HOMO SPORTICUS ISSUE 1 2009 39 Introduction Sport sociologists and basketball coaches are agreeable with the opinion that in every sport collective must be clearly defined social relations among players, coaches and club management. Most common companion to socialization process is conformity (Koković, 2000, page 82). Conformity is individual’s adaptation to attitudes, opinion and behaviour patterns, and certain standards of a group in which he belongs to. Conformists are easily adapted to sport collective and club discipline. They are the favourites of authoritative and persistent coaches. Fonder to him are unstable, intelellectually unformed, frustrated, authoritative, and persons of a lower status in a group. Marjanović (1995) researched conformity of 40 girls and 40 young men, students of Belgrade highschools by Ashe’s tech- nique. Variance analysis indicates that conformity degree is much larger in sexually homogenuous, than in sexually heterogeneous groups. The ones who are mostly conformed are men compared with instructed subjects-men, then girls compared with instructed subjects-girls, following girls compared with instructed subjects- men, and the ones who are least conformed are men compared with instructed subjects-girls. Atkinson (2002) researched the reasons of Canadian women tattoing during three years. He states that environment pressure is one of the main reasons for tattoo- ing. Examining the sample of 149 students, based on 11-item scale Likert type, Niemand (2006) states that women are greater conformists than men are regarded life and racial prejudices. He also states that majority of researchers come to conclusion that women are greater conformists. Examining validity orientations of 628 adolescents, Joksimović and Matić (2006) are evaluating conformity degree using scale-containing statements of necessi- ty of majority opinion acceptance, importance of fitting in a group and adjusting to expectations and demands of others. Positive relation between conformity and altruistic validity orientation is interpreted by aspiration of students-conformists to be accepted and favourite. Conformity is more emphasized with students whose parents have lower educational level. These parents insist on respecting authority and accepting conformity values. Researches of conformity of sportsmen indicate that novice play- ers are rapidly adjusting their behaviour to older players and team leader (according to: Carron, 1980). Younger adolescents and their parents have great expectations from coaches (Martin et al., 1999). They consider that coaches should be educated, compe- tent, ambitious, hard working, etc. Authors conclude that young sportsmen are characterized with low conformity degree because of: a) their relatively short sport practice and b) parents’ partici- pation in their children’s activities. Sherman et al. (2000) have researched opinions of Australian sportsmen about ’preferred coaching behaviour’. In addition, they conclude that sports- women are more tolerant to coach’s autocracy, i. e., they are greater conformists than sportsmen are. After interviewing doped sportsmen, Mendoza (2002) claims that certain percentage of sportsmen doped because they have seen it from other sports- men. Analyzing relations between Olympic medallists and their coaches, Jowett and Cockerill (2003) consider that readiness of sportsmen to completely subject to coach’s trainage rules and principles is ’positive conformity’, because such relation has lead to success. Definitely, regarding the relations coach-sportsman, many researches indicate of high conformity degree of players, whether it is about individual or collective sports (according to: Wildman, 2006). Aim of this research was to establish differences in conformity degree with Bosnian-Herzegovinian basketball players based on three criterions: 1) player’s competitive level, 2) player’s position and 3) player’s age. Igor Vučković 1 and Aleksandar Gadžić 2 Senior basketball players conformity Key words: conformity, basketball players, coaches, club’s management Ključne riječi: konformizam, košarkaši, treneri, uprava kluba Sažetak Konformizam kao oblik ponašanja igrača prema treneru i upravi kluba bio je predmet proučavanja ovog rada. Cilj istraživanja bio je da se utvrde razlike u stepenu konformizma između grupa košarkaša, razvrstanih po 3 kriterijuma: takmičarskom nivou, igračkoj poziciji i starosti igrača. Uzorak ispitanika činilo je 75 košarkaša seniora. Instrument istraživanja bila je modifikovana skala konformizma (The Conformity Scale, Mehrabian, & Stefl, 1995). Interna relijabilnost modifikovane skale iznosila je α=.74. Podaci su analizirani uz pomoć neparametrijskog Mann-Whitney testa. Od 8 ponuđenih tvrdnji, evidentirane su značajne razlike u stepenu konformiz- ma između prvoligaških i drugoligaških igrača po 3 tvrdnje. Između “van- jskih’’ i “unutrašnjih’’, te mlađih i starijih igrača nisu evidentirane razlike ni po jednoj tvrdnji. Rezultati ukazuju da su ispitivani bosanskohercegovački košarkaši u velikoj mjeri skloni konformizmu. Abstract Conformity as a form of players’ behaviour toward coach and club man- agement was the research topic of this study. This research had an aim to establish the differences in conformity degree between groups of bas- ketball players, classified by three criterions: competitive level, player’s position and player’s age. Examinees sample was formed of 75 senior basketball players. Modified conformity scale was used as an instrument of research (The Conformity Scale, Mehrabian, & Stefl, 1995). Internal reliability of a modified scale was α=.74. Data was analized with help of non-parametrical Mann-Whitney test. Out of eight statements proposed, there were found significant differences in conformity degree between first leagued and second leagued players based on three statements. Among ’outside’ and ’inside’, and younger and older players, there were no dif- ferences found based on any statement. Results indicate that examined Bosnian-Herzegovinian players are fond to conformity in great degree. 1 Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 Academy of soccer, Beograd, Serbia Original scientific paper