PERSONALITY IN SPORTS PSYCH

DEFINING PERSONALITY

Characteristics that make a person unique.

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 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

DIFFERENT MEASURES

GENERAL SPECIFIC

Test broad categories

Ex. Big Five personality test

Test for a particular topic

Sport Confidence Inventory

MEASURES

TRAIT STATE

Typical style of behaving

Example: How anxious people get

Situation’s effect on behavior

Example: How anxious people become before tests

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

ComponentsDON’T U

SE PERSONALIT

Y

TESTS TO SELECT FOR

TEAMS

DOS AND DON’TS OF PERSONALITY TESTING

DO 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

SELECTED RESEARCH

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATHLETES AND NONATHLETES

No specific personality profile has been found that consistently distinguishes athletes from nonathletes

TEAM SPORTS INDIVIDUAL SPORTS

exhibit less abstract reasoning

more extroversion more dependency less ego strength

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