COMMITTED TO TRI: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF TRIATHLETES AND COMMITMENT
Braden Jeffrey HoschLawrence J. Redlinger, PhD.
Supervising Professor
The University of Texas at Dallas
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Copyright © 1994
Braden Jeffrey Hosch
All Rights Reserved
First web pulishing:
Copyright © 2000
Bound copy available from Department of General Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson TX, 75080. There may be a nominal fee for loan or reproduction.
TABLE OF CONTENTS*
*An effort has been made to preserve the page numbers of the originally bound thesis.
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Page
Table 1.........................................................21
Figure 1........................................................29
Figure 2........................................................30
Figure 3........................................................31
Figure 4........................................................31
Table 2.........................................................33
Figure 5a ......................................................37
Figure 5b ......................................................37
Table 3.........................................................45
Table 4.........................................................45
Table 5.........................................................55
Table 6.........................................................56
Table 7.........................................................57
Table 8.........................................................60
Table 9.........................................................67
Richardson, Texas
August, 1994
ABSTRACT
A general theory of commitment was first proposed by Howard Becker in 1960 postulating commitment to be a function of side bets, and a survey of 453 male and female triathletes was conducted in 1992 to empirically test Becker's side bet theory. The results of the study suggest that the side bet model is too narrow and that commitment is better explained by a model of overlapping investments. The complexity of overlapping investments seems to increase following David Matza's (1969) model for becoming deviant. More research is needed to confirm the accuracy of this three step model for the process of becoming committed.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Linda Anderson for developing and conducting the survey for this study. Thanks also to Dr. Mel Lateer for computer consultation. Special thanks to Dr. Lawrence J. Redlinger who inspired this project and contributed to it at every level.INTRODUCTION
Triathlon is a relatively recent cultural phenomenon. While its true origins are somewhat unclear, folklore has it that the race was conceived as method to settle a bet among a swimmer, a cyclist, and a distance runner in a Hawaiian barroom in the late 1970s; the first official triathlon competition, however, occurred in 1978. Since then triathlon has exploded into a major sport. While the Triathlon Federation (Tri-Fed), the national governing body of the sport in the United States, reports a membership of just over 17,000 individuals in 1994, it is estimated that over a million people participate in at least one triathlon every year. Indeed, while only about 500 triathlons are officially sanctioned in 1994, it is estimated that almost 2000 more unsanctioned triathlons will be held in the same period of time. Even college campuses have gotten into the act, as student groups on campuses ranging from UCLA to Swarthmore College have sponsored triathlons which draw students, faculty, and other members of the community into the sport. Since no license is required to stage a triathlon and the only entry requirements for most races are a few dollars, a bicycle, a swimsuit, a pair of running shoes, and a willingness to brutalize one's body for an hour or two, the sport requires no formal hierarchy to govern it. In short, the informal nature of the sport combined with the relative lack of barriers to participate suggest that the triathlon scene is little more than controlled anarchy.As in most sports, the vast majority of participants in triathlon are not professional [page 10] athletes. Only a few elite triathletes are able to make their living simply by competing, and so the sport is really driven and supported by the millions of participants who finish in the middle of their age groups and those who even barely finish the race. Most of these people have jobs during the week working in industry, earning a living along with everyone else. But even though these triathletes are not the high profile, elite athletes of the sport, they are by no means average individuals.
Indeed, to the average individual just completing, much less competing in, a triathlon seems like sheer madness. An average triathlon lasts for about 2 hours (plus or minus 40 minutes depending on the length of the race and the athlete's ability level), although so-called Ironman triathlons which consist of a 2.5 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a marathon can last up to 16 hours. Spending a day of one's weekend swimming, biking, and running at race pace in sweltering heat hardly seems like leisure activity to the average individual, and that is only the competition itself. Most triathletes train at least five days a week for about two hours a day, making them not just fit, but ultra-fit. General fitness, however, is not the reason most triathletes compete; indeed, the excessive level of strenuous physical exertion required of the triathlete can be quite harmful. The grueling physical demand on a triathlete's body leads to numerous medical problems such as dehydration, heat exhaustion (Hiller et al. 1987), temporary genital numbness in males (Highet 1987) [page 11], and overuse injuries (O'Toole et al 1989 and Collins et al 1989). However some medical problems caused by such rigorous physical activity can be serious or even fatal, especially heart problems (Douglas et al. 1987 and Leon and Blackburn 1977). Indeed forcing one's heart to work at 90% of maximum capacity for over an hour is quite dangerous. In short, triathlon is not a safe leisurely activity to promote good health, rather it is a test of human endurance which pushes the mind and body to dangerous extremes of exhaustion.
So why would an individual first become involved in triathlons and then continue to compete in them for years? Indeed, only the individuals who continue to compete who are considered "triathletes," not those who merely complete one triathlon to prove they can do it and then never compete in one again. These one-shot people are merely the thrill-seekers who proceed from challenge to challenge just to prove they can surpass any obstacle. They may run a triathlon here, climb a mountain there, and bungee jump somewhere else, but never become committed to any one activity.
Of course, triathlon has its share of this later type of individual, as do all sports and other endeavors. There is a revolving door through which many rookies pass into the triathlon circuit and then immediately walk right back out, but what about those participants who stay? These are the competitors who enter a second triathlon, and a third, and a fourth. Maybe they begin to subscribe to Triathlete Magazine in order to learn better training techniques, or maybe they buy new, high-tech bicycles in hopes that [page 12] quality equipment will lead to quality performances. Whatever the details are in each particular case, the bottom line is that these people make the transition from transitory participants to full-fledged triathletes.
Through their behaviors, these individuals become triathletes, and becoming a triathlete is a gradual process which mandates the acquisition of a good deal of event-specific equipment, a new set of behaviors, and even a new set of peers. In short, becoming a triathlete requires adopting a new identity by means of making a series of commitments to the sport. In fact, becoming a triathlete is just one variation of the general process of becoming committed to anything at all. But once a person has become a triathlete, the individual must continue to train and compete in order to maintain his or her identity as a triathlete. In other words, a person must first become committed and then stay committed to the sport.
As researchers, we have to be wary not only how we define commitment, but also how we go about finding it. In a sense, we are detectives looking for clues as to where commitment is and what it might be. This study attempts to find the footprints of commitment in the lives of people for whom triathlon is a way of life. For the most part, these are not the professionals who are seen on television every now and then, but the unsung masses of triathletes who are the driving force behind the sport.
Unlike decathletes who are almost all professional or elite college athletes, triathletes are individuals who usually begin to compete in a sport which pushes competitors to the edge of their [page 13] physical capabilities long after their athletic prime. In addition, triathletes compete in their spare time as a leisure activity, not as a means to earn a living. Nonetheless, triathlon is still physically demanding enough that only a select few are able to attempt one and even fewer are willing to try. Commitment to this sort of behavior can be puzzling to those of us who are not triathletes. When asked why they compete, most triathletes respond that they "enjoy the lifestyle" or "gain a sense of structure in their lives," and these types of responses really only make sense to other people who are triathletes themselves. Thus, self-reported behavior and motivations make little or no sense to nontriathletes. Just as triathlon jargon makes no sense to those unacquainted with it (Granskog 1992), nor do triathletes formally think about their levels of commitment when they compete, rather they "just do it," and enjoy it at the same time.
We are left to extrapolate their commitment to the sport from their behavior, and while we may be guided by self-reported psychological factors, we should by no mean be completely reliant on them. Thus, in order to determine how and why some people become committed to triathlon while others do not, we conducted a survey of 453 triathletes which asked not only for self-perceived rewards from triathlon but also for training habits, dietary habits, and purchasing patterns among other things. The combination of all these factors gives us not just an idea of how and why triathletes become committed to the sport but also an idea about the nature of commitment in a general sense. So what do we mean by commitment, and how exactly does it work? Stereotypical portrayals of commitment abound in our culture: the afternoon soap operas depict men and women who dodge commitment in romantic relationships; fervent political radicals demonstrate their commitment to specific causes through protests, hunger strikes, and even violence; and the flighty person who readily abandons his or her job at the mere prospect of a better one is said to lack commitment. Commitment, however, is a slippery term that is often not examined closely enough.
While "commitment" is literally the act of putting together (from Latin, com + mittere), its meaning has evolved somewhat in English. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first extant usage of the word "commit" is Geoffrey Chaucer's Melibeus' Tale "Thanne shul ye committe the kepyng of youre persone to your trewe freendes" in which "commit" means "to entrust or consign to" [COMMIT 1].1 Chaucer's usage of "commit" is intended in this instance to express putting oneself together with or into the care of one's friends. The same meaning is intended in modern English when a person is committed to a mental hospital or some other such institution. That is, the individual in question has been entrusted or consigned1 to the care of medical professionals.
By 1490, "commit" had also come to mean "to do (something [page 15] wrong or reprehensible); to perpetrate, be guilty of (a crime, offence, etc.)" (OED COMMIT6). For example, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," means one should not perform the action of cheating on one's spouse. In this sense, adultery and the unfaithful spouse are put or linked together by performing or committing the act. Again, when these two elements are put together, an associative label is forged; that is, the unfaithful spouse actually becomes an adulterer by committing the act of adultery. Of course, one does not "commit a triathlon" as one might commit a crime, but rather the point is that a commitment always requires an action of some sort to finally cement together the actor with the action. That is, performing the action itself is required to signify the identity of the actor. For instance, it is hard to justify calling Bob a triathlete if he never actually competes in triathlons, whereas Sally, who competes in six triathlons a year, can be called a triathlete without hesitation.
Third, a commitment also incorporates an element of a promise. In the 1786 usage, to commit to something is to "engage or pledge by some implicative act (to a particular course)" (OED COMMIT10). In this sense, the commitment is a promise to do something in the future, to symbolically put oneself together with an action before it is actually performed. Thus, if Bob promises Bill to volunteer his time working at a homeless shelter next weekend, he has committed himself, but if Bob never actually performs the community service, then he has broken his commitment to Bill. This suggests that the notion of commitment involves a social expectation of [page 16] certain future behaviors2. Indeed, once someone has been labelled or signified through an act of commitment, that person is expected to continue that behavior. For instance, once, Bill shoots and kills Bob for not showing up at the shelter, Bill has committed murder; he is signified as a murderer; and is stigmatized as someone who will likely kill again.
Not all labels are permanent, however. Indeed most are not;
most significations must be reifed over and over again. Commitment
requires continually meeting future expectations which is why the
individual who merely completes one triathlon never to compete again
is merely a person who once completed a triathlon, not a "triathlete."
A person can only be signified as a triathlete if he or she first
becomes committed to competing in triathlons on a regular basis and
then stays committed to it. [page 17]
Structural commitments abound in everyday life. One is committed to one's job to some extent because it provides the financial support required to live. That is, you cannot quit your job because you cannot maintain the style of living to which you have become accustomed without the salary you earn from your job. There may be additional structural commitments linked to staying in one's current job such as seniority, pension benefits, health [page 18] benefits, social networks etc. Indeed, once a person gets no satisfaction or enjoyment (i.e. variables which produce affective commitment) from his or her job, the person will often remain in that job simply because of the pension benefits or seniority that would be lost if he or she left the firm.
Howard Becker (1960) suggests that the concept of commitment is an attempt to explain why people follow consistent lines of activity. According to Becker, commitment is a function of side bets made by the individual. A side bet is made when, "the committed person has acted in such a way as to involve other interests of his, originally extraneous to the action he is engaged in, directly to that action" (35). That is, a side bet is a wager which stakes a thing of value that was previously unrelated to the line of action in question. For instance, if while negotiating to buy a car, the interested buyer makes a bet with a third party that he or she will not pay more than $15,000 for the car, the buyer has committed himself or herself to a maximum offer of $15,000. In other words, he or she has made a side bet which effectively commits him or her to a maximum offer of no more than $15,000. The size of the side bet, then, determines how committed the buyer will be to that price. Thus, if the side bet is only for five dollars, the buyer will be less committed to stay below the maximum offer stipulated by the side bet than if the side bet were for $500,000. That is, if in negotiations the buyer finally agrees upon a price of $15,001, his total cost will be $15,006 ($15,000 for the car and $5 for losing the bet with his friend). In the second scenario, [page 19] however, the buyer would pay $15,000 for the car and half a million to his friend for losing the bet, making the total out of pocket cost $515,001!
Similarly, a high entry fee for a triathlon will ensure a higher turnout among those who enter because they have already invested their money, and they will lose the rewards for spending that money if they fail to participate.3 Side bets, of course, need not be economic in nature. They may involve wagers of time, self-esteem, social image, or any number of other things of value.
According to Becker, there are three conditions which must be fulfilled for a side bet to influence a person's commitment. First, an individual must be in a position to make a side bet which links the line of action in question to an extraneous thing of value. That is, the actor must be able to make a side bet which stakes unrelated interests with the present line of action. It is virtually always possible to make a side bet since spending time pursuing an activity qualifies as a side bet, i.e. the time spent was not originally linked to the line of action in question. Second, the side bet must be made by actions prior to the condition of being committed. In other words, a person is not committed until the side bet is made. Third, the individual must be aware that the side bet has been made. If the actor is unaware that he or she has linked a thing of value to maintaining a consistent line of behavior then it will not influence his or her commitment to [page 20] continue acting consistently. Commitment to a consistent line of action occurs when the consequences of acting inconsistently become so costly that these alternatives are no longer viable courses of action, and thus the individual chooses to act consistently.
In order to test Becker's theory of commitment empirically, Ritzer and Trice (1969) devised a study which measured the commitment of personnel managers to their organizations as well as to their profession. Managers were asked if they would leave their current employer or occupation for 1) more money, 2) more freedom, 3) more status, 4) more responsibility, or 5) more opportunity. These variables were measured on a 5 point Likert type scale and converted into a commitment score ranging from 5 to 25. Ritzer and Trice's contention is that if the side bet theory is valid, side bets such as age, education, marriage, number of children, and salary should be related to their commitment score. According to Ritzer and Trice, as one gets older, employment opportunities diminish, and thus age or time spent in one's occupation becomes a side bet; indeed, the time spent in getting the education required for a specific career is also a side bet. Both a spouse and children are dependent on the steady source of income from one's current job, and so they are also side bets. But their study found that only salary was a significant variable for predicting commitment, and so Ritzer and Trice conclude that the side bet theory should be rejected.
Stebbins (1970), however, suggests that Ritzer and Trice have failed to understand the kind of commitment Becker's model is [page 21] designed to identify. The side bet theory is by no means an exhaustive theory of commitment; it explains why people become committed to following a course of action that they may not want to follow, and it fails to explain why people follow a course of action they do want to follow, where side bets are absent from the equation. Stebbins argues that Ritzer and Trice's study tested the later form of commitment. Stebbins suggests, as I have noted earlier, that two kinds of commitment exist: value commitment and continuance (structural) commitment. Value commitment is "a frame of mind that arises from the presence in exceptional number of subjectively defined rewards associated with a particular position or social identity in which the person finds himself or hopes to find himself" (526-7, my emphasis). Value commitment is what attracts a person to a given consistent line of action. On the other hand, continuance commitment is "the awareness of the impossibility of choosing a different social identity... because of the imminence of penalties involved in making the switch" (527, my emphasis).
Table 1
| Incumbent Position | Alternative Position | |
| Continuance Commmitment | lower penalties | higher penalties |
| Value Commitment | higher rewards | lower rewards |
(table adapted from Stebbins 1970)
Stebbins argues that for all intents and purposes Becker's concept of commitment is solely a theory of continuance commitment, and [page 22] thus studies such as Ritzer and Trice's (1969) which measure value commitment are not a valid refutation of Becker's side bet theory. Subsequent studies by Meyer and Allen (1984) have borne out Stebbins' assertion that Ritzer and Trice were measuring value or affective commitment.
Johnson further divides cost commitment into three separate aspects. First, there is the cost of the actions necessary to terminate a given line of action; for example, the hassle of the legal proceedings necessary to terminate a contract. This seems not to be a factor in disengaging from the triathlon circuit as there is no bureaucratic framework which attempts to hassle or penalize individuals who stop competing. For instance, if someone wants to stop competing in triathlon, there are no explicit penalties or hassles which might prevent him or her from doing so. [page 23] Indeed since, triathlon lacks this entangling superstructure, it is a good way to observe the other forces involved in commitment. Second, there is the cost of changing one's lifestyle once the given line of action is terminated, such as cooking one's own meals after a divorce. Most triathletes seem to value their lifestyle highly: constant training and frequent competitions are a real turn on for them. If they were to stop competing, they would lose this lifestyle, not to mention a good deal of their triathlete friends. Third, there is the loss of initial investments required to undertake the line of action in the first place, such as the time lost by a graduate student who drops out of school before attaining a degree. A triathlete who has invested thousands of dollars in several racing bikes, a discwheel, and countless pairs of running shoes would effectively lose these investments if he or she quit competing. That is, in Johnson's schema there are three factors which structurally commit a triathlete to continue competing in the sport: social expectation of others, potential loss of lifestyle, and potential loss of investments of time and money.
A parallel theory of commitment has emerged from the field of psychology called the investment model (Rusbult 1980, Hatcher, et al. 1992). This model is governed by an equation relating four variables: rewards, costs, alternative value, and investment size. Rewards rather obviously are the positive factors of continuing a line of action while costs reflect the negative aspects. For triathletes, rewards would be a sense of accomplishment, the rush of competition, a structured life, endorphin release, etc. while [page 24] costs would be entry fees, injury, travel expenses, etc. Investments are such resources as time and money spent on triathlons, such as the purchase of a racing bike, membership in Tri-Fed, time spent training, etc. Alternative value is merely the opportunity cost of making those investments. For example, the money spent on a mountain bike prevents the triathlete from taking a vacation in the bahamas with his or her spouse; the time spent racing is time that cannot be spent at the children's school play; etc. Commitment in this model is the sum of the rewards gained from the line of action minus the costs, plus the value of the investments already made in the line of action less the value of alternative possibilities.
Commitment = (Rewards - Costs) + Investments - Alternative value
However according to Hatcher et al. (1992), the rewards minus the costs of following a line of action is simply the satisfaction gained from it.
Commitment = Satisfaction + Investments - Alternative value
Becker's side bets can be seen as a component of the investment
variable.
The purchase of a racing bike (or even several racing bikes in many
cases) can be viewed as a side bet; the money used to purchase the
triathlon equipment was originally unrelated to triathlon, but in
order to utilize the value of the bike, the [page 25] individual
must continue to compete, as racing bikes are good for little else
other than racing, and after all an athlete can only ride one bike
at a time.
The bottom line is that most people are unaware as to just how committed they are to a line of action, and so they are likely to give inaccurate reports of their commitment. In addition, "commitment" means different things to different people (the OED has 12 distinct definitions) so self?reported answers leave us no normative standard with which to compare and analyze responses. Indeed there is often a discrepancy between self-reported goal commitment and assigned goal commitment (Tubbs and Dahl 1991).
In fact, it is improbable if not laughable that many people consider the four variables in the investment model, plug them into the equation, and determine their own commitment to a particular line of action. The alternative value variable is especially problematic since most people rarely consider alternative value. Any good economist will tell you that the "rational man" will always consider opportunity costs, but few if any people in real life act rationally. Indeed, Geyer (1980) suggests that people often view themselves as "too much invested to quit." That is, a person will often increase his or her commitment as a function of resources invested despite what the marginal return will be.
Geyer set up a "dollar auction" in which a researcher auctioned off a dollar bill to a group of bidders. Like a normal auction, the highest bidder bought the dollar bill for the amount of his or her bid. The catch, however, was that the second highest bidder also had to pay the amount of his or her bid, yet received [page 27] nothing. Thus, if the highest two bids were $0.89 and $0.88, the highest bidder would make a net profit of $0.11 and the second highest bidder would take a net loss of $0.88. Geyer found that bidders almost always bid over the value of a dollar (often as much as $10 or more) so that they would lose the least. Once they begin bidding, people realize that they are committed because they will lose money if they do not continue, and so they are forced to continue bidding. Geyer terms this phenomenon commitment escalation.
To make commitment escalation relevant to the study at hand, a triathlete who spends $200 to repair wheel damage to his or her bike and then spends another $100 for chain damage is more likely to spend another $200 to repair subsequent frame damage even though the bike itself may only be worth $500 to begin with. Commitment escalation merely illustrates that people do not act like the economist's "rational man", and thus, it is nearly impossible to construct a glass bead theory of commitment such as the investment model that will accurately predict an individual's level of commitment.
We must return, then, to the analysis of behavior. Indeed, since the concept of commitment often involves a promise of future actions, commitment cannot be determined until after the fact anyway. That is, a person has not committed to triathlon at least until one actually competes in one of them if not several. But it was noted earlier that merely completing one triathlon does not really make one a triathlete; rather a triathlete must continually [page 28] reify his or her identity as a triathlete by competing again and again. But merely competing in triathlons is not enough either. Howard Becker's suggestion that a commitment is to "engage in consistent lines of activity" (1960:33, Becker's emphasis) is more inclusive than it may seem. Triathlon is not merely a sport, it is a lifestyle. A person must not only compete in triathlons on a regular basis to be considered a triathlete, but the committed triathlete must also perform (or refrain from performing, as the case may be) other actions which are only marginally related to competition. For instance, Sally is a competitive triathlete. One expects that she would not only train arduously in order to have the physical stamina required for competition but would also 1) monitor her diet quite carefully, 2) get plenty of sleep, and 3) purchase and maintain her equipment. Sally is expected to do all these things because they all will significantly affect her athletic performance in competition. One would also not expect to find Sally at a party chain smoking or drinking heavily since these behaviors would reduce her ability to perform. Thus, becoming a triathlete might easily change one's social life and party habits even though these extraneous behaviors do not initially seem to be connected to triathlon.
These factors at first might be seen as side bets, but they are slightly more complicated than Becker's concept. Time, money, and effort could easily be seen as side bets, but there is really nothing about these resources that should relegate them to the status of side bets. Rather, the problem is one of resource [page 29] allocation. How does an individual allocate his or her resources? and does the individual allocate resources in a consistent manner? We have already noted that a triathlete (or indeed any individual) has a set of expectations to live up to; these are the expectations of Johnson's concept of social commitment. In the case of triathlon, they are how the triathlete spends his or her time, money, and effort. Even such behaviors as dietary patterns become resources which must be allocated. For example, Sally is a committed triathlete, but she also likes to drink beer and eat chocolate cake at late night parties. She is now faced with a dilemma: how should she allocate her time and dietary behavior? If she drinks beer, eats chocolate cake, and stays up late, she will reduce her ability to perform in competition, yet if she fails to drink beer and eat cake, she will not enjoy the party as much. There are demands on her identity, then, which cross several spheres of behavioral activity, and often these are not compatible:
Figure 1
[Page 30]
Sally's commitment to triathlon will increase if she modifies her
diet to become more consistent with a diet that a triathlete should
follow. This can be represented by increasing the amount of
space common to triathlon and dietary behavior:
Figure 2
Sally, has a similar resource allocation problem when faced with
the decision to stay up late at a party or get enough sleep so that
her body can recover from her training earlier in the day.
Also, she face the allocation dilemma again when she must decide
whether to buy a new racing bike for herself or a backyard swing
set for her children.
Figure 3
Figure 4
Of course, all of these decisions often must be made concurrently,
and then the Venn diagrams become increasingly complex.
That is, there are many varied demands and expectations upon everyone
and the extent to which a person's behavior becomes consistent with
expectations is a function of his or her commitment. Professional
triathletes, for instance, spend vastly [page 32] more time training
than do non-professionals simply because triathlon is their livelihood;
indeed, the sphere of their professional activity coincides perfectly
with triathlon. This is not the case for non-professionals.
The footprints of commitment are thus found in the individual's
behavior and how the individual allocates his or her resources.
And unless resources are actually allocated and spent on a certain
activity, the person is not committed because, as noted earlier, commitment
without action to back it up is just empty talk.
But who are the people who even attempt to compete in a triathlon much less become committed to the sport? They are certainly not average, ordinary individuals. During the spring and summer of 1992, we conducted a study of participants in four different triathlons in the southwest United States: the Bud Lite triathlon, the Farmers Branch Triathlon, the Danskins triathlon and the Louisiana Sportspectrum triathlon. Triathletes were given an eight page questionnaire to be completed at the end of the race. In all 453 surveys were received from 293 men and 160 women. Statistics varied slightly by the sex of respondents and so results are reported separately.
| Males (n=293) |
Females (n=160) |
|||
| Mean | Std | Mean | Std | |
| Age (years) | 36.6 | 9.3 | 32.3 | 7.9 |
| Height (inches) | 70.2 | 3.1 | 65.4 | 2.5 |
| Weight (pounds) | 167 | 21 | 128.2 | 14 |
| Marital Status: | ||||
| Married | 59% | 46% | ||
| Single | 26% | 35% | ||
| Divorced | 9% | 8% | ||
| Sig. attached | 6% | 11% | ||
| Have children4 | 46% | 27% | ||
| mean no. of children | 2.2 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 0.9 |
| Highest Degree Earned |
||||
| High School | 13% | 9% | ||
| Associate Degree | 2% | 4% | ||
| Bachelors Degree | 49% | 53% | ||
| Masters Degree | 17% | 18% | ||
| PhD / equivalent | 13% | 11% | ||
| Not Reported | 5% | 5% |
[page 34]
| Males (n=293) |
Females (n=160) |
|||
| Mean | Std | Mean | Std | |
| Home: | ||||
| Own | 68% | 52% | ||
| Rent | 32% | 48% | ||
| Household Income: | ||||
| less than $20k | 6% | 8% | ||
| $20k-$30k | 8% | 9% | ||
| $30k-$40k | 11% | 13% | ||
| $40k-$50k | 11% | 10% | ||
| $50k-$60k | 11% | 8% | ||
| $60k-$70k | 9% | 11% | ||
| $70k-$80k | 8% | 7% | ||
| $90k-$100k | 4% | 4% | ||
| $100k-$200k | 15% | 9% | ||
| $200k-$250k | 2% | 3$ | ||
| more than $250k | 2% | 1% | ||
| Not Reported | 4% | 9% | ||
| US dollars per year spent on Triathlon | $940 | $1,120 | $737 | $828 |
| Equipment: | ||||
| no. of bikes | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Cost5 | $1,185 | $910 | $930 | $720 |
| Year purchased | 1989.7 | 2.5 | 1989.6 | 2.9 |
| Discwheel | 18% | 9% | ||
| no. of pairs of shoes | 3.0 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 1.6 |
| Date of first Triathlon |
1988.2 | 3.2 | 1989.1 | 3.4 |
| Longest triathlon6 | ||||
| < Olympic | 23% | 42% | ||
| Olympic | 40% | 30% | ||
| Tinman | 27% | 16% | ||
| Ironman | 6% | 7% | ||
| Not Reported | 4% | 5% |
[page 35]
Table 2.3
| Males (n=293) |
Females (n=160) |
|||
| Mean | Std | Mean | Std | |
| Training: | ||||
| Days per week | ||||
| swim | 2.8 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 1.3 |
| bike | 3.1 | 1.2 | 2.9 | 1.3 |
| run | 3.6 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 1.3 |
| total* | 5.9 | 0.9 | 5.7 | 1.1 |
| Distance per week | ||||
| swim (meters) | 6,100 | 5,100 | 6,400 | 4,300 |
| bike (miles) | 105 | 104 | 87 | 51 |
| run (miles) | 48 | 34 | 23 | 10 |
| Time per day (min) | 117 | 52 | 122 | 67 |
| Injured in past year | 50% | 43% | ||
| Best sport: | ||||
| swim | 23% | 29% | ||
| bike | 36% | 32% | ||
| run | 33% | 33% | ||
| Not Reported | 4% | 6% | ||
| Triathlons per year | 5.3 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 4.2 |
| Tri-Fed member | 85% | 63% |
* The totals do not add up since most triathletes train in more than one element each day.
The triathletes in our study showed marked similarities to the triathletes in figures released by many previous studies (Triathlon Magazine 1985, Jaynes 1985, Maloney 1985, and Hilliard 1988). Triathlon is dominated by men as there are almost two males for every female triathlete in our study. In addition, most women competed in the shorter distances while men gravitated towards longer races. The median household income for a triathlete is quite high at about $60,000 per year, and over 60% own their own homes. Eighty percent of the triathletes in our study held college degrees, which is a substantially higher level of education than previous studies have indicated. [page 36]
BECOMING COMMITTED
Matza argues that there are three stages to becoming deviant: affinity, affiliation, and signification. That is, one must have some sort of predisposition or affinity to begin doing a triathlon. In a sense, affinity is merely the set of factors or circumstance which motivate an individual to try triathlon. Affiliation is the process through which the neophyte triathlete learns about and adopts the behaviors of more experienced triathletes. Finally, signification is the process through which the triathlete reifies his or her identity as a triathlete. These three stages also must occur to become committed to something regardless of whether it is deviant behavior or not. [page 39]
In order to become committed, the individual must first have an affinity for the line of action in question. Matza suggests "persons, either individually or in aggregates, develop predispositions to certain phenomena...as a result of their circumstances" (1969:90-1, his emphasis). But affinity, too, can be a slippery concept, and studied out of context, it can be misleading. This case study, however, lends a context from which affinity can be extrapolated. Indeed if Matza's framework is valid for the study of commitment, then there must be something in a triathlete's background which allows him or her to become a participant in the sport. The question becomes do triathletes indeed have such predispositions and what are they? Of course, it is virtually impossible to exhaustively identify all of the factors which contribute to triathlon affinity, but several stand out from our study: athletic background, educational level, and income.Most triathletes have been engaged in recreational and/or competitive physical activity for most of their lives. Fully 95% of females and 90% of males indicated that they were actively pursuing physical fitness before they began participating in triathlons. In fact, previous to their careers as triathletes, 58% of both men and women had taken up running just to keep in good shape. Of the 30 respondents who indicated they were not pursuing physical fitness before becoming involved in triathlons (5f, 25m), only 5 (1f, 4m) indicated they had not participated in sports as children. These findings make quite a bit of sense -- it is [page 40] improbable that someone who is not interested in physical fitness would all of a sudden decide to swim, bike, and run long distances back to back. In fact, physical fitness is really a prerequisite to triathlon competition. Nonetheless, someone who is uninterested in physical fitness is highly unlikely to be interested in triathlon, and so people pursuing physical fitness appears to have an affinity for triathlon while those who do not exercise have no affinity for the sport.
Most triathletes in our study also had been involved in sports as children: 74% of females and 82% of males indicated that they participated in sports when they were children. Football (46%), baseball (42%), and basketball (29%) were the most popular sports among male respondents, while swimming (31%), basketball (24%), softball (17%) were the most popular sports among female respondents.9 In addition 72% of males and 53% of females participated in 2 or more sports as children and 35% of males and 24% of females participated in 3 or more sports as children. In fact, 87% of triathletes still participate in other sports on top of their participation in and training for triathlons.
The vast majority of triathletes in our survey began their athletic careers as ball players of some sort (football, baseball, [page 41] softball, basketball), not runners, cyclists, or swimmers. This suggests that affinity for triathlon is not predicated on previous experience with the event specific activities of the sport, but rather affinity for triathlon is fostered by any sort of childhood athletic experience.
The common element among all athletic activities is an ingrained sense of competition. Indeed, team sports can instill even more competitiveness into people than individual sports because the failure of losing a game is a collective experience shared by one's teammates. To further reinforce the thesis that triathletes must have a strong sense of competition, fully 65% of respondents indicated that they compete with themselves and seek to better their performances each race. Thus, the external sense of competition developed during their early years of athletic involvement of these triathletes has been internalized in such a manner that they can fulfill their need for competition by competing with themselves. A sense of competition, however, need not only be gained from an athletic childhood. Indeed, the triathletes who indicated they did not participate in sports as children were slightly more competitive than those who did, although the difference is not statistically significant.
An inclination towards physical activity, then, fosters an affinity for triathlon because of people who have been physically active all of their lives have a need for competition as well as a potential to gain pleasure from physical exertion. In this sense, affinity for physical exercise is a form of affective commitment. [page 42] In other words, individuals become triathletes because they have participated in physical activity in the past and presumably enjoy it. Triathlon becomes an avenue for fulfilling the individual's desire or need for physical activity.
Educational level and occupation also seem to provide an affinity for triathlons. Both male and female triathletes are fairly well educated: while only about 30% of the general population of the United States receive some form of post?secondary training, only 20% of all respondents had not earned a bachelor's degree. In addition, 17% of respondents reported their highest degree to be a master's degree and 12% reported their highest degree to be a PhD. A large proportion of the degrees received were in engineering, business, science, and health services. For males 25% had degrees in business, 16.4% had studied engineering, 8.9% had degrees in medicine or health and 8.2% studied a laboratory science. For females 19.4% had degrees in medicine or health, 17.5% had degrees in business 13.1% had degrees in education, and 8.8% had degrees in a laboratory science. The difference in fields studied by men and women is almost surely due to societal pressures which steer women away from hard sciences and engineering towards nursing and teaching. Nonetheless, both males and females demonstrated levels of education far above that of the population at large.
The triathletes in our study shared many characteristics with mountain climbers in Richard Mitchell's book, Mountain Experience (1980). Participants in Mitchell's study also had extraordinarily [page 43] high levels of education, were predominantly male, and gravitated towards careers such as engineering, applied science, and business. Mountain climbing is, of course, a fairly dangerous sport, and mountain climbers tend to seek situations in which their lives are threatened, yet they remain in control of the situation. Triathletes also search for situations which push their bodies to the limit, often to the point of collapse, occasionally to the point of death. Indeed, Clingman and Hilliard (1988) report that triathletes have substantially lower harm avoidance than swimmers, cyclists, or runners do. This parallel between triathletes and mountain climbers is indeed significant. Mitchell argues that scientists, engineers, and technicians, the primary groups that comprise mountain climbers, are "inculcated with the idea that their chosen work in life will be contributory, creative and meaningful" (188). What they discover on the job in corporate America, however, paints a different picture: their jobs appear "less than helpful and more than a little dull" (188). They have little or no control over the direction of their creative labors nor are they affiliated with the final product of their efforts. That is, they experience a disparity between the expectations they received from their academic training and the realities of their professional lives. Following this argument, one might expect that the assembly line workers and inventory clerks who have even more dull, boring, and tedious jobs than the engineers, scientists, and businesspeople would be even more inclined towards leisure activities such as mountain climbing or triathlon. Mitchell [page 44] argues, however, that these people view their jobs as "just jobs"; that is, they work only to pay their bills, not for a sense of personal satisfaction. On the other hand, scientists, engineers, mid?level managers, and businesspeople received much greater expectations of their occupations than did workers with only a high school education. In other words, the reality of the professional world does not fulfill their needs for creativity and meaningfulness. The resultant behavior of these highly educated but mostly disillusioned workers is to seek out leisure activity that provides them with their need to test themselves, to push their bodies to the limit, even in the face of death, and they do not get these needs met from their professional lives. Mitchell argues that mountain climbing fulfills these needs; indeed, so does competing in triathlons.
[page 45] Triathletes are faced with the same problems as mountain climbers in their professional lives: boredom, a sense of anomie, and a lack of control. Their professional lives do not fulfill their needs for a sense of accomplishment, goal achievement, or pleasure. Hilliard (1988) even suggests that people participate in triathlons because they "gain a sense of control and a sense that outcome is contingent on their own performance" (31), and they do not get this feeling at work. For example, 75% of respondents in our study indicated that triathlon gives them pleasures they do not get from work, 85% reported that triathlon provides them with goals to achieve, and 77% indicated that they sometimes feel proud because of training for and competing in triathlons.
Indeed, their sense of dissatisfaction with their jobs is extreme in some cases, especially among younger triathletes. Thirty?eight percent of respondents between 20 and 24 indicated they would like to be professional triathletes, and 24% of respondents between 25 and 29 indicated they would like to be professionals. Even though this percentage steadily declines as age increases, seven percent of respondents between 50 and 54 still wished they could be professional triathletes even though it would be physically impossible to do so at that age.
While age correlates to income to a large extent (0.363, p<0.0001), desire to be a professional triathlete does not correlate with income as well as one might expect (0.141, p<0.001).
While a negative correlation between income and desire to be a professional triathlete might be expected simply because professional triathletes do not make much money, the increase desire to be a professional triathlete for individuals who make between $30,000 and $50,000 corresponds to the income level of a good number of younger triathletes who have graduated from college in the past 10 years. In addition, at any level of income, at least 10% of respondents still expressed a desire to be a professional triathlete, suggesting that a good number of triathletes are dissatisfied with their jobs regardless of how much money they make. Another strong indication of job satisfaction occurs in the results from the question "does triathlon ever cause problems with work?" Respondents were asked to circle yes or no, and while only 10% indicated that triathlon does cause problems with work, a full 8% wrote in that work interferes with triathlon!
Regardless of the event or experience which finally entices the individual to try triathlon, all triathletes still had a sizable amount of affinity factors before actually competing which propels them towards triathlon. In essence, a critical mass of affinity factors must be built up before an individual actually attempts to compete in a race. Potential triathletes who already own racing bicycles, have swam competitively, and run for fitness on a regular basis probably need far less encouragement than someone who has none of these factors in his or her favor. These individuals may require more encouragement from friends or family to actually compete in a race. While for the people who already swim, bike, and run on their own, triathlon may be the next logical step. Whatever the circumstances, the affinity threshold must be crossed before an individual decides to compete.
[page 48] Affinity is still a problematic concept to apply to commitment, however, since not every single one of the triathletes in our study shared one characteristic other than competing in triathlons. That is, affinity is not a very good variable for predicting the outcome of any one individual. Indeed, the design of our study only enables us to use hindsight to identify some characteristics common to a majority of the triathletes in our study. Thus, while we can identify athletic background, high levels of education which result in dissatisfaction at work as elements of affinity for a group of triathletes, any one individual triathlete might very easily demonstrate none of these characteristics. What can be said is that something caused them to start competing in triathlon. That is, they had some form of affinity for the sport. What all committed triathletes do share, however, is the process of affiliation that takes place after the first triathlon.
While an individual's affinity may suffice to persuade an individual to participate in something once, it is simply not enough to actually commit an individual to the line of action in question. Indeed, there are countless people who fit the demographic profile of these triathletes yet never become (nor have any intention of ever becoming) triathletes themselves. This group of non?triathletes can even be extended to include those who compete in one triathlon and then never participate ever again. For some reason or combination of reasons, these one-timers have decided that triathlon is not for them. They do not become committed to triathlon because they do not go through the process of affiliation. Matza writes:Affiliation refers to the adoption or receiving of a son into a family, and, by gradual extension, to the uniting or attaching in a close connection those who were previously unattached. In its most mature development, in its most human form, affiliation describes the process by which the subject is converted to conduct novel for him but already established for others. (101)
(A)n individual will be able to use marihuana for pleasure only when he goes through a process of learning to conceive of it as an object which can be used in this way [capable of producing pleasure]. No one becomes a user without (1) learning to smoke the drug in a way which will produce real effects; (2) learning to recognize the effects and connect them with the drug use (in other words to get high); and (3) learning to enjoy the sensations he perceives. (58)Additional behaviors are learned from veterans as the process of affiliation continues until the neophyte has been transformed into a veteran. The terminology specific to the line of action in question is learned; for instance, when all the marijuana in a pipe has burned it is "cashed," and more experienced pot smokers learn how to distinguish between poor quality marijuana and "kind bud." A similar process occurs with wine tasting classes in which relative neophytes are taught to discriminate between a fine wine and a "table" wine.
In Matza's schema, affiliation with deviant behavior also requires "choosing against" normal behavior or values and adopting [page51] the values of the counter culture. For instance, marijuana smokers actively choose to break the law (i.e. use an illegal substance) when they begin to identify themselves with other pot smokers. This "choosing against" (104) socially accepted behavior, however, need not necessarily be a part of the process of becoming committed.
What is important, however, is that while the behaviors of affiliating triathletes are a choice to monitor their diets and train two hours a day, they are also making a choice not to do other things. That is, spending two hours training every day is two hours that cannot be spent at work, or with one's family, or watching television. In other words, everything we choose to do is significant because it also shows what we choose not to do. Thus, we can deduce a person's value system by how the individual allocates his or her time. In economic terms, every action [page 52] performed has an opportunity cost that should be considered: John, a serious triathlete, might think to himself, "by training two hours today, I cannot take my wife out dancing tonight; how much does not taking my wife dancing cost me?" This opportunity cost is the alternative value component of Rusbult's investment model of commitment, but as noted earlier, few if any people consciously consider opportunity cost seriously when engaging in any line of action. Rather the behavior they do not perform leaves a footprint which can be followed in hopes of tracking their priorities and commitments. In the affiliation process, individuals learn and begin to perform new behaviors while they cease the performance of other previous behaviors, as they reorganize their priorities. What really, then, occurs is resocialization to a new specific microculture.
Indeed, socialization and resocialization occurs all the time in practically every venue, most notably in schools, which are institutions specially designed for socialization. For instance, students from working class backgrounds are taught the values and ethics that will enable them to succeed in working class jobs: punctuality, obedience, the ability to perform routine tasks; while students from middle class families are taught different values and skills: ingenuity and problem solving (Weis 1990 and Katz 1987).
Just like marijuana smokers, wine tasters, and students, triathletes must undergo the process of affiliation before they become "committed." Affiliation is the learning period in which rookie triathletes are exposed to the behaviors of veteran [page 53] triathletes and gradually adopt them.
So what does it mean to be a rookie triathlete about to compete in a triathlon for the first time? Undoubtedly, it is scary to enter into a competition involving three radically different physical activities, especially in the grueling heat, competing against veterans who have not only competed for years, but have been training for years as well.
Even the demographic profile of a rookie is drastically different than that of veterans. To begin with, far more women in our study were competing for the first time than were men: 37% of rookies were male while 68% were female while among veterans 69% were male and 31% were female. In other words, the male:female ratio overall of 2:1 is reversed among rookies, so that almost twice as many women try a triathlon once than do men. Apparently, women are far more likely to compete once and then never compete again. For some reason, women fail to affiliate with triathlon at the same rate men do. This may be due to the relative minority of women in the sport. As in the rest of society, there are not as many role models for women in the sport as there are for men. But perhaps more importantly, there are fewer training partners of equal ability. Groups of triathletes often train together in order to push each other along, however, these groups are numerically dominated my males. Since males generally can swim,10 bike, and [page 54] run faster than females, the women who participate in these groups often are "dropped" from the running or cycling pack and are left to train by themselves anyway. Thus, despite Hendy and Boyer's (1993) findings that female triathlete's are showing more signs of confidence than they have in the past, they still lack the ready availability of training partners of comparable ability levels. Without the training support group, women have less of an opportunity to train hard for the race and also have fewer opportunities to make friends among their training partners (Granskog 1992). In short, women have less of an opportunity to spend time with veteran triathletes from whom they can learn the ropes of the sport and go through a process of affiliation. Hence, the female rookie attrition rate is substantially higher than that of rookies.
There is indeed a noticeable difference in the training habits of rookies and veterans. As might be expected, veterans trained far more than did rookies (see Table 5). [page 54]
| Rookies (n=60) |
Veterans (n=393) |
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| Mean | Std | Mean | Std | |
| Training: | ||||
| Days per week | 5.4 | 1.4 | 5.9 | 0.9 |
| swimming | 2.5 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 1.2 |
| cycling | 2.4 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 1.2 |
| running | 3.5 | 1.1 | 3.7 | 1.3 |
| Weights | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
| Time per day (min)11 | 107 | 43 | 120 | 59 |
| Distance per week: | ||||
| swimming (m) | 2600 | 1550 | 4400 | 2100 |
| cycling (mi) | 39 | 24 | 95 | 50 |
| running (mi) | 16 | 14 | 24 | 12 |
The only significant difference in number of training sessions per week between rookies and veterans is in cycling. It is possible that veterans train more in cycling because they are aware that most triathletes have the potential to improve their performances most on the cycling leg of the race (Kohrt et al. 1989). But while veterans and rookies train about the same number of times each week, there is a huge difference in the distances they train per week. While veterans only run 50% more than rookies in a week, they swim almost twice as far and cycle almost three times as far. While increased distance explains why veterans train for longer amounts of time each day, the increase is small enough to suggest that veterans also train at a faster pace than rookies do.
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The responses to self-reported labels suggest that more rookies than veterans were competing for fun, not glory. While rookies did not consider themselves as competitive with other people in the race as the veterans did, they were just as competitive with themselves personally. This is not surprising since the rookies had strong sports backgrounds that were just as strong as the veterans did; hence they have the same internal drive for competition. Also, it is reasonable for a rookie to think that the first time he or she competes in a triathlon, he or she will not dowell relative to the field; but on the other hand, the athlete still wants to test the limits of his or her own body. Thus, while Clingman and Hilliard (1988) suggest that for a triathlete "to finish is to win," this is not the case for the vast majority of rookie and veteran triathletes in our study. Triathletes are not satisfied merely finishing the race, but rather they must improve their performance each time in order to be satisfied with themselves.
Maximum Distance Would Travel to Compete
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Fully three fourths of rookies would travel no more than 400 miles to compete in a triathlon, while more than 80% of veterans would travel 400 miles or more to compete. While even 400 miles seems like a long distance to travel just to compete in a race, it is important to remember that most of the participants were from the southwestern United States where major urban areas (and therefore races) are farther apart than in the northeast. The significant factor is that more than a third of veterans would travel over [page 58] 1,000 miles to compete in a triathlon, presumably a prestigious Ironman competition. Indeed, 27% of veterans reported that they actually had travelled over a thousand miles at least once to compete in a triathlon.
There is, however, a noticeable difference in the alcohol consumption of veterans and rookies. Fully 92% of the rookies indicated they drank alcoholic beverages, while only 75% of veterans did so. In addition, rookies drank far more frequently than did veterans: of those who drink, 50% of rookies drank two to three times per week while only 28% of veterans drank that often, and 22% of veterans drank once a month or less while only 11% of rookies reported similar behavior. Rookies also reported that they drank almost twice as much per sitting as did veteran triathletes. These findings suggest that veterans are much more concerned about how alcohol affects their performance in training and competition than are rookies. Since the social lives of veterans revolve much more around friends who are also triathletes, they are more likely to have a social network that reinforces non-drinking behavior. Rookies, on the other hand, do not have such social pressures not to drink. Thus, as triathletes become more and more involved in the sport, they tend to drink less and less. Thus, non- or light drinking behavior is another aspect of affiliation that is learned by neophyte triathletes.
Not surprisingly, veteran triathletes owned more equipment than did rookies. Bicycles, for instance, are a major investment, and people rarely are willing to purchase a road or racing bicycle just to compete in a sport in which they may never compete again. [page 60] Indeed, nine rookies and two veterans12 (both of whom had competed only once before and so were virtually rookies) did not own bicycles - presumably they borrowed bicycles from friends or spouses. In addition, the remaining rookies had purchased their bicycles before 1992, that is, at least six months before a competition.
Total Number of Bikes
| Mean | Std | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Veterans | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.5% | 63% | 29% | 6% | 1% | 0.5% |
| Rookies | 0.9 | 0.6 | 18% | 71% | 11% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
These numbers suggest that buying a bicycle, for those who do not own one already, is also a part of the affiliation process. Indeed, only two veterans did not own bicycles by their second race! Thus, once the initiate decides to actively pursue triathlon, he or she must purchase a bicycle if one is not owned already. On the other hand, since most rookies owned a bicycle at least six months before they began competing in triathlons, a bicycle might also be an element of affinity; that is, owning a bike makes it that much easier to begin competing in triathlons. Veterans also seem to have a pattern of bicycle acquisition. That is, they do not sell or junk their old bicycles once they purchase a new one. Indeed, veterans are almost three times as likely to own two bicycles than are rookies, and 8% of veterans own 3 or [page 61] more.
Veterans spend far more money even on inexpensive triathlon equipment such as shoes than do rookies. An average pair of running shoes costs between $50 and $100. It is reasonable to suspect that anyone actively pursuing physical fitness before becoming involved in triathlon wo