Identifying psychological and physical factors affecting the ethical decision

Background: Today, the special position of sports in different societies is not hidden from anyone (4). Football is one of these sports that plays the first role (5). In the world of sports, people play an important role and one of these important human resources is referees, and football is no exception. In fact, the fair judgment of the referees plays an important role in the view of athletes, spectators and coaches of the institution that organizes the competitions (4). Therefore, they must perform this serious task well and at the same time overcome the pressures caused by the individual mistakes of the players, coaches, colleagues, spectators and the media (11-13). This is where his ethical decision plays an important role. (Boxil 2003). Ethical decision-making is a process that people use to determine the right and wrong of an issue (Mahdavi and Mousavinejad 1390) and begins when a person in a difficult situation must judge (Alipour 1389). Contrary to popular belief and what is portrayed in the media, football referees are not like machine people, but deal with a lot of psychological and physical pressures. In addition to the playground, they are also responsible for life and family affairs, which doubles these job pressures (10). On the other hand, because they have to act quickly in making decisions within the rules and because of the importance of their decisions, they are in the spotlight (17). But many factors can interfere with the judgment of referees (20). Therefore, considering that the fair and ethical decision of the referees within the framework of the rules of the game of football depends on their psychological aspects and physical fitness for active presence with the players, and on the other hand the competence of football referees in major sporting events is a necessity for communities, media and financial resources, preparing the judges to acquire the necessary capacities and skills will make this difficult task possible in the best way. This study was also conducted in this regard. Methods: The present study was a qualitative study that was conducted according to the phenomenological method. The statistical population of the study consisted of experts aware of the subject of the research who according to the purposeful selection of 12 of these people were identified as the research sample. These people were university professors aware of the field of ethics and refereeing in sports, as well as active and pixy referees in Iranian professional football. Sampling was performed until theoretical saturation was reached. The data collection tool in the present study in the qualitative section was a semi-structured interview. In order to check the validity, the interview procedures and questions were approved by some professors who are aware of the research topic and also aware of the research method. Also, to investigate transferability, research findings were reviewed by two experts in the field who did not participate in the research. For reliability, research details and notes were recorded. On the other hand, in order to check the validity, all the texts created from the interviews and the codes extracted were sent to the research participants so that they could confirm the extracted texts and codes again. In the external audit section, the findings and coding paradigm were presented to three professors in the field of sports for comment and approval. The statistical method used in the present study included the coding method. In this method, a person who does not have a mental history of the research topic is asked to review and re-codify the text of the interviews. Finally, in order to check the agreement between the two codings, the kappa coefficient was calculated using SPSS software. The coding performed in this research was done in three sections of open, axial and selective coding. Max-QDE software was used to analyze the data of the present study. Results: The results of the present study showed that 75% of the research samples were men and 25% of the research samples were women. The results of the present study also showed that 50% of the research samples had a doctoral degree. Also, 33.3% of the research samples had a masterchr('39')s degree and 16.6% of the research samples had a bachelorchr('39')s degree. Among psychological factors such as economic pressures, social pressures, family work interference and stress and among physical factors, physical experience, injuries, acute and chronic diseases and physical fitness, had the greatest impact on the ethical decisions of football referees. Conclusion: In this study, we sought to identify the psychological and physical factors affecting the ethical decisions of professional football referees. Based on the results we obtained, economic pressures include pressure from brokers, rejection of referees as jobs, economic problems of referees and social pressures including pressure from spectators, pressure from players and coaches, rejection of judgment in the losing group, media and work and family interactions such as distance from family, tight play, family expectations and needs, wage mismatch, event timing, environmental threats and stress due to interpersonal conflicts, time stress, fear of injury Physical, fear of making mistakes in refereeing, pressures caused by the excitement of the game, and stress caused by the factors of holding the match were the most important psychological factors influencing the ethical decision of professional football referees. Physical experience includes post-injury recovery, weather conditions, physical collisions and injuries including collision injuries, referee falls, physiological pressures, collision injuries as well as acute and underlying chronic illnesses and physical fitness e.g. Skeletal fitness, movement patterns, physical fitness factors were the most important physical factors affecting this area. In a similar study, Omid Rafiei et al. (2015) stated that a review of the theoretical literature of some factors influencing the refereeing of football referees, including personal, psychological and physical factors according to empirical and non-empirical studies can affect the refereeing of football referees. The results of a study by Lex et al. in 2014 on the effect of playerschr('39') voice and behavior on referees and assistant football referees showed that playerschr('39') voices when errors occur and how they behave have a great impact on refereeschr('39') errors and even penalties. In an experimental environment, they analyzed the referees chr('39')judgment by watching videos in two modes, one with the playerchr('39')s voice and the other without the playerschr('39') voice. Also, in recent years, many studies have been conducted on the sources of stress in various sports. In 1987, Taylor and Daniel identified five sources of stress based on Ontario football refereeschr('39') answers to the SOSS Questionnaire. These sources include fear of failure, fear of bodily harm, interpersonal conflicts, time pressure, and conflicts with colleagues. In 2009, following his study of the individual (family), ethical and professional environment governing sports, and finally the degree of legality and lawlessness of stakeholders, Radnica referred to them as an influential variable on ethical decision-making. In 2008, Mumford et al. found that individualschr('39') personal, professional, and professional experiences had a direct impact on their moral decisions. In a 2012 study, Krager et al. found that physical injury, as a stressor, greatly influenced football refereeschr('39') decisions. In 2016, Nabi et al. also mentioned factors such as physical fitness, visual perception, mental ability, concentration and attention, quick decision readiness, playing time, intensity and distance traveled by the referee. Accordingly, it is inferred that the optimal performance of sports skills is due to the complex interaction of physiological, physical, morphological, psychological and biomotor factors. In a way that examining them in the form of presenting a profile and measuring communication can be effective in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of Iranian referees at the level of the Iranian Premier League. According to the results of our study, and since refereeing at the desired level can keep the game in its natural course and prevent tension and margins in it. Therefore, it seems that identifying the factors affecting the performance of referees can be help improve their performance.