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MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN SPORT CONTEXT:
UTOPIA OR REALITY?
Katerina Mouratidou1, Dimitrios Chatzopoulos2,
& Sofia Karamavrou1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Abstract: The aim of the present study was to examine (a) if athletes’ moral judgment is af-
fected by sport type, the level of competition – in terms of the league in which one com-
petes – and regular playing position, and (b) possible relations between moral judgment
and the overall years of athletic experience, self-perception of sport ability, and achievement
goal orientations. The sample comprised 170 adolescent athletes from three different sports:
tennis (n= 59), football (n= 58) and handball (n= 53). Three questionnaires were used:
the Moral Judgment Test (MJT; Lind, 1978) to assess players’ moral judgment, the Task and
Ego Orientation in Sports Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992) to assess play-
ers’ goal orientations, and the same questionnaire adapted to assess players’ perceived goal
orientations of their coaches (TEOSQ-PPC). Also, players' perceived sport ability as well
as demographic data was reported. The ANOVAs revealed that tennis, as compared to hand-
ball athletes, scored significantly higher in MJT C-index (Moral Competence Index) and so
did the amateurs (n= 114), as compared to professionals (n = 56). Playing position did not
have a significant effect on C-index. Furthermore, the C-index positively correlated with per-
ceived sport ability and task orientation. There was a low negative correlation with ego ori-
entation. In addition, there was a nonsignificant negative correlation between the C-index
and years of athletic experience.
Key words: Moral judgment, Sport, Task Orientation.
Note: 1Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at Serres, Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki, Greece. 2Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at
Thessaloniki, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Address: Katerina Mouratidou, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at
Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Agios Ioannis, 62110 Serres, Greece.
Phone: +30-2310-991056 and +30-23210-58284. Fax: +30-2310-991056.
E-mail: katemou@phed-sr.auth.gr
Hellenic Journal of Psychology, Vol. 4 (2007), pp. 163-184
INTRODUCTION
Moral judgment
The moral aspect of human behaviour, with its positive or negative
consequences on society, has been the object of relevant psychological,
sociological and educational research, especially in the last few decades.
Scientists in athletics and in the field of physical education are preoccupied
with this issue since the old saying "Sport builds character" is being heavily
questioned lately.
According to Kohlberg’s theory (Kohlberg, 1969, 1971, 1984), moral de-
velopment is associated with cognitive development. Kohlberg proposed a
model based on three levels of moral development that a child goes through:
pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. Each of these lev-
els includes two separate stages. To identify the moral development stage
the person is required to think about and solve dilemmas regarding issues of
morally good or bad behaviours. The idea is that in order to behave morally,
an individual must have the cognitive capacity to make moral judgments as
the ones in moral dilemmas. The ability to make moral judgments is defined
as «the capacity to make decisions and judgments which are moral (i.e.,
based on internal principles) and to act in accordance with such judgments»
(Kohlberg, 1964, p. 425).
The instruments which have been used in physical education and sport
studies up to now assess morality either on an obedience to rules basis (be-
havioural approach), or by evaluating people’s intentions (assessment of
moral attitudes and values). Consequently, the resulting indexes from these
evaluations do not permit any interpretations of a person’s moral behaviour.
This is because, according to the dual aspect theory of moral behaviour (see
Kohlberg, 1958; Lind, 1985a,b,c, 2000a,b, 2002a,b), the moral behaviour of
an individual is defined, on the one hand, by the person’s dedication to ba-
sic moral principles (affective aspect) and by the person’s ability to reason
and act according to those principles (cognitive aspect), on the other. As Pi-
aget also suggested «affective and cognitive mechanisms are inseparable, al-
though distinct: the former depends on energy, and the latter depends on
structure» (Piaget, 1976, p. 71). A questionnaire, which assesses the ability
to form moral judgments according to the dual aspect theory of morality,
is the Moral Judgment Test (MJT; Lind, 1978).
The central feature of the MJT and, at the same time its difference from
164 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
Kohlberg’s Moral Judgment Interview (MJI) (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987), is
that it assesses moral competence by providing counter-arguments which op-
pose one’s position on a difficult moral problem. ∆he MJT assesses moral
judgement competence by recording how a person handles those counter-
arguments. «While subjects’ reactions to arguments that favour their own
opinion indicates the preferred level of moral reasoning for resolving the
dilemma, their reactions to counter-arguments tell us something about their
ability to use a particular moral level consistently when judging other peo-
ple’s behavior» (Lind, 2002a, p. 3). The most important index which arises
from the MJT analysis is the C-index (where C stands for competence),
which «measures the degree to which a subject’s judgments about pro and
con arguments are determined by moral points of view rather than by non-
moral considerations like opinion-agreement» (Lind, 2002a, p. 2).
Sportpersonship and morality
Presumably, concepts such as sportspersonship and fair play are related to
morality, because they require acting in accordance with internal moral prin-
ciples. Sportspersonship refers to understanding and valuing the rules, rituals,
and traditions of sports and activities and distinguishing between good and
bad practices in those activities (Siedentop, Hastie, & Mars, 2004). Fair play
means not just playing by rules, but also respecting others, participating always
with the right spirit and attitude, valuing equal opportunity, and behaving with
responsibility towards a teammate or a player (Siedentop et al., 2004). There-
fore, sportspersonship and fair play are directly related to morality and moral
development, since developing autonomy in moral decision making in sports
presupposes that one: (a) has the capacity to judge morally, (b) has the ca-
pacity for role taking in morally challenging situations, (c) is behaving re-
sponsibly, and (d) establishes attitudes and affections towards other people.
As stated above, in order for a moral action to occur it is necessary for some-
one to have not only the capacity for moral reasoning (moral cognition) but
also to have established attitudes and affects concerning a moral problem. As
Lind (2006) suggested, moral affects energize moral behaviour, while moral
cognition directs and structures it in a particular situation.
Taking into consideration that the study of morality is a complex issue,
sport studies, which were conducted in order to examine various aspects of
moral development, investigated moral judgment, reasoning, and intention
either independently or in combination with other variables, such as achieve-
Moral development in sport context 165
ment goal orientations (Duda, Olson, & Templin, 1991; Dunn & Dunn,
1999; Kavussanu & Roberts, 2001; Lemyre, Roberts, & Ommundsen, 2002;
¶·˘ÏÔÔ‡ÏÔ˘, °ˆÓÈ¿‰Ô˘, ∑·¯·ÚÈ¿‰Ë˜, & ∆ÛÔÚÌ·Ù˙Ô‡‰Ë˜, 2003). As the
aforementioned studies showed, the goal orientation that is positively re-
lated to morality is task orientation.
Achievement goal theory
According to the achievement goal theory (Ames, 1984, 1992; Duda &
Nicholls, 1992; Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Elliot & Church, 1997; Nicholls, 1983,
1984) two major goal perspectives can be identified in people’s behaviour:
task orientation (or mastery or learning goals) and ego orientation (or per-
formance goals). These goal orientations reflect differences in how indi-
viduals construe their level of competence and how they define success in
specific situations. Task goal orientation represents participation in an ac-
tivity in order to benefit from the activity itself and not in order to outper-
form others. High task-oriented individuals tend to use personal standards
of achievement rather than social norms, and try to demonstrate mastery
of the task rather than normative ability. In contrast, high ego-oriented in-
dividuals tend to use other-reference criteria – such as normative compari-
sons – to define success and judge competence, and they feel successful
when they have outperformed others. In recent years, ego or performance
goal orientation has been differentiated into performance approach and per-
formance avoidance goals (Elliot & Church, 1997). However, in the present
study the emphasis will be on ego goal orientation, since this is the frame-
work of the most of the studies in this area.
In an effort to investigate how achievement goal orientations are related
to athletes’ moral judgment, several researchers examined the two goal per-
spectives in relation to indicators of moral development, to fair play, and
to sportspersonlike behaviours (Duda et al., 1991; Dunn & Dunn, 1999;
Kavussanu & Roberts, 2001; Lemyre et al., 2002; ¶·˘ÏÔÔ‡ÏÔ˘ et al., 2003).
Specifically, Duda et al. (1991) examined the relationship between the two
goal orientations and sportspersonhip attitudes and perceived legitimacy
of aggressive acts. Results showed that ego orientation had a positive cor-
relation with endorsement of unsportspersonlike play (such as cheating) and
was associated with greater acceptance of intentionally injurious acts or ag-
gression against one’s opponent. Dunn and Dunn (1999) also investigated
the relationship between goal orientations, sportspersonship, and percep-
166 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
tions of athletic aggression. Their findings revealed that high ego orienta-
tion was associated with greater approval of the use of aggressive behaviours
than low ego orientation was. On the contrary, high task-oriented players ex-
pressed greater respect and concern for social conventions, and for the rules
and officials.
In a similar study, Lemyre et al. (2002) examined the extent to which goal
orientations and perceived sport ability predicted sportspersonship. The re-
sults indicated that high ego-oriented athletes with low perceived sport abil-
ity had the lowest respect for rules and officials and endorsed cheating in or-
der to achieve their goals. On the other hand, low ego-oriented athletes with
high perceived ability expressed higher respect for rules and officials. There-
fore, moral attitude in sports is a function of both goal orientation and per-
ceived ability. Kavussanu and Roberts (2001) offered also evidence on the
relationship of goal orientations with indices of moral functioning (namely
moral judgment, intention, and behaviour), unsportspersonlike attitudes,
and judgments about the legitimacy of intentionally injurious acts. Results
revealed that ego orientation was positively associated with lower levels of
moral judgment and moral intention, and greater acceptance of intention-
ally injuring acts.
In a more recent study (¶·˘ÏÔÔ‡ÏÔ˘ et al., 2003) the relationship of
students’ sportspersonship orientation with their goal orientations and glob-
al motivation was examined. The results showed that task orientation was
highly correlated with social assignment –one of the five factors of the Mul-
tidimensional Sportspersonship Orientation Scale (MSOS; Vallerand,
Briere, Blancard, & Provencer, 1997)– which refers to the respect of social
conventions, with sportspersonship commitment, and with obedience to
rules and officials.
Other factors affecting moral judgment in sports
Other variables that have been found to have an effect on moral judgment
in sports are the following: (a) Type of sport, i.e., low/ medium/ high
physical contact sport and individual or team sports (Vallerand, Deshaies,
& Cuerrier, 1997); (b) Years of experience in sports (Gardner & Janelle,
2002); (c) Level of sport participation, i.e., amateur or professional
(Stephens, 2001); (d) Team’s moral atmosphere, i.e., team norms, players’
perception of their coach’s goal orientation (Kavussanu, Roberts, &
Ntoumanis, 2002).
Moral development in sport context 167
According to the above studies, team-sports athletes express lower levels
of concern for the opponent in contrast with athletes who participate in in-
dividual sports (Vallerand et al., 1997). It was also found that the amount of
physical contact which characterizes a particular sport correlates positively
with the perceived legitimacy of rule violating behaviour (Silva, 1983; Tuck-
er & Parkis, 2001). Similar results were found with boys involved in high con-
tact sports and with girls in medium contact sports (Bredemeier, Weiss,
Shields, & Cooper, 1986). In so far as aggressive behaviour is concerned, the
evidence is that it becomes more legitimate and acceptable as the participants’
years of experience in the sport increase (Gardner & Janelle, 2002), particu-
larly when the participants are males (Silva, 1983). In general, the length of
participation in sports correlates negatively with sportspersonship behaviour
(Blair, 1985; Potter & Wandzilak, 1981). Furthermore, it was found that the
level of competition in which the players are involved affects their moral be-
haviour (Beller & Stoll, 1995; Stephens, 2001). More specifically, as the level
of sport participation increases the emphasis on playing fairly decreases (Sil-
va, 1983). Furthermore, team norms and willingness to injure if the coach re-
quests it, are strong predictors of the likelihood to behave aggressively (Kavus-
sanu et al., 2002; Stephens, 2001; Stephens & Bredemeier, 1996). Finally, ath-
letes’ perceived motivation climate, which is promoted by their coach and cor-
responds to ego-oriented goals, correlates positively with the likelihood to act
aggressively against an opponent (Stephens & Bredemeier, 1996).
Overall, it seems that although the relation between athletes’ goal ori-
entations and their moral judgment has been examined quite extensively,
more research is needed on the association of moral judgment with the spe-
cific sport (high, low physical contact), the years of experience in a specific
sport, the league of sport participation (amateur or professional), the per-
ceived sport ability, and the moral atmosphere. According to Power and
his colleagues, moral atmosphere involves a set of collective norms regard-
ing moral action on the part of group members (Power, Higgins, &
Kohlberg, 1989). In a team sport the coach and the team members establish
over time certain norms and respective goals, which are considered appro-
priate in that particular context. The goals of the coach and of the athletes
may differ between them.
Moreover, there is a lack of research as to whether the playing position
that an athlete occupies (defence, center, and offence) affects his or her
level of moral judgment. Both defensive and central players experience a
more intense feeling of threat as an opponent approaches their goal post
168 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
and victory is at stake. Consequently, they may be more willing to violate
the rules and exhibit anti-athletic behaviour compared to the offensive
players. Furthermore, an offensive player doesn’t experience much pres-
sure to score by using illegal means, while a defensive player has to use
all means (legal and illegal) in order to avoid a goal scored by an oppo-
nent, since this could not be reversed and could probably prove critical for
the outcome of the game.
The above analysis suggests that even if team players between them
and with their coach share the same goal orientation, their moral behav-
iour will be affected by the playing position rather than the goal orien-
tation per se.
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the level of physi-
cal contact that characterizes a sport such as football, handball, or tennis,
the level of competition (which corresponds to the league in which someone
competes, i.e., amateur or professional league) and the players’ regular play-
ing position in a team sport, such as football or handball1, affect the moral
judgment of athletes. However, since moral judgment is related to other per-
sonal factors, such as one’s perceived competence in one’s sport, that is, how
the athlete rates his/her performance in the specific sport, we investigated
the effects of this factor as well as of the overall years of one’s athletic ex-
perience, the athletes’ goal orientation and one’s perception of his/her
coach’s goal orientation.
More specifically the hypotheses we tested were the following: (a) high
physical contact sports should be associated with lower levels of moral
judgement, as indicated with the C-index. (b) There should be negative
correlation between competitive level (league) and moral judgment. (c)
Defensive players in football should have lower moral judgment than of-
fensive ones. (d) There should be a direct relationship between perceived
sport ability and moral judgment. (e) There should be an inverse rela-
tionship between the years of sport experience and moral judgment. (f)
Players high in ego orientation or perceiving their coach as favouring the
same orientation should have a lower moral judgment. On the contrary,
players high in task orientation or perceiving their coach as favouring the
Moral development in sport context 169
1. At this point, it should be mentioned that although handball is considered a team sport, the
athletes’ playing position is not taken into consideration because their role as offensive or
defensive players is not distinguished clearly, since all players take an active role in both
offence and defence.
same orientation should have higher moral judgment. However, the rela-
tionship of goal orientation with moral judgment should be differentiated
depending on perceived sport ability and sport type, level of competition,
and playing position.
METHOD
Design of the study
In the present study three types of sports were chosen: tennis, football, and
handball. These sports were chosen because they differ in the relative fre-
quency and intensity of physical contact that is associated with them. There-
fore, tennis was regarded as a low contact sport, football as a medium con-
tact sport, and handball as a high contact sport (for a similar taxonomy of
sports according to the physical contact see Bredemeier et al., 1986).
Participants
The overall sample comprised 170 young athletes, with an average chrono-
logical age of 15.71 years (SD = 2.54 years). Fifty-nine of the participants
were tennis players (30 boys, M= 15.63 years of age, SD = 1.93, and 29
girls, M= 16.21 years of age, SD = 2.47). Of them, 35 competed in the A
professional tennis league and 24 were in the A amateur tennis league. The
mean years of experience of the tennis players were 5.68 (SD = 2.43).
Fifty-eight of the participants were football players (52 boys, M= 15.83
years of age, SD = 1.33, and 6 girls, M= 15.17 years of age, SD = 2.63). Of
them 6 played in A-D professional football league and 52 played in the A
amateur football league. The mean years of experience of the football players
were 5.55 (SD = 2.45).
The rest of the 53 participants were handball players (26 boys, M= 16.96
years of age, SD = 2.12, and 27 girls, M= 14.78 years of age, SD = 2.91).
Of them, 15 played in A professional handball league and 38 in A amateur
handball league. The mean years of experience for the handball players were
4.66 (SD = 2.70).
In the entire sample, 114 of the participants were amateurs, and the rest
56 were professionals. The average chronological age for the professional
players was 16.07 years (SD = 3.76) and for the amateurs 15.58 years (SD
170 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
= 3.47). The t-test for independent groups, t(168) = -.781, p> .05, showed
that there was no significant difference between amateur and professional
players with respect to age.
Measures
Five self-report questionnaires were used to assess players’ (a) demographic
characteristics, (b) goal orientations, (c) perception of their coach’s goal
orientation, (d) moral judgment, and (e) perceived sport ability.
Demographic questionnaire. The demographic questionnaire regarded
age, gender, sport, league of sport participation, regular playing position in
team sports, and years of sport experience. In regard to sport experience
three blank spaces were included for participants to indicate any other ex-
perience in sports besides their present sport.
Player’s goal orientations. A modified Greek version (Papaioannou & Mc-
Donald, 1993; see also Barkoukis, Zahariadis, Anastasiadis, Tsorbatzoudis, &
Grouios, 2004) of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sports Questionnaire
(TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992) was used to assess players’ goal orientations.
The TEOSQ comprises 13 items; seven of these items represent task-oriented
goals (e.g., "I learn a new skill by trying hard"), and six represent ego-oriented
goals (e.g., "I’m the best"). Answers are given in a five-point Likert type scale
ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ = 1 to ‘strongly agree’ = 5. The stem for each
of the thirteen items was "When playing football/handball/tennis I feel success-
ful when….". Separate mean scores were computed on the items of the respec-
tive subscale (i.e., task or ego orientation). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for Ego
and Task orientation for the present sample was .78 and .76, respectively.
Perceived coach’s goal orientations. To assess players’ perception of the de-
gree of importance their coach places on task- and ego-involvement goals,
the previously mentioned Greek version of TEOSQ was modified to create
the 13-item TEOSQ-PPC (Player’s Perception of Coach). The validity of the
original TEOSQ-PPC was confirmend by Stephens and Bredemeier (1996).
The TEOSQ-PPC is identical to the TEOSQ with two exceptions: (a) in
TEOSQ-PPC the stem for each of the thirteen items was "How important
is it to your coach….", and (b) in TEOSQ-PPC the wording of items was
changed to reflect both the player and his/her team, rather than the player by
himself/herself (e.g., "That your team is the best team"). Cronbach’s alpha co-
efficient for Ego-PPC and Task-PPC orientation for the present sample was
.77 and .81, respectively.
Moral development in sport context 171
Moral judgment. Each participant was administered the modified Greek
version of the Moral Judgment Test (MJT; ªÔ˘Ú·Ù›‰Ô˘, ÷Ù˙fiÔ˘ÏÔ˜,
°ÎÔ‡Ù˙·, & ∫·Ú·Ì·‡ÚÔ˘, 2003) to assess students’ moral judgment. The
MJT was developed by Lind (Lind, 1978, 2002a,b) and is based on Kohlberg’s
structural-developmental theory for moral development. The MJT was se-
lected because it is the only available instrument that measures all aspects of
morality and not separate components of it.
In MJT the individual is presented with two moral dilemmas-stories. The
first story-dilemma concerns workers, who illegally enter the administration
offices of a company in order to find proof for an allegation, and the sec-
ond concerns a doctor, who assists a dying patient to take away her own life
(assisted suicide) according to her request. Participants must express whether
they approve or disapprove a string of arguments (items) in favour of or
against the behaviour described in each story – six items in favour and six
against the behaviour. The participants respond to each item in a 9-point Lik-
ert-type scale ranging from ‘totally disagree’ = -4 to ‘totally agree’ = +4.
Each item corresponds to one of the six of Kohlberg’s stages of moral de-
velopment. An example of an item in favour of the workers’ behaviour, which
corresponds to the developmental stage 1, is "Because they didn’t cause much
damage to the company". Another example of an item against the workers’
behaviour, which corresponds to stage 4, is "Because we would endanger law
and order in society if everyone acted as the two workers did".
The most important index that can be computed from the MJT analysis is
the C-index. The C-index represents a person’s ability to judge the arguments
based on their moral quality. In other words, the C- index (or C-score or
just C) measures the degree to which a person lets his/her judgment to be de-
termined by moral concerns or principles rather than by other psychologi-
cal forces, such as the human tendency to construct arguments in accordance
to one’s opinion or decisions about a certain issue (Lind, 2000a, 2002a, 2003).
According to empirical research on moral judgment, four basic assump-
tions must be met in order for the MJT to be considered valid and reliable
(Lind, 2000b; Lind, 2002a,b). These are: preference hierarchy, quasi-simplex
structure, cognitive-affective parallelism, and correlation with education level.
The above criteria were all met in the Greek version of the MJT as it was
indicated by the relevant study (ªÔ˘Ú·Ù›‰Ô˘ et al., 2003).
Perceived sport ability. Perceived sport ability was measured with a sin-
gle item of how participants evaluate their own ability in their sport. Re-
spondents rated their self-perception on a 10-point Likert-type scale (1-10).
172 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
Specifically, participants were asked, "How would you rate your ability com-
pared with other players in your age?" Although no reliability can be estab-
lished for single-item measures, these types of assessments have been em-
ployed by a number of researchers to assess perceived ability (Hodge &
Petlichkoff, 2000; Pensgaard & Roberts, 2000).
Procedure
The participants completed the questionnaires during their break in training
and under the researchers’ supervision. Participation was voluntary. The
coaches of the athletes were not present during the completion of the ques-
tionnaires. At the beginning it was emphasized to all participants that the
completion of the questionnaires was not any type of test or any other form
of evaluating their progress in sport, and that there were no right or wrong
answers. It was also emphasized how important it is for the participants to
complete the questionnaires on their own without collaborating with each
other. In addition, the athletes were assured that their answers would remain
confidential. No difficulties emerged in item understanding. The procedure
lasted for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Data analysis
The effect of sport type (tennis, football, handball) and the athletes’ level of
competition (amateur or professional) on the athletes’ C-index was
examined with a 3(sport type) x 2(level of competition) ANOVA. In order
to investigate the significance of the differences between the group means
the Scheffe test was used. The effects of sport type (tennis, football,
handball) and the athletes’ level of competition (amateur or professional)
on the athletes’ goal orientations, on the coaches’ goal orientations, as well
as on the perceived sport ability, were examined with a 3(sport type) x
2(level of competition) ANOVA. The age difference between the subgroup
of amateurs and the subgroup of professionals was examined by using a t-
test for independent samples. One-way ANOVA was also applied in order
to investigate how a player’s regular playing position in football affects
his/her moral judgment. Furthermore, in order to examine the relationship
of moral development (C-index) with goal orientations, perceived sport
ability, and years of sport experience Pearson correlation was used. Finally,
a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in order to examine
Moral development in sport context 173
whether the goal orientations, sport type, level of competition or perceived
ability could predict the players’ C-index. In all analyses a significance level
of p< .05 was utilized.
RESULTS
The effect of the sport type and the league of sport participation on the C-index,
on goal orientations and on perceived sport competence
To test the effect of sport type (tennis, football, handball) and level of com-
petition (league of sport participation, i.e., amateur or professional) we ap-
plied a 3(type of sport) x 2(level of competition) ANOVA with the C-index
as the dependent variable in the whole group. The main effect of sport type
was significant, F(2, 164) = 8.383, p< .01. The Scheffe test indicated a sta-
tistically significant difference only between the tennis and the handball play-
ers (p< .05). The main effect of the athletes’ level of competition was also
significant, F(1, 164) = 10.632, p< .01. Amateurs scored significantly higher
than professionals in the C-index. There was no significant interaction
between the two factors, namely sport type and level of competition.
Table 1 shows the means and the standard deviations of the C-index
according to the sport type and the athletes’ level of competition. As it can
be seen in Table 1, tennis players (individual sport of low physical contact)
scored higher in C-index, followed by the footballers (team sport of
medium physical contact) and with the handball players to follow (team
sport of high physical contact).
174 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
Table 1. Athletes’ C-index as a function of sport type and level of competition
Sport type Level of competition M SD N
Tennis Amateur 21.23 11.15 35
Professional 19.36 10.28 24
Total 20.47 10.75 59
Football Amateur 19.20 8.78 52
Professional 8.30 5.74 6
Total 18.08 9.11 58
Handball Amateur 15.73 10.16 38
Professional 9.74 8.43 15
Total 14.03 10.00 53
Total Amateur 18.72 10.06 125
Professional 14.67 10.36 45
To test the effect of sport type (tennis, football, handball) and level of
competition (league of sport participation, i.e., amateur or professional) on
goal orientations of athletes and coaches, and on perceived competence we
applied a 3(type of sport) x 2(level of competition) ANOVA with the play-
ers’ task- and ego orientation, perceived coaches’ task- and ego orientation,
and perceived sport competence as the dependent variables in the whole
group. Sport type was the only factor that had a significant effect on the
players’ task orientation and on the perceived coaches’ task orientation,
F(2, 164) = 5.156, p< .01 and F(2, 164) = 3.585, p< .05, respectively.
Sport type and level of competition had no effect on ego orientation and
perceived sport competence.
Table 2 shows the means and the standard deviations of the players’ and
of the coaches’ task orientation according to each sport type. As can be
seen from Table 2, the tennis players scored higher in task orientation fol-
lowed by the footballers and with the handball players last. The same re-
sults were observed for the coaches as far as task orientation is concerned.
Therefore, sport type significantly affected both players’ and perceived
coaches’ task orientation and C-index, whereas level of competition af-
fected only C-index and not players’ and perceived coaches’ goal orienta-
tions. Finally, sport type and level of competition had no effect on per-
ceived competence.
The effect of the athletes’ position in football on their level of moral development
To investigate how players’ regular playing position in football affects their
moral judgment, a one-way ANOVA was applied to the group of football
players. Table 3 shows the means (M) and the standard deviations (SD)
of the C-index according to the athletes’ playing position in football (de-
fensive, central, and offensive players).
Moral development in sport context 175
Table 2. Athletes’ task orientation and coaches’ task orientation as a function of sport type
Task orientation Sport type M SD N
Players’ task orientation Tennis 4.28 .54 59
Football 4.24 .82 58
Handball 3.83 .96 53
Total 4.13 .81 170
Coaches’ task orientation Tennis 4.42 .48 59
Football 4.19 .81 58
Handball 3.95 .95 53
Total 4.20 .78 170
As shown in Table 3 the defensive and the central players exhibited simi-
lar mean scores in C-index, which are lower than the mean score of the of-
fensive players. However, the analysis of variance showed that there was no
significant difference between the three positions, F(2, 48) = 1.245, p > .05.
Therefore, the players’ position does not affect their moral judgment. In
a similar ANOVA with dependent variables the players’ and perceived
coaches’ goal orientations as well as perceived competence showed no main
effect of playing position on them nor any interaction with level of com-
petition.
Correlations between C-index, perceived sport ability, years of experience in
sport, and goal orientations
The C-index showed a low positive correlation with perceived sport abil-
ity (r= .342, p< .05) and a very low negative correlation with years of ex-
perience, which was nonsignificant (r= -.025, p> .05). The positive cor-
relation of the C-index with athletes’ perceived sport ability is in accordance
with the prediction that the greater the perceived ability the higher one’s
C-index. On the contrary, the nonsignificant low negative correlation of the
C-index with the athletes’ years of experience does not verify the hy-
pothesis of the inverse relationship between years of sport experience and
moral judgment.
Table 4 shows the Pearson Product Moment correlations between the
C-index and athletes’ goal orientations and perceived goal orientations of
their coaches. In Table 4 it can be seen that there was a low marginally sig-
nificant negative correlation between the C-index and the players’ ego ori-
entation (r= -.163, p< .05) and a low positive correlation with their task
orientation (r= .306, p< .01). These findings are in accordance with the
hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the C-index and task
orientation and a negative correlation between the C-index and ego ori-
entation.
176 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
Table 3. C-index as a function of playing position in football
Position N M SD
Defence 20 16.04 9.38
Center 16 16.31 10.11
Offence 15 20.65 8.09
Total 51 17.48 9.31
Finally, it is worth noting that the players’ goal orientation was highly re-
lated to their coach’s respective perceived goal. Furthermore, the players’
C-index exhibited a moderate positive correlation with the players’ percep-
tion of their coaches promoting a task-oriented motivational climate (r=
.280, p< .01) and a nonsignificant negative correlation with players’ per-
ception of their coaches promoting an ego-oriented motivational climate
(Table 4). These findings are in accordance with the hypothesis that there is
a positive correlation between the C-index and a motivational task-oriented
climate. On the contrary, they do not support the hypothesis of the negative
correlation between the C-index and ego-oriented motivational climate.
To examine the extent to which players’ goal orientations2, perceived
sport ability, sport type, and level of competition can predict the players’ C-
index, a regression analysis was conducted. In the first model we included
only two of the four aforementioned variables, namely goal orientations
(task- and ego orientation) and perceived sport ability. In the second analy-
sis all four variables (i.e., goal orientations, perceived sport ability, sport
type, and level of competition) were included. The analysis showed that the
second model explained higher percentage of the C-index variance, R2=
.27, F(5, 164) = 12.39, p< .01, than the model that depicted only person-
ality characteristics of the players, R2= .19, F(3, 166) =13.6, p< .01.
Specifically, the 2-factor model showed that perceived competence, beta =
1.85, T= 4.19, p< .01, task orientation, beta = 2.99, T= 3.32, p < .01, and
ego orientation, beta = -1.71, T= -2.04, p< .05, were all significant pre-
dictors of C-index. The 4-factor model involved perceived ability as the best
predictor, beta = .30, T= 4.42, p< .01, followed by sport type, beta = -.21,
Moral development in sport context 177
Table 4. Pearson's correlations between the C-index and the achievement goal orientations
C-index Players’ ego Players’ task Coaches’ ego
(MJT) orientation orientation orientation
(TEOSQ) (TEOSQ) (TEOSQ-PPC)
Players’ ego orientation (TEOSQ) -.163* 1.000
Players’ task orientation (TEOSQ) .306** -.089 1.000
Coaches’ ego orientation (TEOSQ-PPC) -.118 .609** .010 1.000
Coaches’ task orientation (TEOSQ-PPC) .280** -.127 .603** .039
Note. * p< .05. ** p< .01.
2. The goal orientations of the coaches were not included in the regression analysis because there
was a high correlation between the athletes’ ego-task orientations and the coaches’ ego-task
orientations as they are perceived by the athletes themselves.
T= 3.13, p< .01, level of competition, beta = -.20, T= 3.10, p< .01, task
orientation, beta = .19, T= 2.75, p< .01, and ego orientation, beta = -.13,
T= -2.01, p< .05. Thus, our results showed that despite the fact that sport
type and level of competition did not affect players’ perceived competence,
perceived competence is critical for athletes’ moral functioning. Further-
more, goal orientations still maintain an independent effect on C-index, be-
yond that of sport type and level of competition.
DISCUSSION
The present study was designed to examine (a) if athletes’ moral judgment is
affected by the sport type, the level of competition, and their regular play-
ing position, and (b) the possible relations between moral judgment and the
overall years of athletic experience, self-perception of sport ability, and
achievement goal orientations.
The results of this study both support and extend extant knowledge about
moral development in sports context. Specifically, as regards the effect of
sport type on C-index, the findings of this study suggest that the degree of
physical contact plays an important role in the athletes’ moral judgment.
Therefore, an athlete who participates in a low contact sport tends to have
a higher moral development index compared to an athlete participating in
a high contact sport. These results are in accordance with other related stud-
ies that indicated that low levels of physical contact are related to higher
moral judgment (Bredemeier et al., 1986; Silva, 1983; Tucker & Parkis, 2001).
Probably, the more the level of physical contact increases, the more the ag-
gressive tendencies and/or the athletes’ perceptions that less ethical acts are
permissible. Furthermore, this relationship between the C-index and sport
type was confirmed through regression analysis, since sport type was the sec-
ond best predictor, after perceived ability, for the players’ C-index.
In addition, another important factor that affects athletes’ moral devel-
opment is the level of sport participation namely, being amateur or profes-
sional. It was shown in the present study that as the level of participation in
sports increased the players’ C-index decreased. This finding is in accordance
with the results of previous studies, which also examined how the level of
competition in which the players are involved is related to their moral be-
haviour (Beller & Stoll, 1995; Silva, 1983; Stephens, 2001). Generally, both
the present study and the ones mentioned above suggest that professional-
178 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
ism, which is closely linked to strong competition, is a significant reason for
lowering a person’s character. Thus, athletes participating in higher compe-
tition levels are characterized by lower levels in moral development, such
as the pre-conventional level. This finding suggests that their moral decisions
are the result of external pressures or influences, rather than of internal
moral values. Furthermore, this difference in the level of moral development
between professional and amateur athletes cannot be attributed to the age
difference between the two subgroups, since the average chronological age
of the professionals was similar to that of the amateurs. The impact of the
level of competition on the C-index was further confirmed through regres-
sion analysis, which indicated that the level of competition played a signifi-
cant role in predicting a player’s C-index.
An issue that was examined for the first time in the present study was how
the players’ regular playing position in football (which is a team sport) affects
their index of moral development. The results showed that although the dif-
ferences among offensive, defensive and central players was not significant,
there was a tendency for the offensive players to have a higher index of moral
development than the defensive or central players. However, our primary hy-
pothesis that defensive players would have lower moral judgment than of-
fensive ones was not verified. A probable explanation is that nowadays, dur-
ing a football game, the roles of players are multiple, that is, a defensive play-
er could play as an offensive one, either because of game tactics or due to
an injury. Nonetheless, further research with more participants is needed re-
garding this issue.
Two more variables which were examined were the years of experience in
the field of sports and the athletes’ perceived ability regarding their par-
ticular sport. The results showed that there was a moderate positive corre-
lation between the moral development index and perceived sport ability. This
finding suggests that the more able an athlete feels, the less he/she succumbs
to rule violations of the game and the less likely he/she is to adopt anti-
athletic behaviour. This finding is in accordance with a previous study which
indicated that athletes with low perceived ability presented the lowest respect
for rules and officials, and endorsed cheating in order to achieve their goals
(Lemyre et al., 2002). In addition, the results of the hierarchical regression
analysis showed that perceived sport ability was the best predictor for ath-
letes’ C-index, followed by sport type, level of competence, task orientation
and ego orientation. It seems that perceived sport ability is a more significant
factor for predicting the C-index compared to other factors concerning the
Moral development in sport context 179
sport context. Apparently, when someone feels competent this affects posi-
tively his/her morality compared to someone else, who doesn’t feel compe-
tent. Therefore, it seems necessary during relevant intervention programmes
in schools to emphasize the promotion of positive perceived sport ability.
However, even though findings from previous studies suggested that the years
of experience in sport adversely affected athletes’ moral behaviour (Blair,
1985; Gardner & Janelle, 2002; Potter & Wandzilak, 1981; Silva, 1983), the
results of the present study did not support this finding. The correlation be-
tween the length of sport participation and the C-index was nonsignificant.
This fact can be attributed to the participants’ young age and hence their
short-term experience in the field of athletics. However, this hypothesis has
to be tested in future research.
Concerning the possible relationship between perceived coaches’ goal ori-
entation and athletes’ moral judgment, our results suggest that the more the
athletes perceive that the motivational climate their coach promotes is ego-
oriented, the more their level of moral judgement decreases. Findings from
a previous study also indicated that an ego-oriented perceived motivational
climate correlated positively with the likelihood that the players would act ag-
gressively against an opponent (Stephens & Bredemeier, 1996). Therefore,
it seems that the moral atmosphere, which prevails in a sport, affects players’
moral behaviour and their readiness to endorse unsportspersonlike play. Fi-
nally, in the present study it was confirmed that there was a positive corre-
lation between moral judgment and task orientation, and a negative corre-
lation with ego orientation. This has been shown in a plethora of other stud-
ies and is an area that has been investigated thoroughly (Duda et al., 1991;
Dunn & Dunn, 1999; Lemyre et al., 2002; Kavussanu & Roberts, 2001;
Kavussanu et al., 2002; ¶·˘ÏÔÔ‡ÏÔ˘ et al., 2003). However, since it has been
shown that the sport type affects the players’ and perceived coaches’ goal ori-
entations (particularly in individual sports, such as tennis, the players as well
as the coaches tend to be more task oriented than in team sports, such as
football, as our results have shown), it seems that the expression of an ath-
lete’s moral behaviour depends not only on a task-oriented motivational cli-
mate per se, but also on other factors. This fact was also confirmed through
the two models of regression analysis, which showed that the players’ goal ori-
entations could predict the athletes’ C-index. However, more significant pre-
dictors were the sport type and the level of competition.
In conclusion it can be said that sole participation in athletics is not by
itself a sufficient and necessary condition for building character. If the goal
180 S. Mouratidou, D. Chatzopoulos, & S. Karamavrou
of participation in athletics is among others to support the moral develop-
ment of athletes, then it is necessary for other appropriate conditions to co-
exist, such as competition and/or the ego-oriented motivational climate, and
in general to create an atmosphere which emphasizes the principles of fair
play, the adherence to rules and respect towards the opponents and the of-
ficers. Future studies should examine how the playing position of an athlete
in a sport team influences his/her moral development and his/her readiness
to violate the rules. Since the perceived sport ability, sport type, level of com-
petence and orientation goals in predicting the C-index were examined for
the first time in the present study, further research is suggested. Moreover,
the examination of athletes’ moral judgment during ‘big events’ – such as the
Olympic games or other international organizations – could possibly detect
any changes in moral behaviour during the competition period.
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