A series of three experiments, based on the method of Functional Measurement,
has explored the importance assigned by professional basketball players
to relevant dispositions of defense and offense players, as determinants of
unsportsmanlike fouls. The 106 participants were leading male players in the
premier basketball league in Israel. Experiment 1 was based on a 16 (24)-cell
model. In an individual meeting, each participant estimated the likelihood that
a defense player would commit an unsportsmanlike foul on an offense player.
In each of the 16 to-be-judged incidents, specific information on a specific
combination of aggressiveness and susceptibility to victimisation of two imaginary
protagonists in an offense–defense on-the-court incident was given to the
participant. Experiment 2 was a replication of Experiment 1. There, however,
names of 16 well-known players were mentioned, the aggressiveness and susceptibility
to victimisation of each fitting the model requirements. In Experiment
3, a partial replication of Experiment 2, likelihood estimations were made
from two perspectives—potential perpetrator and potential victim. Overall,
meaningful importance was assigned especially to the dispositions of the perpetrator,
not the victim. The findings are conceived as reflections of players’
cognitive schemata of on-the-court violence.apps_