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neurologyYou need to know

• Deviance in sport is behaviour that breaks the accepted rules, norms or ethical values of sport, such as doping, deliberate violence, cheating or match-fixing.
• Ethics are moral principles used to judge whether behaviour in sport is fair, honest, responsible and respectful.
• Doping is the use of a substance or method prohibited by anti-doping regulations to gain an advantage or alter sporting performance.
• A legal supplement is permitted under sporting rules and national law; examples include protein supplements and creatine, although supplements may still carry health or contamination risks.
• An illegal drug breaks the law, whereas a banned performance-enhancing substance breaks sporting regulations; a substance can be banned in sport without being illegal in wider society.
• Performance-enhancing drugs include anabolic steroids, which can increase muscle mass and strength, erythropoietin, which can increase the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity, and stimulants, which can increase alertness and delay fatigue.
• Elite performers may dope to improve performance, recover more quickly, manage injury, secure selection, gain financial rewards or respond to pressure from coaches, sponsors, teammates or supporters.
• Doping is unethical because it can create an unfair advantage, undermine equal competition and conflict with values such as honesty and respect.
• Doping can harm performers through physical and psychological side effects, damage to reputation, loss of earnings, disqualification, stripped results and lengthy or permanent bans.
• Doping can damage sport by making results less credible, reducing public trust, discouraging participation and causing the loss of spectators, sponsors and media income.
• Doping can affect society by presenting harmful role models, normalising drug use and increasing pressure on young athletes to take health risks to succeed.
• Anti-doping strategies include education, random in-competition and out-of-competition testing, biological passports, investigations, clear sanctions and cooperation between sporting and law-enforcement organisations.
• Athletes are responsible for substances found in their bodies under the principle of strict liability, even when a banned substance was taken unintentionally.
• A therapeutic use exemption may permit an athlete to use an otherwise prohibited substance or method when it is medically necessary and approved under anti-doping rules.
• Player violence may be caused by frustration, retaliation, aggression, pressure to win, poor officiating, provocation, role models or the physical nature of a sport.
• Spectator violence may be caused by rivalry, alcohol or drug use, crowd provocation, poor security, controversial decisions and deindividuation.
• Deindividuation occurs when people in a crowd feel anonymous and less personally responsible, making them more likely to copy aggressive group behaviour.
• Violence can injure performers and spectators, lead to bans or criminal charges, damage the reputation and finances of a sport, and create policing and healthcare costs for society.
• Strategies for preventing player violence include clear rules, consistent officiating, disciplinary sanctions, video review, education and anger-management support; spectator violence can be reduced through segregation, stewarding, policing, alcohol controls, surveillance and stadium bans.

• Classify sporting examples as legal supplementation, illegal drug use or doping, using sporting rules and the law to justify each decision.
• Explain why an elite performer might use a prohibited substance by linking performance, social and financial pressures to the decision.
• Analyse the consequences of doping separately for performers, sport and wider society, using clear chains of cause and effect.
• Evaluate the ethics of drug use in sport by considering fairness, athlete welfare, informed choice and the credibility of competition.
• Assess the effectiveness of anti-doping strategies, including testing, education and sanctions, and support a judgement with evidence.
• Analyse a case study of player or spectator violence by identifying causes, consequences and appropriate prevention strategies.
• Apply the concept of deindividuation to explain why an individual may behave more aggressively as part of a sporting crowd.
• Construct a balanced written argument about drugs in sport, using accurate examples, counterarguments and a justified conclusion.
• Answer extended exam questions using developed points that link a cause, consequence or strategy to a named sporting context.