11 factors affecting equity and access at the individual level

Factors affecting equity and access at the

individual level

Figueroa’s Framework

The concepts of equity, access and equality are difficult to define and understand. They present complex issues for discussion and provide individuals and society with significant challenges.

The framework developed by Professor Peter Figueroa has been a useful tool in the investigation of issues and ideas surrounding equity, access and equality in exercise, sport and physical activity.

Figueroa’s Framework

The framework is constructed across five separate levels (individual, interpersonal, institutional, structural and cultural) with each level strongly interconnected with the others.

Each specific level contributes a role in shaping the adjoining levels. It also indicates the different functions that each of us can play in creating or removing, reinforcing or eliminating barriers, inequities and access in exercise, sport and physical activity.

We cannot overcome all barriers by simply acting at the individual level. Instead, all the different levels of the framework need to work cooperatively to effectively overcome these barriers and challenge the inequities that exist.

Figueroa’s Framework

Personalisation is an important organising principle in our study in Physical Education. It is therefore appropriate that we begin an outline and discussion at Figueroa’s individual level. This also indicates the important personal role that we can play in addressing issues of inequity in exercise, sport and physical activity.

The individual level is involved with our own attitudes, values and beliefs, particularly those related to stereotypes and prejudices. The individual level encourages us to think critically about our own perceptions of exercise, sport and physical activity.

What factors have been involved in shaping our own attitudes, values and beliefs? What factors have been important and influenced our own participation, access and opportunities in exercise, sport and physical activity?

Individual Level

The individual level of Figueroa’s framework is involved with our own attitudes, values and beliefs, particularly those related to stereotypes and prejudices. This level encourages us to think critically about our own perceptions of exercise, sport and physical activity.

A complex range of factors interact to influence our participation at the individual level of involvement in sport and physical activity. The degree to which we take part is determined by a myriad of complex reasons.

Many factors impact on an individual’s capacity to gain access to, or be treated equitably in, various settings in exercise, sport and physical activity. These factors can encourage, or severely restrict an individual’s participation.

Individual Level

Abraham Maslow (1898–1970) was a psychologist who developed a theory concerning a hierarchy of human needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the individual does not fulfill the second need until the demands of the first have been achieved or the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. This theory accurately describes many realities of individual experiences. You may be able to relate each of these human needs to your own and others’ participation in exercise, sport and physical activity.

Satisfaction, personalpreferences and human needs

Referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, evaluate how your personal involvement in exercise, sport and physical activity has contributed towards your ‘journey’ to self-actualisation.

How has this contributed to each of Maslow’s needs for you as an individual?

Learning Experience

Body image (or ‘body concept’ as it is sometimes called) refers to the image you have of your own body and how you feel about it. If you are happy with your body shape and size, you have a positive body image. If you are conscious of not being the desired shape or size, then you have a poor body image

Body image and self-concept

‘Self-image’ and ‘self-concept’ have similar meanings. They refer to the picture you have of yourself as a total person. Your self-image includes your body image, personality, intellectual capacity and ability to ‘fi t’ into society.

People with a positive self-image feel satisfied with life and the role they play in society. On the other hand, people with a negative self-image generally see themselves as not fitting into society and therefore find many situations threatening.

Self-image and self-concept

Self-esteem is closely linked to self-image. It refers to the feelings you have about yourself that are based on your self-image. Self-esteem describes an individual’s overall evaluation of themselves, or how they feel about themselves.

People with low self-esteem generally suffer from feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, self-doubt and inferiority.

Those who have high self-esteem generally feel happy, assume active roles in social groups and express their views frequently and effectively. Generally speaking, high self-esteem generates self-confidence.

Self-esteem

How you view yourself and how others view you are sometimes very different. During the last 20 years, there has been considerable research on how our body image and self-image develop, the connection between body image and self-esteem, and the effects that physical activity has on body image.

We all have an image inside our head of what our body looks like. This image is affected by cultural messages and societal conditioning, our personal attitudes and feelings towards our bodies, and the attitudes of peers and family members. Perhaps the most valuable finding of this research is that people with a positive body image tend to have a positive self-image and greater self-esteem than those who have a poor body image.

Therefore, development of a good body image is an essential ingredient in developing self-confidence and a positive outlook on life. A positive body image is a significant factor in our participation in physical activity.

The importance of a positive body image

MULTI-MODAL TASKWhich individual factors have been most influential on your own participation in exercise, sport and physical activity?

Propose and justify reasons why they have been most influential.

Learning Experience

The classical Greek philosopher Plato (429–347 BCE ) suggested that ‘we are bound to our bodies, like an oyster to its shell’. In many ways, Plato identified that we each have a specific genetic predisposition for involvement in physical activity.

We are born with a specific genetic makeup, which we cannot change. However, the debate about the ‘nature’ or ‘nurture’ of athletes has been going on for decades and has been the subject of considerable research. This debate revolves around whether athletes are ‘born’ or ‘made’.

In 1987 Birrer and Levine identified that success in competitive performance was dependent upon a number of significant mental and physical components.

Our body shape, known as somatotype , our motor skill development, age, nutritional status and physiology, psychology, training level, genetic endowment and injury risk are some of the major independent variables influencing performance.

Genetic predisposition to exercise,sport and physical activity

Although the first attempts at classifying human bodies have been attributed to Hippocrates (460–377 BCE ), a Greek physician who is considered to be the founder of modern medicine, a systematic approach did not emerge until the twentieth century.

Of these pioneering research efforts, WH Sheldon, in 1954, described a body-shape classifi cation of the relationships between human physique and personality that remains the best known and most controversial.

Sheldon’s research resulted in a system of categorising body shapes in terms of ectomorphy, endomorphy and mesomorphy (i.e. in terms of relative proportions of fatty tissue, muscle and bone).

Somatotype and body shape

In the mid-1960s, the sports physician JM Tanner extended Sheldon’s research in a study of Olympic athletes and attempted to link specific body shapes to specific athletic events.

He endeavoured to identify males with suitable physical characteristics to predict athletic potential. Although mesomorphy, and to a lesser extent ectomorphy, are positively associated with enhanced performance, successful athletes tend to have somatotypes characteristic of individuals already successful in a particular sport.

A broad variation of exceptions can occur. Research has widely established that body shape and somatotype can be altered by participation in exercise, sport and physical activity.

Somatotype and body shape

The belief that natural talent is a primary determinant of exceptional sporting performance is reinforced regularly by media reports and broadcasts.‘Highly skilled’ and ‘talented’ are used synonymously. However, some researchers now contend that, contrary to this belief, exceptional sporting performance can be attributed to extended amounts of high-quality practice and training, with innate abilities playing a minimal role. European-based research during the 1970s investigated ‘sport talent detection’. During this decade, scientist countries such as the then Soviet Union and East Germany searched schools throughout their countries to identify young children who demonstrated skills and aptitudes that were supposedly going to lead to success in sport performance. The scientists attempted to predict performance by measuring a range of abilities, including psychological testing, as well as testing physiological and technical abilities, particularly in the Eastern bloc

Talent identification in sport

These talent-identification programs have continued in current-day sports science and have achieved varying results. Talent identification results in the capacity to ‘fast track’ athletes who have demonstrated abilities, streamlining their preparation, with an aim to produce optimal returns for an ‘investment’ in sports.

An individual’s growth and development is also a major confounding variable in talent identification during adolescence, according to research conducted by Pearson, Naughton and Torode (2006). They describe numerous hormonal changes during puberty which result in physical (e.g. height and body mass) and physiological (e.g. level of oxygen uptake) characteristics important for sporting performance.

Therefore, significant changes during puberty make the prediction of adult performance from adolescent data difficult.

Talent identification in sport

RESEARCH TASKCreate a series of tests that might indicate talent in competitive swimming. Justify why these tests are valid and reliable indicators of talented performance.

Learning Experience

Our personal beliefs, values and attitudes are important determinants in our participation in exercise, sport and physical activity. It is well documented that an individual’s core beliefs in any given area of their life will ultimately determine the perspectives from which they view their own life experiences and whether these experiences are positive or negative. Our personal beliefs include our self-esteem, which has been determined to have a very powerful influence on our participation and that of others. In examining more specific beliefs about ourselves, many researchers have focused on competence (or ability) beliefs , as well as efficacy beliefs and expectancy. These beliefs refer to an individual’s sense of how good they are at given activities and how well they can organise and carry out different tasks. Our competence and efficacy beliefs relate to our performance achievement, the choice we make in given tasks, the amount of effort we exert to achieve the task and the specific strategies we use to achieve our goals, as well as our overall self-worth.

Personal beliefs, values and attitudes

Our individual values present another important set of influences on the decisions and choices we make about exercise, sport and physical activity.

Values are often defined in terms of observations of what is ‘socially desirable’. They are considered as guidelines for actions. These personal values become the underlying and often unspoken assumptions on which our own personal and social goals are based.

We often assess our own behaviour and that of others in terms of those values. Expressions of these values are frequently observed in our participation in exercise, sport and physical activity. They are also evident in our interactions with others, the way in which we express ourselves and how we give meaning to our own and others’ involvement in physical activity.

Personal beliefs, values and attitudes

Values and beliefs are strongly linked. Some researchers have examined individuals’ subjective valuing of different activities along with individuals’ beliefs about their own competencies and expectations for success.

Researchers interested in this relationship argue that, in order to understand achievement behaviour and task choice, the individual’s competence beliefs and values are required to be known.

For example, despite an individual’s belief that they are competent at a particular activity and that they can perform effectively in that activity, they may not engage effectively, because they do not value that specific activity.

Personal beliefs, values and attitudes

Queensland Senior PE (2011 Draft)Focus Area CEquity and access to exercise, sport and physical activity in Australian society

References

Theory: Figueroa > Interpersonal Level Prac: Mini Swimming Carnival!

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