higher socio-economical class were able to afford the houses with the best benefits, such as a yard, whilst the housing became progressively worse the further back in the rows of housing it was. Comparatively modern day stadiums apply the same idea of economical access: the best views command the highest ‘rent’ in terms of season tickets; whereas views which are obstructed or further away from the pitch command the least. 

However, the idea of stadium seating representing the divisions of class is not just found in contemporary Western society; the amphitheatres of Ancient Rome were similarly organized by class.  The cavea, the name for seating area of the amphitheatre, was sectioned horizontally by three rows. The ima cavea, the section directly surrounding the arena, was reserved for the upper classes of society as they provided the best views of the gladiators’ fight. Proceeded by the ima cavea was the media cavea and then the summa cavea, the former opened to the general public but mostly dominated by men and the latter usually occupied by woman and children. In the instance of the Roman amphitheatre, not only was the class division of Roman society reflected in the organization of seating, but in gender divides as well. Connell’s argument that society abides to the system of a patriarchy (Connell, 2005) offers an explanation on how sports, both in participation and viewership, when correlated with the segregation of gender in Amphitheatres, belongs also to a system rooted in men having the dominant positions, both historically and in modern societies.

Individuals with disabilities can struggle with environments such as cities and towns, which are often designed for those who are able-bodied. This leads to difficulties when it comes to connecting with the societies in which they live, as well as creating divisions between the two. This is reflected in the sporting environment, able bodied and disabled athletes often participate in separate events; the former participating in the Olympics and the latter in the Paralympics. However, the divisions apply further depending on the severity of the disability, an example of such being the use of technical aids used by Oscar Pistorius a double leg amputee. A ruling by the IAAF that his prosthetics allowed for an unfair advantage resulted in a banning from participation. This lead to Pistorius being unable to participate as a disable individual and only after reviewing his case with the Olympic committee could he participate in able-bodied races, the first time in Olympic history. Whilst Pistorius’ case is exceptional, his fight to compete is reflective of Woodward’s (Woodward, 2005) argument that the disabled are often marginalised in sports.

Woodward’s argument of how sport creates and reflects inequalities and differences can be evidenced whether through the discussed socio-economical, disability and gender issues prevalent throughout sport and western societies. One’s ability to participate in sport itself or supporters accessibility to participate in viewing sport, demonstrated in rising costs of football ticket prices in England, can be dependent on one’s physical or economic status to do so. Through the concept of performativity, a term coined by Goffman (1959), it could be argued that the issues discussed here are a result not of one’s ability to partake but of to how societies view those individuals who might choose participate in a given sport. 

Score =  80%

Modules results are sometimes issued on a graded basis, consisting of pass grades1 (threshold 85%,a distinction), 2 (70–84%), 3 (55–69%) & 4 (40–54%), and fail (below 40%). This grade is calculated as the lower of the overall continuous assessment score (OCAS) and overall examination score (OES).

References:

BBC (2014) Price of Football: Ticket increases outstrip cost of living Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/29614980 (Accessed 23 February 2017)

Connell, R.W (2005) Masculinities¸ 2nd Edn, Berkely, CA, University of California Press

Engles, F. (1969 [1845]) The Condition of the Working Class in England, London, Panther Books.

Forbes (2016) The World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2016 Available at https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45ffmff/the-worlds-highest-paid/#19d64e3610e4 (Accessed 23 February 2017)

Forbes (2016) Manchester United Tops List Of World's Most Profitable Soccer Teams Available at http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2016/04/18/manchester-united-tops-list-of-worlds-most-profitable-soccer-teams/#374283ba31df Accessed 23 February 2017)

Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Hardmondsworth, Penguin.

Office for National Statistics (2016) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings: 2016 provisional results Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2016provisionalresults#main-points (Accessed 23 February 2017)

Woodward, K. (2009) Embodied Sporting Practices: Regulating, and Regulatory Bodies, Basingstoke, Palgrave.

[jfmcfaull-blog]

Outline the argument that a consumer society makes and remakes inequality

A consumer society is an argument brought forward by sociologists, for example Bauman (1988), that indicates that societies in many western countries, such as the United Kingdom, have seen a shift from being an industrial based society to being a consumer based society that drives self-value and self-identity from the consumption of products and services and the conations to which are attributed to them. However, through consumption inequality can be made within western societies in the form of accessibility to products, the exploitation of individuals who provide the services or in the in the production of the products in third world countries. Through the continual need for consumption inequality is remade repeatedly to facilitate the wants of others.

One’s ability to obtain and use products and services varies depending on many factors, but primarily economic or geographic factors. For example, the impoverished, working class may not have the same accessibility that the middle or high class members of society have due to their wealth. Bauman argued that consumption of products and services offers the sense of membership within a consumer society or a form of self-expression and without the ability to partake in consumption individuals can be excluded from society. Bauman’s argument lends itself to the theory of the Zero-sum game coined by Wrong (1997). It could be argued that a consumer society in its essence must make losses for one section of society for the gains of another, at least in a capitalist model, to remain profitable for corporations to continue producing products and services at widely affordable rates.  

For example, the zero-sum game could be argued in the production of products such as clothing and food. To make products accessible to a wider market via the reduction of the cost of a product to a consumer, companies may outsource the manufacturing to countries with a significantly lower minimum wage than the countries that they sell within. The charity War on Want published evidence (2006) to support that the wages payed to the out-sourced manufacture workers of Bangladesh are payed below the living wage. Due to geographical circumstances, individuals in Bangladesh and other third world countries are exploited in comparison to the western counterparts due to the latter’s want for consumption of the products. Furthermore, workers in third world countries are not only financially exploited but also in terms of poor working conditions as described in Dying for a bargain (The Open University, 2016).  Marion Young (2003) argues that within a capitalist, consumer based society, consumers are inherently intertwined with a system that makes inequality in other regions of the world, that a consumer society makes itself at the expense of another, where one can reap the benefits of the productions of goods that the other manufactures.

However, without access to cheap labour many products would increase in cost and become potentially financially inviable to some consumers. In turn the availability of products diminishing one’s choice is deprived to a certain extent and some consumers are forced to choose lower-priced products of potential unequal quality or to not be able to buy the product at all. With Bauman’s argument of self-identity from consumption, this would remove a key factor of one’s self-perception within a consumer society. Alternatively, the zero-sum game can be evidenced by Ryan Watkins from Making Lives who due to his economic situation has his choices constrained on what is consider a necessity, food. Whilst through the welfare system he is provided the ‘product’ he is not allowed through financial constraints to self-express, whereas another individual can use such necessities to make ethical decisions as a form of self-expression, such as supporting local business or purchasing fair-trade products at a higher cost. Not only can individuals use consumption of products to make ethical purchases but by the mass production of products can allow for previously unattainable products to be a financially viable option for consumers, for example mobile phones which in the 1980’s where items of luxury and unavailable to many consumers’ bar wealthy bankers and businessmen. Mobile phones are now common place in our society and between brands such as Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy which can be seen as an extension of one’s self, some may define themselves as ether an Android user or iPhone user. It could be argued that through the consumption of products, even necessities, individuals can benefit from their economic situation to extend their self-identity and in return reciprocate back to society either in the form of ethical consumption or through economically through the tax on their purchases resulting in a positive-sum game.

Karl Marx (1844) argued that in an industrial society where the bourgeoisie control the means of production the proletarians labour is exploited. Marx’s argument can be applied to a consumer society, whether through the employment within the service industry in places like the United Kingdom or through the products that an individual may buy with their wages. Through further deindustrialization in the post-war United Kingdom, a study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016), shows the United Kingdom had the largest fall proportionately in comparison to other advanced economies in the G7 for the number of people employed within the manufacturing sector. By the 1970’s manufacturing, mining and quarrying sectors comprised 26.4% and by 2015 it was at 8.1%, whereas in the same time frame the services industry grew from 62.3% to 83.1%. However, the service industry also utilities zero-hour contracts and many of the contracts have stipulations that an employee must work when required but the company is not obliged to offer a minimum number of working hours. A report by the House of Commons (2013) estimated that in 2011, 19% of the service industry utilised zero-hour contracts. Marx’s argument of the exploitation of the proletarians can be argued for the service industry within a consumer society. A society that relies on the industry for not only self-expression but for social activities must require a large proportion of the workforce dedicated to the sector but in turn the companies, much like the clothing and food manufactures, must remain profitable and thus operate flexibly based on supply and demand for services. Inequality is created in the form of workers’ inability to achieve sustained, reliable work in return for the consumption of services by consumers.

Quantifying the level of inequality created by consumerism to the benefits and opportunities for self-expression from easily accessible services and products depends on many variables, including the value one attributes to consumption. If we consider ourselves a global society, then invariably per Bauman’s argument of the zero-sum game then inequality is made and remade consistently and continually at the expense of individuals. If we view ourselves as a society by geographic limits, it could be argued that in favour of the majority, consumerism allows those who have the financial means to access products and services that without forms of exploitation would not be finically viable otherwise. In a geographically-limited society inequality is still made and remade however, for the improvised members of our society the limitations of self-identity via product selection and inclusion in social activities that incur consumption can create disconnections to other parts of society for an individual through external, uncontrolled factors.

Score = 72%

Modules results are sometimes issued on a graded basis, consisting of pass grades 1 (threshold 85%,a distinction), 2 (70–84%), 3 (55–69%) & 4 (40–54%), and fail (below 40%). This grade is calculated as the lower of the overall continuous assessment score (OCAS) and overall examination score (OES).

References:

Bauman, Z. (1988) Freedom, Milton Keynes, Open University Press

MARX, K., ENGELS, F., MOORE, S., & MCLELLAN, D. (1992). The Communist manifesto. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Pyper.D and Harari.D (2013) Zero Hour Contracts, House of Commons Report. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/contractsthatdonotguaranteeaminimumnumberofhours/september2016 (2017)

The Open University (2016) Dying for a bargin [Video] DD102 Introducing the social sciences. Available at https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=855408&section=6 (2017)

War on Want (2006) Fashion Victims: The True Cost of Cheap Clothes at Primark, Asda and Tesco, London, War on Want.

Wrong, D. (1997) Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses, New Brunswick, NJ, and London, Transaction Publishers

Young, I.M. (2003) ‘From guilt to solidarity: sweatshops and political responsibility’, Dissent, Spring, pp. 39-44.

[jfmcfaull-blog]

Welcome...

This blogs purpose is to serve as a place where I can engage with others in Psychology, Mental Health and Sociology. I will be uploading my essays from my study of a BSc in Psychology, starting in my first year and will follow my progress to my eventual graduation. I will also discuss current research, books on the subject and my own experiences with mental health as well. As a preface I will discuss in this post my reasoning behind studying Psychology.

I started my studies in October of 2016, an interesting year to start studying the human mind. It wasn’t a decision that I had built up over years, instead on a call to Student Finance I brought up the topic of my remaining funding for studying and to my surprise I still had funding for a degree albeit if I chose to do part time studying. Those who know me well will understand that myself and formal education do not always see eye to eye, this is in fact my third attempt at studying a degree but to quote Monty Python “Best of three?”

Once I was aware I could study again, it became a choice of what to study. I have tried my hand at the pursuits of creative subjects. I consistently found that I would arrive at a point of inertia with each discipline where my interests plateaued. Whilst I still enjoy the cathodic release of the arts, I knew that an academic area of study is where I wanted to apply myself. There were other subjects of which I considered, however Psychology was undoubtedly the forerunner in any thoughts I had considering.

It’s hard to state where my interest in Psychology truly started. I have always had a curiosity into the inner workings of the human mind due to my personal experiences with adverse mental health and the experiences of such in my family. Depression, in particular, is common on my father’s side. I also find that throughout my education I have tried to bring an analytical approach to my work, analysing not only the human mind but the human condition. However, about three years ago, I started reading The Road Less Travelled by Dr. M. Scott Peck, an American Psychiatrist. From then I started reading works by Oliver Sacks, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx amongst others. I dated a woman with a fantastic, analytical mind who had always been interested in the subject which obviously assisted in piquing my interest in the discipline. All the above combined to making the decision for myself, I would return to my studies for the last time to study Psychology, not for a career but for myself. Though I’d be amiss if I were to not admit, if it did become a career I would be delighted.

So, please enjoy my blog as I progress through my studies and I hope you at least find my essays somewhat interesting!

Muchos Gratis, Mi Amigos!

x