Untitled Document

Nicole Munter
Judging Cheaters: Is Substance Misuse Viewed Similarly in the Athletic and Academic
Domains?
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
WC
I am sure you have heard of people misusing all types of different drugs for many
different reasons. Drugs have been around for a while now and there are a large variety that do
multiple things. Many are used for the benefit of people and others may harm them. Not only this
but many are used to treat real conditions but also drive other purposes that may give people a
leg up if taken without the specific condition. This study looks at two of those types of drugs and
how people perceive their misuse/abuse. The first of those drugs being prescription stimulants,
also referred to as PS. These drugs include things like adderall and ritalin that are used to treat
ADHD. People who report misusing them explain it is because it improves their focus for longer
and allows them to feel calmer while studying/ completing an assignment. Drugs like these are
more commonly known for their effect on academics. In contrast there are also drugs for athletes
that are also used to cure real illnesses. The specific type of drugs we are talking about today are
anabolic steroids. The most common reasons people misuse anabolic steroids, or AS, is to
enhance muscle mass for bodybuilding competitions or to improve physical appearance.
The ethics of the misuse of these drugs vary and although the drugs have many
similarities, such as both offering competitive advantages and both resolve medical conditions,
people perceive their misuse differently. This experiment intends to dive into which type of
misuse will be perceived as worse. Will it be the misuse for academic purposes or will it be the
misuse for athletic performance purposes?
To begin this experiment they give us the background knowledge that men are reported to
misuse these drugs more often than women are. They also provide us with the statistic that about
8%- 34% of college students reported misusing some type of PS. To find test subjects for this
experiment, the researchers emailed all the male college freshmen under the age of 25 at a large
university, a survey to fill out. Out of these men 1,200 responded, those of which were
predominantly from white men. In this survey they were offered two situations and asked two
questions about each scenario. In the first scenario, there was a college sprinter who was afraid
he would not have enough time to train and improve for a competition so he took one of his
friends steroids to help him improve faster and ended up doing better than expected; in the
second scenario, It was midterm season and the student was afraid he would not have enough
time to study for his exam. He tried to go to the library and study but it was to no avail. He
believed he was screwed so he asked his friend for some of his adderall to help him. After taking
the adderall he took the test and scored higher than expected. After they were presented with
each scenario they were asked two questions: 1.) Are they a cheater? 2.) Did they need to do it?
On both of these questions they were given choices ranging from strongly agree to strongly
disagree. AFter this they wanted to determine further information about the participants so they
asked questions like, have they misused one of the substances, and if they played any sports in
highschool. The results were pretty predictable.
They found that these men believed that the athlete using steroids was more of a cheater
than the student that used it to study. They also found that the men believed that the student
needed that drug more than the athlete did. But let us dive deeper. Less than one percent of these
men have used some type of AS and around 8% of them used PS without prescription. And of
these 8.3% of them reported using it once or more. The people who played sports in highschool
tended to find the athlete as more of a cheater than those people who did not. Not only that but
they found that people who use adderall more often found that the student was a cheater than the
people who used it less or not at all. But what could be affecting these results? For one,
researchers believe that it could be the wording. This is because the second situation emphasizes
his effort to improve. Another factor may be that with athletics there is a clear winner and loser
meaning that the drugs directly affect someone else whereas with PS it is seen as self
improvement and there is no clear winner and loser. The results of this experiment just really
confirmed what I already believed would happen after reading what this experiment was testing
on but it is pretty cool to have actual evidence of it from an experiment.

Untitled Document

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Untitled Document

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Untitled Document

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Nicole Munter

You might also like