Sociological Analysis: Deviance Behavior and Michael Phelps' Actions

This essay provides a sociological analysis of Michael Phelps' deviant behavior, examining how his actions deviated from societal norms and expectations. It defines deviance, differentiating between formal and informal types, and explores how these behaviors impact an individual's reputation and society. The essay focuses on specific instances of Phelps' deviant conduct, including driving under the influence of alcohol and drug-related incidents, and analyzes the consequences, such as loss of sponsorships and suspensions. The analysis draws on sociological concepts to explain how these actions affected Phelps' career, public image, and the broader perception of athletes. The essay concludes by emphasizing the varied nature of deviant behavior across societies and its detrimental impact on individuals and their professions, using Phelps' case as a relevant example. This essay serves as a case study to understand the concept of deviance and its effects on individuals, especially those in the public eye.

Running head: DEVIANCE BEHAVIOR AND MICHAEL PHELPS
DEVIANCE BEHAVIOR AND MICHAEL PHELPS
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1DEVIANCE BEHAVIOR AND MICHAEL PHELPS
There is a standard of behavior or norms of every culture and society according to
which each of the individuals act. Whoever violates this accepted or predictable standard of
behavior, is referred as deviant (Conrad, 2017). The sociologists use the term deviance in
referring any type of violation of the social norms. Deviant behavior is unacceptable action or
behavior which is grated an unorthodox to the social as well as cultural norms. The individual
with this type of behavior deviates from what is expected in the normal pattern (Tittle, 2018).
In different cultures, the acceptability of behavior is different but some behaviors are never
accepted by any culture which include, naked exposure in public, homicide, robbery, rape,
binge drinking, suicide, theft and prostitution. As the sociologists have pointed out that there
are two types of deviant behavior namely formal and informal deviance. The formal deviance
is associated with the violation of enacted laws for example theft and homicide. Formal
deviance behavior violates the codified laws, regulations and code of conduct acceptable by
the legislation of a country. On the other hand, the informal deviance is associated with the
valuation of laws which are not codified in the laws or acts such as licking of ground or
belching loudly. However, any type of deviance behavior whether codified by the laws or not
affect the reputation of an individual and harm the society in its entirety.
Michael Phelps is an American competitive swimmer as the most celebrated
Olympian of all the time. He holds the all-time record of wining the highest number of gold
medals in Olympic. He is also the long course world record holder in different types of
swimming categories and won the World Swimmer of the Year Award eight times
and American Swimmer of the Year Award eleven times. He is the son of Fred and Debbie
Phelps and has two sisters. He has married Nicole Johnson, miss California of 2010.
However, this celebrated athlete had faced punishment several times for his deviant behavior
(Kwon, 2015). Despite the fact that he apologized for all his guilt, he was suspended from the
swimming organization of the USA several times and lost sponsorship. In May 2016, Phelps

2DEVIANCE BEHAVIOR AND MICHAEL PHELPS
has taken initiative to run his charity program through The Michael Phelps Foundation where
he guides the children swimmers to grow the sport of swimming in one hand and promote a
healthy and motivated lifestyle. In his career he was also accused to have used the
performance enhancing drugs to perform great in Olympics and other international
competitions but Phelps noted that he had signed up for the Project Believe which is a project
of the United States Anti-Doping Agency. In this, the U.S. Olympians may volunteer to be
verified by the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines. In this regard, Phelps volunteered
these tests and conceded all the nine tests which were administered to him during the games.
At the early stage of his swimming career, he was arrested for driving under
intoxication of alcohol and sentenced for serving an eighteen months’ probation with 250
USD fine. After this punishment, he realized his guilt and asked pardon. The controversy
again raised when in 2009 Phelps was found using a bong. This behavior is highly
unacceptable for a sport star like him. This however resulted in huge for the career of Phelps.
He lost the sponsorship of the Kellogg Company as this behavior was against the image and
reputation of the firm. In addition to this, Phelps was also suspended from the USA
swimming for three months. After this incident, Phelps was again suspended from all the
competitions for long six months as he was found driving intoxicated in the year 2014. This
deviant behavior also resulted in his losing chance to represent the US World Aquatics
Championships in the year 2015. These not only affected the career of this particular athlete
but also affected the reputation and images that he had built though his success (Spruit et
al.,2016). These actions of Michael Phelps were grated to be a part of his deviant behavior
and affected his personal and professional life. Fans as well as sponsors did not embrace him
rather repel and create a sharp decrease in the ticket sales, endorsements and sponsors (Rossi,
2018).

3DEVIANCE BEHAVIOR AND MICHAEL PHELPS
Therefore, it can be concluded that Deviant behavior can be varied from society to
society but there are some common factors which no society or culture accepts. Deviant
behavior includes, drug and alcohol addiction, theft or many criminal activities. In the career
of an athlete like Michel Phelps, deviant behavior had harmed every aspect demolishing his
reputation, image and profession.

4DEVIANCE BEHAVIOR AND MICHAEL PHELPS
References:
Conrad, P. (2017). The Medicalization of Deviant Behavior. In Identifying Hyperactive
Children (pp. 71-75). Routledge.
Kwon, W. D. (2015). The Effect of Social Support on Youth Student-Athletes' Stress and
Deviant Behavior. Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation
Society, 16(8), 5198-5206.
Rossi, A. (2018). The Effect of Age and Gender on Deviant Behavior: A Biopsychosocial
Perspective. In Gender and the Life Course (pp. 137-166). Routledge.
Spruit, A., Van Vugt, E., van der Put, C., van der Stouwe, T., & Stams, G. J. (2016). Sports
participation and juvenile delinquency: A meta-analytic review. Journal of youth and
adolescence, 45(4), 655-671.
Tittle, C. R. (2018). Control balance: Toward a general theory of deviance. Routledge.