PERSONALITY IN SPORTS PSYCH
DEFINING PERSONALITY
 Characteristics
unique.
that make a person
PARTS OF PERSONALITY
HOW DO YOU TYPICALLY RESPOND?

When a friend asks you for a favor

When your parents ask you to do something

In a group of friends at school

In a group of friends away from school
DOES THE SITUATION MATTER?


Heinz’s wife was dying from a particular type of cancer.
Doctors said a new drug might save her. The drug had been
discovered by a local chemist and the Heinz tried
desperately to buy some, but the chemist was charging ten
times the money it cost to make the drug and this was much
more than the Heinz could afford.
Heinz could only raise half the money, even after help from
family and friends. He explained to the chemist that his wife
was dying and asked if he could have the drug cheaper or
pay the rest of the money later. The chemist refused saying
that he had discovered the drug and was going to make
money from it. The husband was desperate to save his wife,
so later that night he broke into the chemist’s and stole the
drug.

Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother promised her
that she could go to a special rock concert coming to
their town if she saved up from baby-sitting and lunch
money to buy a ticket to the concert. She managed to
save up the fifteen dollars the ticket cost plus another
five dollars. But then her mother changed her mind and
told Judy that she had to spend the money on new
clothes for school. Judy was disappointed and decided to
go to the concert anyway. She bought a ticket and told
her mother that she had only been able to save five
dollars. That Saturday she went to the performance and
told her mother that she was spending the day with a
friend. A week passed without her mother finding out.
Judy then told her older sister, Louise, that she had gone
to the performance and had lied to her mother about it.
Louise wonders whether to tell their mother what Judy
did.

Two young men, brothers, had got into serious
trouble. They were secretly leaving town in a hurry
and needed money. Karl, the older one, broke
into a store and stole a thousand dollars. Bob,
the younger one, went to a retired old man who
was known to help people in town. He told the
man that he was very sick and that he needed a
thousand dollars to pay for an operation. Bob
asked the old man to lend him the money and
promised that he would pay him back when he
recovered. Really Bob wasn't sick at all, and he
had no intention of paying the man back.
Although the old man didn't know Bob very well,
he lent him the money. So Bob and Karl skipped
town, each with a thousand dollars.
PERSONALITY THEORIES
PSYCHODYNAMIC


Conflict between the parts of our consciousness: Id, Ego,
Superego
Defense mechanisms

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


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
Rationalization
Identification
Displacement
Projection
Regression
Reaction Formation
Repression
Not much support
TRAIT
There are fundamental, relatively
stable units of personality
 Example: “Big Five” Openness,
Conscientiousness, Extraversion,
Agreeableness, and Neuroticism
 Environment does not matter


Not much support
SITUATIONAL
Situation is the most important determinant of
behavior
 Environment dictates how a person will act


Not widely accepted
INTERACTIONAL
Personal factors and situations work together
to influence behavior
 Highly individual


Most widely accepted theory
PHENOMENOLOGICAL
Focuses on a person’s subjective experience
and interpretation of an event
 Most prominent sports psych theories fall in
this category

PERSONALITY TESTING
GENERAL
SPECIFIC

Test broad categories

Test for a particular topic

Ex. Big Five personality test

Sport Confidence Inventory
DIFFERENT MEASURES
TRAIT
STATE

Typical style of behaving

Situation’s effect on
behavior

Example: How anxious
people get

Example: How anxious
people become before tests
MEASURES
EXAMPLES OF PERSONALITY TESTS
-“Sport Competition Anxiety Test” (Martens,
1977)
 -“Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2”
(Martens, et. al., 1982)
 -“Trait-State Confidence Inventory” (Vealey,
1986)
 “Profile of Mood States”

JOURNAL ENTRY 02/06/14
 Which
personality test did you feel
was most accurate? Why? In what
setting might personality testing be
appropriate? When would it be a bad
idea to use personality tests?
PRINCIPLES FOR USING PERSONALITY TESTS IN SPORTS
Know the Principles of Testing and Measurement
Error
 Know Your Limitations
 Do Not Use Psych Tests for team selection
 Include Explanation and Feedback
 Assure athletes of confidentiality
 Take an intra-individual approach (how people feel
at a moment relative to how they usually feel)
 Understand and Assess Specific Personality
Components

DO
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
DON’T
Inform athletes how the test will
be used
Allow only qualified individuals
to give it
Use sport-specific measures
whenever possible
Use both trait and state specific
measures
Provide specific feedback
Compare individuals to
themselves and not others




Use clinical personality tests
to study average populations
Use personality tests to
determine who makes the
team
Use them unless you are
qualified
Use them as the sole source
to predict behavior
DOS AND DON’TS OF PERSONALITY TESTING
SELECTED RESEARCH
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATHLETES AND NONATHLETES

No specific personality profile has been found
that consistently distinguishes athletes from
nonathletes
TEAM SPORTS

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
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exhibit less abstract
reasoning
more extroversion
more dependency
less ego strength
INDIVIDUAL SPORTS

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
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display higher levels of
objectivity
more dependency
less anxiety
less abstract thinking
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM
SPORTS
FEMALE ATHLETES

Women athletes are more:
Achievement oriented
 Independent
 Aggressive
 Emotionally Stable
 Assertive
than the normative female


These are also personality traits that make
good male athletes
A PERSONALITY VS. B PERSONALITY


People with Type A
behavior have a higher
risk for cardiovascular
disease.
Exercise can reduce
both the risk and the
behavior

Exercise is linked to
improved self-esteem
and self-concept
(perception of fitness
rather than actual
improvement)
COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
IDEAS THAT IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
Overachieving high school athletes scored
higher on coachability, concentration, coping
with adversity
 Elite athletes show superior ability to cope with
adversity and mentally prepare
 Olympic medal-winning wrestlers used more
positive self-talk, more immediate focus of
attention, and were better prepared mentally
for unforeseen negative events

IMPROVING COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
practice plans to deal with adversity
 practice routines to deal with unusual
circumstances and distractions
 concentrate on the performance and block out
distractions
 use mental rehearsals before the competition

PROFILE OF MOOD STATES
PROFILE OF MOOD STATES (POMS)

POMS is a mental
health model that
predicts high levels of
performance

“Iceberg Profile” most
desirable, most
successful athletes
NORMATIVE DATA (THE AVERAGE FOR VARIOUS
ATHLETES)
Group
Tension
Depression
Anger
Vigour
Fatigue
Confusion
International
5.66
4.38
6.24
18.51
5.37
4.00
Club
9.62
8.67
9.91
15.64
8.16
7.38
Recreational
6.00
3.11
3.60
17.78
6.37
4.84