Perceptions of justice involving disciplinary decisions for a star player in an intercollegiate team sport setting were investigated. Male and female intercollegiate athletes (N = 142) at a midsized southeastern university responded to one of sixteen scenarios and reported perceptions of fairness for the punished athlete and teammates, perceptions of procedural fairness for the punished athlete and teammates, and whether the punishment was likely to deter future misconduct by the punished athlete and teammates. The results indicated that athletes perceived consistently applied punishment as more fair to all team members than they did conditional punishment; consistently applied punishment was perceived as more likely to deter future misconduct for all team members than was conditional punishment; severe punishment was perceived as more likely to deter future misconduct to the punished athlete than was moderate punishment; and punishment that appropriately matches the severity of the violation was perceived as more fair than punishment that was overly for the violation severity.

The present study examined procedural and distributive justice outcomes of discipline in an athletic team setting. A 2 (Consistency of Punishment: consistent vs. conditional) x 2 (Violation Severity: moderate vs. severe) x 2 (Punishment Severity: moderate vs. severe) x 2 (Decision Maker: head coach vs. team captains) factorial design was used. Participants responded to four of the 16 hypothetical scenarios resulting from the design. Participants included 354 fans in attendance at a several university athletic events and students in psychology courses. The results indicated that consistent punishment was perceived as more fair to the punished athlete, teammates, and fans than was conditional punishment. Consistent punishment was perceived as more likely than conditional punishment to deter future misconduct by the punished athlete and teammates. The findings of the importance of consistency to fairness perceptions are consistent with the organizational justice literature and suggest that principles derived in traditional organizations may apply in athletic team settings. However, the current study did not find that severe punishment was more likely than moderately severe punishment to deter future misconduct by the punished athlete and teammates, which was inconsistent with the research literature on punishment. The present research indicated that inconsistencies in applying punishment based on status likely will have a negative effect on fairness perceptions in an athletic setting just as it does in an organizational setting. Intercollegiate athletics are unique in the sense that there are many outside observers, most notably fans, who pay close attention to athlete misconduct and its subsequent outcome. According to the present results, if coaches are interested in fan perceptions of fairness, punishment should be consistently applied according to team rules for all players regardless of their status on the team.

Tittle: Childrensˈopinions on Track and Field and their attitudes towards the practices in athletic clubs of Prague 6 (comparative study) Student: Bc. Lucie Drncová Supervisor: PhDr. Aleš Kaplan, Ph.D. Main goals: an investigation of the attitudes and opinions towards Track and Field and athletic practices for school age children in the selected clubs in Prague 6, a monitoring of selected world and Czech popular track and field athletes and also an exploration of the knowledge of important track and field athletes by children in this age group. Methodology: A survey was used in order to meet the main goals of this work. Four athletic clubs from Prague 6 that work with the youth were asked to participate in this survey. N = 154 completed questionnaires were collected. Questionnaires were divided into categories by gender and also by age. The interviewees were between the ages of 8 and 12. The main scope and purpose of the research was to investigate the attitudes, beliefs and motivation of children to do track and field and its various disciplines. In this study we were also interested in the children knowledge of the most famous world and Czech athletic personalities. Results: Research has shown that there are no major differences in attitudes and opinions between the boys and girls or between the...