Personalityand

Sport

What Is Personality?

Measuring PersonalityCognitive Strategies and

Athletic Success

What Makes Up Personality?

Approaches to Understanding Personality

(continued)

What IsPersonality?

The characteristics or blend of

characteristics that make

a person unique.

What Makes Up Personality?

What Makes Up Personality?

Psychological CoreThe most basic and deepest attitudes, values, interests, motives, and self-worth of a person—the “real” person.

Example: A person’s guiding values in everyday life

Typical Responses

The way one typically adjusts or responds to the environment.

TraitsExample: Being happy-go-lucky, shy etc.

Role–Related Behavior

How one acts in a particular social situation, or when fulfilling expectations of self and others.

Example: Behavior as a student, parent, or friend; leader or captain of a team

Psychodynamic Approach

Approaches to Understanding Personality

Trait Approach

Situational Approach

Interactional Approach

Phenomenological Approach

Research Support: The Bottom Line

Current impact. Little influence; hasn’t been adopted by most contemporary sport psychologists.Weakness. Focuses almost entirely on internal determinants of behavior, giving little attention to the social environment.

Contribution:

Psychodynamic approach

Research Support: The Bottom Line

Current impact. Little influence, but much prior study.Weakness. Knowing traits will not always help predict behavior in particular situations.

Contribution:

Trait approach

Research Support: The Bottom Line

Current impact. Little influence.Weakness. Situation will not always influence individual behavior.

Contribution:

Situational approach

Research Support: The Bottom Line

Current impact. Considerable influence; adopted by most contemporary sport psychologists.Weakness. Complexity

Contribution:

Interactionalapproach

Personality and Athletics

Controversy: Is personality important to performance?

Situation-specific trait tests predict behavior more accurately than do general trait measures.

Measuring Personality

It is often more effective to compare personality test scores relative to an individual’s own previous test results than with group norms.

Measure both traits and states.

General Versus Situation– (Sport–) Specific Measures

Selected Findings in Personality Research

Some relationship exists between personality traits and states and sport performance, but it is far from perfect or precise.

No single definitive personality profile has been found that consistently distinguishes athletes from nonathletes.

Few personality differences are evident between male and female athletes. (continued)

Selected Findings in Personality Research

Type-A behavior patterns (particularly the anger-hostility component) are associated with cardiovascular disease and appear to be altered via exercise.

Exercise and increased fitness appear to be associated with increases in self-esteem, especially in low self-esteem individuals.

Athlete stereotypes

High appraisals of self-worth / Egocentricity?

Selected Findings in Personality Research

Profiles of stereotypical athlete: ________

General research findings:

Selected Findings in Personality Research

Profiles of women athletes

compared to female non-athletes:

Selected Findings in Personality Research

Morgan’s (1980) mental health model shows that successful athletes exhibit greater positive mental health than do less successful athletes. However, precise predictions have not been achieved and should not be used for team selection.

The Iceberg Profile

Profile of Mood States (POMS)

The Iceberg Profile

Sensation seeking and extreme sports: What makes some enjoy high risk activities?

Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale

adventure seeking; experience seeking; disinhibition; dislike of boredom

Ex. Study of 80 – hang gliders, car racers, & bowlers…..

21 sky-divers vs. nondivers

Summary of Personality Factors in Sport

• Personality traits are thought to influence actual performance in a relatively small way

• Best way to approach the study of personality styles in athletes is to use an interactional theory or approach, which few studies have done

Summary of Personality Factors in Sport: Interactional Model

Personality(traits, life experiences, typical cognitions & emotions

etc.)

XSituation

(current emotions, type of sport, position, opponent, coaches, level of competition, etc.)

Cognitive Strategies and Athletic Success

Cognitive strategies and mental strategies are among the skills and behaviors that athletes use in competition.

Both quantitative and qualitative cognitive strategy measures have been shown to differentiate between more and less successful athletes.

Cognitive Strategies and Athletic Success

More successful athletes are characterized by use of a variety of cognitive strategies, including

arousal regulation techniques (can control anxiety)

show self-confidence concentration and focus techniques feeling in control and not forcing things low in trait anxiety

(continued)

Cognitive Strategies and Athletic Success

Using positive imagery and thought

Exercising commitment and determination….self-discipline

Setting goals

Using well-developed plans and coping strategies

Having adaptive reactions to loss Sensation seeking and extreme sports