The increased use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport may be linked to a general attitude towards cheating.
Why do athletes jeopardise their careers and long-term health by using illegal performance- enhancing drugs? Professor of psychology at UCD, Aidan Moran, believes it is going to be difficult to deal with the drug issue until athletes' attitudes towards cheating in general are addressed. He defines this problem as "drug cheating".
A report handed to the Irish Sports Council this year suggests the only way to move forward with the issue of drug abuse in sport is to fully understand why sports people use drugs in the first place.
One of the psychological reasons for using drugs, the report asserts, is a connection between drug-taking and a general acceptance in sport towards "cheating behaviour". It suggests that even though "cheating" is deemed wrong by most sports people, analysis shows that what is defined as "cheating behaviour" varies considerably. Although most members of the sample group interviewed for the study agreed that doping was cheating, most of the group said that lesser offences were acceptable. In some cases, the group said, cheating was actively encouraged.
Sport psychologist Niamh Flynn believes that sport psychologists can help address issues of cheating, including "drug cheating". "Ultimately, the morale of athletes will be undermined by continually testing for the variation of drugs appearing on the market. The mind, however, is a much more powerful long-term performance-enhancer than drugs ever will be and can be used in a variety of ways to help break through some of the physical and psychological blocks that may lead to sports people taking drugs in the first place," she says.