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Managing Emotional manhood in Mixed Martial Arts
Introduction
The article on managing emotional manhood has been researched for two years and gives a detailed study on how gender perceives, attribute and evaluate emotion. It further explains the management of emotion and emotion identity work among gender .It explains how emotions are inevitable at workplace and their impacts on participants. It also shows how different categories of people handle emotions and the efforts they put in to avoid giving in to negative emotions.
Importance of the Article
This article analyzes emotion, identity and gender as a typical social process that contributes to social psychology. This article develops the impression of organizing emotional manhood in order to bring together insightful research on emotional, gender, and emotions and identity. The article has further showed areas for further research regarding other fields apart from Mixed Martial Arts so as to understand how they manage their emotions at work and away from work. (Christian A. Vaccaro Douglas P. Schrock. Janice M. McCabe)
The Researchers
The researchers wereChristian A. Vaccaro a visiting Professor in the department of Sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Douglas P. Schrockis an associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Florida State University. Janice McCabe an assistant Professor in the department of sociology at Florida StateUniversity.
The Purpose of study
The main purpose of the study is to establish the challenges encountered by Mixed Martial Arts participants, how the nature of their occupation affects them psychologically and possible solutions,
Social Psychological theory applied in the study
The researchers used social identity theory in their study. They categorized the fighters into groups such as gender, newcomers, race, age, experiencedand inexperienced fighters of the game and by so doing they were able to examine how identifying them as a certain group affects their perception, attitude and behavior.Social Identity theory helped the researchers to analyze how different people react to Martial Arts and their different capabilities. It also helped identify the reaction of participants to situations such as fear, defeat, and how they overcome the same by Framing, and other practices that make them at ease (Vaccaro, Schrock &McCabe 416).
Hypotheses of the Study
The hypotheses were that, managing emotional manhood is an active process that can be looked into in many fields. Mixed Martial Arts was one of the many fields to be investigated in this study. This enabled the researcher to expand their study so as to have all inclusive report.
Methodology used in the study
The researcher used interviews and observation whereby he made recordings and taking notes to record their observations. The researcher interviewed a number of participants or rather the fighters by asking them a number of questions that helped in analyzing the findings of the studyand they also observed the process and reactions of fighters before fights and after(Vaccaro, Schrock &McCabe 418). This gave observers a clear picture of what goes on at the arena and outside the competition ground.
Findings of the Study
The findings of the research were that the Mixed Martial Arts fighters were vulnerable to injuries which caused them physical harm and losing the contest and this caused them emotional trauma. Other causes of emotional trauma were fear to fail, or fear of facing the opponents. It emerges that the participants have mastered ways of overcoming fear and evoking confidence. Participants try to show their boldness and manage their emotions in many ways such as; framing the game as another day in the gym and other opponents as inferior. According to (Vaccaro, Schrock &McCabe 435). Experienced fighters passed emotion capital to newcomers by guiding them on what strategies to apply as individuals and or on other fighters.
Literature Review
Some occupations have very challenging experiences that transform the personality of an individual. Example is the challenges involved in Mixed Martial Arts, in the process of the participants trying to evoke fear to the opponents, they might end up as bullies or loose self-esteem in the event of defeat or even injury. This is what the researchers were trying to unravel during the research period and collected adequate data to understand how the MMA participants coped emotionally considering the nature of their practice.Emotion management involves holding back feelings that bring out the weakness in a person and evoke the feelings that show the strength of an individual (Vaccaro, Schrock &McCabe 434).
The social nature of women enables them to manage their emotions whereas men emotions are muted. However, according to Vaccaro, Schrock &McCabe, emotion work does not only vary according to one’s masculinity or femininity, emotion work is drawn in the active construction of gender identity (434). Gender related emotion work focuses on how women’s emotion work involves raising their self-esteem and tending wounds as they navigate life in subordinate positions.Mixed Martial Arts Fighters manage their own fears and evoke it in their opponents. This way, they present themselves in ways that are commonly interpreted by others as indicative of manhood. This way of handling their fears is a process of giving them the confidence required and self-esteem (Vaccaro, Schrock & McCabe433)
Data Description
Data used was collected for a period of 24months and 121 interviews were conducted. With 24 interviews taking 45 – 75mins and 97 interviews taking 5 – 15mins. Other information was gotten from observation. The observation targeted the male and female those were involved in fights. Their age was between 19 to 40 years of age and on average they were 26.5years. 70percent were white 16percent blacks 11percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asians (Vaccaro, Schrock & McCabe418)
Conclusion
The researcher found out that as much as the fighters have their fears, they have identified ways of overcoming their fears and encouraging each other. This way they overcome emotion individually and amongst themselves and not only suppress fear but they also evoke self-belief in them. The study established that men have easier way of managing emotions as compared to women because they hardily express their emotions. Fighters ’emotion work help produce ideals that men should feel confidence and fearless in the quest to dominate others.Managing emotion manhood plays an important role in maintaining unequal social arrangements (Vaccaro, Schrock & McCabe 433). The case study could not be generalized to population and so it cannot help form a robust sensitizing concept which is useful for analyzing trans- situational process. Men in different contexts manage emotion as part of their identity work and it would be of importance to investigate how they manage this. (Vaccaro, Schrock & McCabe434)
Work Cited
Vaccaro, Christian A. et al. “Managing Emotional Manhood”. Social Psychology Quarterly, vol 74, no. 4, 2011, pp. 414-437. SAGE Publications, doi: 10.1177/0190272511415554. Accessed 17 Nov 2020.