frrson. in&id. E/J Vol. 9. No. I. pp. l?l-131. 1988 Pnnted in Grear Britain. All nghts resened

0191-8869 88 53.00 + 0.00 Copyright c I988 Pergamon Journals Ltd

PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUNG DANCERS AND NON-DANCERS’

FRANK C. BAKKER

Department of Psychology Interfaculty of Human Movement Sciences, The Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

(Received 9 February 1987)

Summary-Leisure activities, interests and personality traits of young dancers, spending about 15 h weekly on classical and modern ballet education, were assessed by means of a number of questionnaires.

Two groups were selected. One comprised dancers, aged I I or 12 years who had been attending a professional ballet school for one or two years. The other group, dancers aged IS or 16 years, had attended the same ballet school for at least four years. Children of the same age, not involved (above average) in any particular activity made up the two control groups. Leisure activities and interests of dancers differed only slightly from those of non-dancers, although some significant differences emerged. With respect to physical self-concept and self-esteem, findings indicated significantly less favourable attitudes and less self-esteem among dancers as compared to non-dancers. This was true especially in the older group of children. In both age groups, dancers were significantly more introverted than non-dancers.

The results are discussed with reference to the frequently reported positive effects of physical activity on feelings of well-being and on self concept.

INTRODUCTION

The merits and demerits of membership of cultural and sporting groups have been the subject of continuing debate. On the merit side, the advantages of having a disciplined way of life, a commitment to some purpose, social contact with like-minded individuals and often, the opportunity to travel widely have been proposed. Such advantages might well be expected to lead to high levels of self-esteem, high achievement motivation, and, where physical activity is involved, very positive attitudes towards such abilities and towards bodily appearance. In contrast, the stress of maintaining a constant schedule of training and/or practice (often, for young aspirants under the watchful eye of highly motivated parents), the limited time available for pursuits beyond those of the activity itself, the lack of variety in social contacts and the constant need to be reliant on others (for example, for transport to training and competition, often during unsocial hours) are put forward as the other side of the coin (Fahlbusch-Wendler, 1982; Hendry and Whiting, 1968).

The constraints imposed on ‘young talent’ in both the sporting and artistic world are often not fully appreciated while the scenario painted above would suggest that clear-cut differences might be expected in the leisure activities and interests of such individuals. At the same time, the question might well be posed as to whether such commitment demands ‘a special breed’ of person. This might manifest itself, for example, in personality terms-those who persist, as it were, ‘against the odds’, being stereotypic for that particular class of activity.

The interest in this study is confined to the dance sub-culture and, particularly, young classical and modem ballet dancers between the ages of 11 and 16 years. Such children spend about 15 hours per week on professional ‘ballet’ education. This severe programme requires an adjusted school time-table which, in turn, restricts their free time. Moreover, the sub-culture in which they find themselves is characterised by its critical and competitive atmosphere and high level of achievement orientation.

The question which was addressed in this study, was the extent to which the scenario presented above-stereotypic personality, restricted range of leisure activities, high achievement motivation, high self-esteem and concern for the body-would be confirmed, denied or modified in such an

‘A shortened version of this paper was presented at the 2lst International Congress of Applied Psychology, Jerusalem, 8-13 July, 1986.

121

122 FRASK C BAKKER

artistic sub-population? Caution in this respect is merited by an inspection of the literature. Hendry and Whiting (1968) for example, in a study focusing on top junior international swimmers in the L1.K. foun: that they were highly committed to training and achievement oriented (both) in the academical and sporting sense. They lived in what might be termed a closed environment in which little time was available for normal adolescent activities. Their life-style might be characterised- not necessarily in a negative sense-by sleep, train and work (academic). However. other studies have been less than conclusive. Kaminski, Mayer and Ruoff (1984). for example. in a large-scale longitudinal study compared young athletes with young musicians and a control group of ‘normal’ children of about the same age. In general, the differences between the sub-samples were rather small although some differences were apparent (e.g. the athletes had fewer hobbies than the control

groups). The idea of using personality profiles to look for stereotypical (sub-)populations has a fairly long

history particularly in the context of sport (for overviews see Cattell, Ebert and Tatsuoka. 1970; Eysenck, Nias and Cox, 1982; Hardman, 1973; Sack, 1975). The findings have generally been equivocal. Reasons for this can be sought in the atheoretical empiricism which characterises much of the research in this field. Eysenck et al. (1982) are of the opinion that it is possible to draw general conclusions if the results are intepreted within the framework of an appropriate personality theory. For example, they maintain that, the generally found, high levels of extraversion in both average and outstanding sporting performers can be appropriately explained in terms of Eysenck’s (I 967. 1981) theory of personality. The relatively low arousal level typical of more extraverted people, they maintain, leads them to seek sensory stimulation through bodily activity. Furthermore, ‘extraverts tolerate pain better, and hence are better equipped to deal with the often painful consequences and side effects of sporting’ (Eysenck et al., 1982). In short, these authors argue that

sport offers an adequate environment to satisfy the ‘extraverts’ need for stimulation. While it might be argued that the same line of reasoning would be applicable to ballet dancers, the present author is inclined, within the same theoretical framework, to make other predictions. Lack of cortical control and inhibition of ongoing behaviour, immediate reactions, venturesome and risk taking behaviour and impulsiveness, traits which are also characteristic for the extraverted person would, it is maintained here, be definitely less favourable for dancers. Ballet training requires controlled and disciplined behaviour. Unpredictable actions of dancers will lead to disturbance of the performance of the dancer herself or of other dancers. Impulsiveness or risk taking behaviour are not conducive to the subtle balance that needs to be maintained in a ballet group. Finally, dancers should be proof against the often monotonous repetition of phrases and poses, necessary to reach perfectionism.

Also, within the context of sport, extraversion is more a characteristic of team rather than

individual sportsmen (Peterson, Weber and Lonsdale, 1970). Although a ballet group might be characterised as a team, in terms of goals strived after, ballet is generally considered to be an individual activity. These factors taken together would lead to the prediction that ballet dancers would, on average, be more introverted than control groups of ‘normal’ people of a similar age range. In the present study extraversion is operationalised in terms of scores achieved on scales for social extraversion, sensation seeking, and impulsiveness, primary traits supporting the higher order concept of extraversion (Eysenck er al., 1982; Feij and Kuiper, 1984).

The factor Neuroticism (N) in Eysenck’s personality theory, reflects the potential for emotional arousal. Anxiety is found to be characteristic of high N scorers. Relationships beween N and performance are rather complicated and often indirect. Anxiety, for example, can act as a drive (and hence facilitate performance), but may also distract the person. High N-scores might be advantageous for dancers who have already learned to cope adequately with anxiety provoking stimuli, while at the same time it might well be disadvantageous for dancers who have not. High anxiety might debilitate performance on a novel complex task, but might facilitate a well-learned or overlearned task (for a review, see Eysenck, 1973). In the context of sporting sub groups there is some evidence that sportsmen are, on average, low on neuroticism (Eysenck et al., 1982) but results related to this personality factor are not well established. Given this state of affairs no hypothesis concerning neuroticism in dancers is put forward. Neuroticism is operationalised as the scores obtained on scales for emotionality and anxiety.

The traits mentioned so far are, in Guildford’s terms “temperamental traits” (Guildford, 1959).

Personality of dancers 123

The other traits referred to in the description of a sterotypic sub-population of dancers- achievement motivation, self-esteem and concern for the body-are motivational in nature. Also with respect to these traits specific hypotheses can be formulated.

Achievement motivation-a motive to perform well in relation to a standard of excellence (Atkinson, 1964~seems an obvious prerequisite for every person who wants to attain high- standard goals. Dunleavy and Rees (1979) suggest that high achievers seek involvement in activities which allow them to maximize individual control over the outcome. Dancing is clearly such an activity. These authors report that athletes involved in individual sports are higher in need for achievement than athletes in team sports, and, as was argued above, dancing is considered to be an individual activity. It should also be noted that the atmosphere of a ballet school tends to be achievement oriented which would strengthen the hypothesis that dancers, to succeed, would need to be more achievement motivated than non-dancers. A high level of achievement motivation is especially predicted for older dancers, since they have survived the achievement oriented atmosphere of their ballet education for an extended period.

High self-esteem and concern for the body-in the present study operationalised in terms of scores achieved on scales for attitude to own appearance and attitude to own physical abilities also contribute to the stereotypic picture of dancers. A number of studies report positive effects on self-concept and related self-attitudes after participating in physical fitness programmes. sporting activity, etc. (for a review see Folkins and Sime, 1981) Since dancers are clearly involved above average in physcial activity, higher scores on these characteristics are hypothesized.

The scenario painted in the introduction to this article outlined the different sources of influence on the personal life of members of artistic sub-populations, influence on their interests and leisure activities were particularly mentioned. This latter influence might be expected to find its effect in a more restricted range of interests and leisure activities for dancers compared to non-dancers.

The study reported below, examines the validity of the above-mentioned predictions in a group of young classical and modern ballet dancers.

Subjects

METHOD

Subjects were young dancers, spending about 15 h weekly on classical and modern ballet education, and children of two primary and one secondary Dutch schools (girls only).

In the first part of the study 33 dancers and 61 non-dancers participated. Nineteen of the sample of dancers, aged 11 or 12 years, had attended a professional ballet school for one or two years. The other 14 dancers, aged I5 or 16 years, had attended the same school for at least four years. Of the sample of 61 non-dancers, 27 children were 11 or 12 years old, 34 children were 15 or 16 years old.

In the second part of the study, taking place 6 months later, 52 dancers (35 of them aged 11 or 12 years and 17 aged 15 or 16 years) and 9 1 non-dancers (41 aged 11 or 12 years and 44 aged 15 or 16 years) participated. Of this sample, 26 dancers and 40 non-dancers had participated in the first part of the study. The number of subjects participating in the first and second part of the study, is given in Table I.

QUESTIONNAIRES

In the first part of the study subjects completed questionnaires designed to elicit information about their:

1. Leisure activities (kind and time spent) and interests in reading, television, music and ballet

Table I. Number of subjects of each group (dancers aged I I or I2 years, control subjects of the same

age, dancers aged 15 or 16 years, control subjects of the same age) participating in the first and the

second oart of the studv resoectivelv.

Number of subjects in the first part

Number of subjects in the second part

Number of subjects participating in both parts

Age I I or I2 years Age I5 or I6 years

dancers control dancers control

19 27 14 34

44

(14)

124 FRANK C. BAKKER

(N = 22 items). Most items are formulated interrogatively, each item requiring a selection out of three or five alternatives. Some items are open-ended questions. 2. Attitude to own appearance (N = 29 items). All items formulated interrogatively and each item requiring the selection of one out of five alternatives. 3. Attitude to own physical abilities (N = 11 items). 4. Self-esteem (N = 10 items).

Questionnaires 3 and 4 contain 5-point Likert-type items, each with response alternatives ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5). Reliability and validity data for questionnaires 2, 3 and 4 are presented in the Results section.

5. Achievement-motivation. Hermans’ (1969) Achievement Motivation Test for Children (achieve- ment motivation scale).

In the second part of the study Ss completed two personality inventories:

1. The Dutch adaptation of Spielberger, Edwards, Lushene, Montuori and Platzek (1973) State-

Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) (Bakker, 1981; Bakker and Van Wieringen, 1985). 2. The adolescent Temperament List (ATL) (Feij and Kuiper, 1984), which allowed assessment of:

-Emotionality -Thrill and Adventure Seeking (Sensation Seeking, TAS) -Disinhibition (Sensation Seeking, DIS) -Social Extraversion -Impulsiveness

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE

The second part of the study, in which Ss filled in the Dutch version of the STAIC and the ATL, took place about six months after the first part. In both parts of the study questionnaires were administered in the subject’s own classroom.

Sub-samples of 34 Ss, aged 1 I or 12 years and 22 Ss, aged 15 or 16 years. filled in the questionnaries intended to measure ‘appreciation of own appearance’, ‘ appreciation of own physical abilities’ and self-esteem twice, with an interval between testing situations of 2 months. For those Ss scores on these three questionnaires are computed as the mean of their scores on the two occasions, thus increasing the number of items on which assessments were based and, by so doing, increasing the reliability of the scores obtained.

Reliability of the questionnaires

RESULTS

The homogeneity indices for the three questionnaires, intended to measure ‘attitude to own appearance’, ‘attitude to own physical abilities’, and ‘self-esteem’ in both testing situations are given in Table 2, separately for the children aged 11 or 12 years and I5 or 16 years. In this Table the test-retest reliability for these questionnaires are also reported.

As is apparent from the Table, the homogeneity indices (alpha coefficients) for all three questionnaires in both groups of children, are acceptable. Test-retest correlations, except the correlation for the questionnaire measuring ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ in the younger group

Table 2. Homogeneity indices for three questmnnaires intended to measure attitude to own appearance. attitude to own physical abilities

and self-esteem in testing situation I (SI) and testing situation 2 (SZ). Test-retest reliability coefficients (Pearson’s r) for the three

questionnaires separately for the I I and I2 years old subjects and the IS and 16 years old subjects.

Age I I or I2 years Age IS or I6 years .~ ~.._~.

SI St

(n =‘34)

SI s2

(n =46) (n = 34) (n = 48) (n = 22) (n =’ 22)

Attitude to own appearance 0.72 0.81 0.79 0.82 0.88 0.88

Attitude to own physical abilities 0.68 0.66 0.28 0.60 0.78 0.74

Self-esteem 0.72 0.88 0.73 0.81 0.84 0.86

Personality of dancers I25

are also acceptable. Since 34 children of the sample of 46 children aged 11 or 12 years completed this questionnaire on two occasions, their score was computed as the mean of the scores on these occasions. This procedure results in a lengthening of the test, and as a consequence the low reliability of this questionnaire gave less cause for concern. Nevertheless results obtained with this questionnaire will be interpreted with strong reservations.

Validity of the questionnaires

The questionnaires ‘attitude to own appearance’ and ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ are preliminary instruments*) intended to measure physical self-concept. Physical self-concept is one aspect of a more general self-concept (Fitts, 1965). With respect to physical-self a further distinction can be made between attitudes to body appearance and perceived physical competence (Ryckman, Robbins, Thornton and Cantrell, 1982). These authors developed the Physical Self Efficacy (PSE) Scale, consisting of a subscale measuring Perceived Physical Ability (PPA) and a subscale labelled Physical Self Presentation Confidence (PSPC). The ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ question- naire, used in this study, comes close to the PPA-scale of Ryckman et al. In fact, some of the items of the PPA-scale were translated and used in this questionnaire. The questionnaire ‘attitude to own appearance’ bears some resemblance to the PSPC-scale, although similarity with this scale is less apparent.

The questionnaire intended to measure self-esteem is an instrument asking about feelings of self-satisfaction or respect that an individual feels for the self he/she observes (Rosenberg, 1965). Self-esteem comes close to the personal aspect of the self, one of the other aspects Fitts (1965) distinguishes.

Intercorrelations between the three questionnaires are given in Table 3a and 3b, separately for both age groups. All three measures are significantly intercorrelated in both groups. As anticipated, subjects who had favourable attitudes to their body appearance also had more positive attitudes to their physical abilities and higher levels of self-esteem. Ryckman et al. (1982) report that their PPA-subscale is related to the PSPC subscale (r = 0.26, P < 0.05) and that the correlations between the subscales and the Tennessee Physical Self Concept subscale (Fitts, 1965) are 0.43 (P < 0.001) and 0.52 (P < O.OOl), respectively. Correlations between the PPA and the PSPC-subscale and the Self-Esteem scale (of the Texas Social Behavior Inventory, Helmreich, Stapp and Ervin. 1974) in the Ryckman et al. study were 0.32 (P < 0.001) and 0.35 (P < 0.001) respectively.

The sample that participated in both the first and second part of this study, enabled computation of correlations between the scores obtained on the three questionnaires, measuring aspects of the self and personality measures obtained on the second occasion. As can be seen from Table 4a and 4b, with the exception of one single correlation, the sign of the coefficients are the same in both age groups. The extent of the correlations in both groups also shows reasonable agreement.

Table 3a. Intercorrelations (Pearson’s I) between ‘attitude to own appear-

ance’ (A). ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ (B) and self-esteem (C). among

children aped I I or 12 wars.

A B C

Attitude to own appearance (A) - 0.36. 0.61”

Attitude to own physical abilities (B) - 0.49..

Self-esteem

‘P < 0.05 l *P < 0.001

Table 3b. Intercorrelations (Pearson’s I) between ‘attitude to own appear-

ance’ (A), ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ (B) and self-ateem (C), among

children aged IS or 16 years.

A B C

Attitude to own appearance (A) - 0.40’ 0.68..

Attitude to own physical abilities (B) - 0.43..

Self-esteem (C) -

l P < 0.01

l .P < 0.001

*These questionnaires were developed by I. Baardman and R. J. Bosscher respectively, both from the Interfaculty of Human Movement Sciences, Free University, Amsterdam.

126 FRANK C. BAKKER

Table 4,. Pearson correlations between ‘attitude to own appearance’ (A),

‘attitude to own physical abilities’ (9) and self-esteem (C) and Personality

measures. Subjects aged I I or I2 years.

Personality measures A B C

Emotionality -0.43’. -0.15 -0.37..

Thrill and adventure seeking 0.17 0.27. 0.07

Extraversion 0.35’ 0.36’ 0.27’

Impulsiveness -0.11 0.24 0.03

l P < 0.05.

l *P <O.Ol.

Table 4b. Pearson correlations between ‘attitude to own appearance’ (A),

‘attitude to own physical abilities’ (9) and self-esteem (C) and Personality

measures. Subjects aged I5 or I6 years.

Personality measures A B C

Emotionality -0.399 -0.56’. -0.62***

Thrill and adventure seeking -0.02 0.37’ 0.19

Disinhibition -0.13 0.03 -0.07

Extraversion 0.30 0.43’ 0.42.

Impulsiveness 0.31 -0.05 0.17

l P < 0.05.

l *P < 0.01. l **P < 0.001.

Children who felt content about themselves (high self-esteem score or high physical self-concept), felt less anxious (low emotionality score) and were more extraverted. These relationships conform to expectation. The extraversion scale of the ATL measures primarily social extraversion and the person who has a high score on this scale is described as someone who makes social contacts easily, is talkative and frank, and gives expression to his feelings (Feij and Kuiper, 1984), traits that might be anticipated among people with a positive, self-concept. Emotionality is related to feelings of fear, guilt and shame, and is expected among persons who evaluate the self negatively. Ryckman et al. (1982) report negative correlations between Taylor’s Manifest Anxiety Scale and the PSPC subscale and the PPA subscale of - 0.50 (P < 0.001) and - 0.06 (n.s.) respectively. Helbing (1982) found a positive correlation between a Dutch self-esteem scale and social extraversion of 0.50 (P < 0.01).

The positive correlations between ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ and thrill and adventure seeking (TAS), viz. 0.27 (P < 0.05) and 0.37 (P < 0.05) in. the younger and older age groups respectively, provide further evidence for the validity of this questionnaire. Interestingly, both other self-questionnaires do not correlate significantly with TAS. This result gives some support for their convergent validity. As expected, children who viewed themselves as having considerable physical skill (high score on the ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ questionnaire) were also motivated to engage in thrilling and adventurous activities, demanding physical skill. No such relationship is expected between self-esteem, and TAS, and less between ‘attitude to own appearance’ and TAS. Ryckman et al. (1982) found a positive correlation between PPA and TAS (r = 0.29, P < 0.001). However, in their study the PSPC subscale was also correlated with TAS (r = 0.21, P < O.OOl), as was the PPA with Disinhibition. These relationships were not found in this study.

Impulsiveness is defined as lack of control of ongoing behaviour and impatience (Feij and Kuiper, 1984), and no significant relationships between this trait and any one of the self-measures, were, as was to be expected, found.

It may be concluded that the results of the reliability and validity studies on the three questionnaires are encouraging. Results show rather strong concurrent validity of the question- naires and agree reasonably with those reported in the literature. Some reservations however with respect to the questionnaire measuring ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ apply since the test-retest correlation of this questionnaire in the age group of 11 and 12 year old subjects is unacceptably low.

Leisure activities and interests

All Ss were required to select one or more hobbies out of the eight listed in the questionnaire and to indicate the time they spend on those selected. In addition, they had the opportunity to fill in other leisure activities and sports, not listed in the questionnaire. The mean number of

Personality of dancers

Table 5. Mean number of hobbies. mentioned by dancers and non-dancers.

Children aged II or I2 years Children aged 15 or 16 years

dancers other subjects dancers other subjects

A-l A6 20 24

hobbies, mentioned by the subjects, separately for dancers and non-dancers, for both age groups is given in Table 5.

As is apparent from this Table only minor differences exist between dancers and non-dancers. This is also true for time spent on these activities (not shown in this Table). Interestingly, younger children mentioned considerably more hobbies than did children aged 15 or 16 years. However, on the basis of the data obtained it is difficult to decide whether this is a consequence of either a more restricted definition of ‘hobby’, used by the older children, or less time available for leisure activities.

The kind of leisure activities children were engaged in differed in two respects. Firstly, all dancers mentioned ballet as one of the hobbies whereas only 13 girls out of the control sample of 61 did so. Secondly, only 9 dancers (out of 33) mentioned sports; more than 50% of the non-dancers mentioned at least one sport activity in which they were involved.

Subjects were required to answer more detailed questions about reading, music, watching television and ballet. Percentages of subjects, that choose the several alternatives are presented in Table 6. With the exception of a few general questions only those questions that differentiated significantly between dancers and non-dancers are listed.

There were no significant differences between dancers and non-dancers with respect to the extent to which they like reading (or time spent on it), listening to music or watching television. Equally, differences in making music themselves could not be established. Some significant differences were observed with respect to the kind of music dancers listen to, the things they read and the television programmes they watch. Moreover, dancers were considerably more interested in watching ballet and reading about it, a fairly trivial result. Summarising these results, the following conclusion may be drawn: dancers’ interests are more directed to artistic things: they read more about them in newspapers, prefer to listen to classical music, read more literature (15 or 16 year old children), and are clearly interested in ballet. In contrast, they are less interested in sport: they do not watch sport on television, hardly ever read about it in the newspapers, and are not actively involved. Furthermore, dancers seem, to a lesser degree, to be interested in daily and weekly newspapers.

Motivational traits of young dancers

The mean scores for ‘attitude to own appearance’, ‘attitude to own physical abilities’, ‘self-esteem’ and ‘achievement motivation’, for dancers and non-dancers of both age groups are presented in Table 7. t-Tests were carried out on the differences between dancers and other girls, separately, for both age groups and the results are also given in this Table.

Dancers tend to obtain lower scores for the three self-measures than non-dancers (except for ‘attitude to own physical abilities’ for the children aged 11 or 12 years), although only two out of six comparisons reach an acceptable level of significance. It should be noted as well that the three measures of aspects of the self are mutually correlated (see Table 3), and some caution in interpretation of these differences is justified. Nevertheless, results indicate less favourable attitudes with respect to physical self-concept and less self-esteem among dancers, compared to non-dancers. This runs counter to the prediction, and these findings will be addressed in the next section.

As predicted, dancers attained higher scores for achievement motivation than did non-dancers, although these differences turned out to be significant only for the older age group. Hermans (1971) reports 17.3 as a mean score for achievement motivation for girls. Comparison of this mean score, based on a national sample of 1280 girls, with the scores in this study, shows that dancers, as well as non-dancers, aged 11 or 12 years, had relatively high achievement motivation scores, while the score of non-dancers, aged 15 or 16 years, was substantially under this national average.

Temperamental traits of young dancers

Mean scores for the Anxiety-State Scale, the Anxiety-Trait Scale and the five subscales of the PA,* 9 I-1

128 FRASK C. BAKKER

Table 6. Interests in reading. muw. watching television nnd ballet. separately for dancers and non-dancers

in both age groups (percentages: only questions that dlfferenttated significantly between dancers and

non-dancers are listed).

Grls aged I I or I2 years Girls aged I5 or 16 years ._..___

dancers other subjects dancers other subjects (n = 19) (n = 27) (n = 14) (n = 2s)

Reading

a. like it much 68 59 64 46

b. somewhat 21 I9 29 39

c. don’t like it II 22 1 11

a. spend z I hr daily 54 38 47 30

b. 2-5 h weekly 28 29 40 35

c. < 2 h weekly I8 33 13 35

what is read:

adventure

literature

weekly newspapers newspapers

art columns

sport columns

television columns

Muic

90 56” 29 46

0 0 64 32’

26 52’ 50 71 II I5 I4 43’

32 a** 64 29.

16 26 7 36.

5 448’ I4 46”

a. like 11 much

b. somewhat

c. don’t like it

music listened IO:

9s 62 lOi3 93

5 33 0 7

0 4 0 0

classicnl

jazz

rock and roll

blues

self-making music

Watchmg televiston

a. like it much

b. somewhat

c. don’t like it

programs watched:

children’s programs

youth news

films

entertainment ballet

sports

Ballet

95 26.’ 71 21.

5 26’ I4 36

I6 41’ 0 25.

0 0 0 21’

50 50 43 25

53 70 71 87

42 I9 7 II

5 II 22 2

42 56 7 298

74 56 14 40’

42 709 64 89

58 41 7 39’ 90 26’* 71 7’.

5 26’ 0 21’

a. looks often 63 II** 57 7.9

b. sometimes 37 44 43 18

c. seldom~never 0 45 0 75

a. (very) often 68 iI** 57 4**

b. sometimes 32 41 43 29

c. seldom:never

l P < 0.05.

l *P <O.Ol.

0 48 0 67

(Chi-square or test for 2 x 2 tables).

Note: total number of questmns in each age group 40.

Table 7. Mean scores for attitude to own appearance. attitude to own physical abilities. self-esteem. and achievement motivation for dancers

and non-dancers. aged I I or I2 years and I5 or I6 years.

Aged I I or I2 years Aged 15 or I6 years

dancers others f-value P dancers others I-ulue P

Attitude to own appearance 109.2 III.7 0.85 “.S. 96.6 1044 2.32 <0.05

Attitude to own physical abilities 39.7 38.9 0.54 “.S. 34.0 35.4 0.65 n.s.

Self-esleem 34 6 31.9 I .89 <0.07 32.1 36.0 2.14 <o.os

Achievement motivation 20.8 19.2 0.83 n.s. 18.1 II.7 3.1 I co.01

P = two-tailed probability

Personality of dancers 1’9

Table 8. Mea” scores for A-State. A-Trait, and Emotionality. Sensation Seeking (Thrill and Adventure

Seeking Disinhibitron), Extraversion and Impulsiveness for dancers and non-dancers, aged I I or I2 years

and I5 or I6 years.

Aged I I or I2 years Aged IS or 16 years

dancers others r-values P dancers others I -value P

A-State 30.6 29.4 I.16 “.S. 34.8 32.6 1.64 “.S.

A-Trait 33.5 31.9 1.09 “.S. 36. I 34.0 0.87 “.S.

Emotionality 8.3 6.6 2.39 co.05 9.2 8.0 I .40 “.S.

TAS 4.5 5.8 I .67 < 0.05 4.8 6.9 2.94 <O.Ol

DIS - - - - 2.3 3.3 I .86 <0.05

Extraversion 4.6 5.3 1.24 “5. 4.5 5.0 0.67 “.S.

lmaulsiveness 2.9 4.6 4.65 <O.Ol 3.8 5.0 2.05 <0.05

P = two-tailed probability, with the exception of TAS, DIS, Extraversion and Impulsiveness. where

one-tailed probability is reported.

*This scale is not suited for children. aged I I or I2 years, and items from this scale were deleted.

ATL for the four sub-samples are presented in Table 8. t-Tests on the differences between dancers and non-dancers, separately, for both age groups, were carried out and the results are also given in this Table.

There is a tendency for dancers to be more anxious than non-dancers. In both age groups, dancers attained higher scores for State-Anxiety, Trait-Anxiety and Emotionality, although only for Emotionality in the younger age group, is this difference significant. The mean score for dancers, aged 15 or 16 years, (9.2) however corresponds with a percentile score of about 72 (Feij and Kuiper, 1984) while the mean score for the non-dancers in this age group, viz. 8.0, corresponds to a percentile score of 58.

Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Disinhibition, Extraversion, as well as Impulsiveness, are related to Eysenck’s extraversion factor. For all these traits dancers attained lower scores than non- dancers, and with the exception of social extraversion, differences are significant at least at the 5%~level (one tailed). As predicted, dancers are more introverted than non-dancers, as is also clear from a comparison of dancers’ scores with norm scores for the ATL (which are only available for the older subjects). Mean scores for dancers for the four traits, mentioned above (TAS, DIS, Extraversion and Impulsiveness) correspond with percentile scores of about 36, 65, 45 and 38 respectively.

DISCUSSION

Interests and leisure activities of young dancers, spending about 15 h weekly on ballet education, do not differ notably from those of non-dancers. In spite of the demanding programme that these young dancers face, as well as the need to ‘manage’ their limited free time, no evidence was found for restricted interests or fewer hobbies among dancers as compared to non-dancers. The influence on their personal life of being involved in an activity at a rather high level seems limited. This is also found for sport (Kaminski et al., 1984) although Kaminski et al. report significantly fewer hobbies among athletes and young musicians, compared to other subjects. However, in this comparison, sport or playing music was not included as one of the hobbies of athletes or musicians respectively.

In as far as differences in interests between dancers and non-dancers are apparent, dancers can be typified as more artistically minded and less sport minded. The latter finding might be explained by a discouraging attitude of ballet teachers with respect to sport participation of dancers.

Notwithstanding the apparently limited influence on personal life of attending a ballet school, some influence seems evident. Contrary to prediction, self-attitudes of dancers were less favourable than those of non-dancers, especially in the older group. It might be speculated that the atmosphere of a professional ballet school, that is critical with respect to body appearance and physical abilities is responsible for this. The shift towards significant differences in the older group lends some support for this interpretation, although the cross-sectional design of the study does not permit definite conclusions. It should be noted however that emotionality is negatively correlated with self-attitudes. Since dancers attained relatively high scores for emotionality (see below) it might be possible that the negative attitudes to the self are merely an expression of dancers’ high emotionality score.

The finding of less favourable self-attitudes among dancers is also of interest in relation to the

130 FRANE C. BAKKER

frequently reported positive effects of physical activities on feelings of well-being and on self concept (for a review see Folkins and Sime, 1981). For the dancers in this study the opposite seems to be true. One of the conclusions that might be drawn from this result is that ‘atmosphere’ and length of period people are involved in physical activity are. for its effect on self feeling, as important as the activity itself. Interestingly, Puretz (1982) reports results, indicating no changes in body image for subjects enrolled in a modern dance or ballet course. while body image of subjects enrolled in a physical conditioning course, had been significantly improved after the 1.5 weeks

course. As predicted, dancers aged 15 or 16 years were more achievement motivated than non-dancers

of this age. The scores for achievement motivation of dancers aged I I or I2 years were also relatively high, although they did not differ significantly from those of the non-dancers. It is proposed that a ballet education provides an environment that enables children to maintain relatively high achievement motivation. However. the observed difference in the older group might equally well be a result of selection or self-selection. On the basis of the data obtained this cannot be decided.

In contrast to sportsmen and sportswomen who are, on average, more extraverted than other subjects (Eysenck et al., 1982; Sack, 1975) young dancers are more introverted. This is true in both age groups and in accordance with the hypothesis. Although some traits of the extravert seem equally suited to athletes and dancers (viz. better pain tolerance; seeking sensory stimulation through bodily activity), others are less favourable (viz. lack of control and inhibition of ongoing behaviour; immediate reactions). Dancers tend to be less stable (high scores for emotionality and anxiety) than non-dancers. With respect to emotionality, no hypothesis was put forward and only very tentative explanations for this result can be offered. One of these explanations might be that part of a dancer’s job is to give expression to feelings and emotions. Dancers should be sensitive to, for example, the emotional meaning of music and choreography and be able to convey this to other people. Being sensitive and emotional might be a favourable requisite for this. The relatively high scores for emotionality and anxiety are not necessarily disadvantageous for performance. Young dancers are frequently exposed to ego-threatening situations and this may enable them to develop quite adequate coping strategies.

Since predisposition towards emotionality and extraversion both have a biological basis (Eysenck. 1967, 1981) and differences between dancers and other subjects are already present in the young age group, a tenable hypothesis is that with respect to these traits, differences are primarily a result of selection or self-selection processes.

Acknowledgement-The author would like to thank John Whiting for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

REFERENCES

Atkinson J. W. (1964) An Introduction IO Motit’ation. D. van Nostrand Company, New York. Bakker F. C. (1981) Persoonlijkheid en motorisch leren bij kinderen (Personality and motor learning in children). Ph.D.

thesis, Free University, Amsterdam. Bakker F. C. and Wieringen P. C. W. van (1985) Anxiety induced by ego- and physical threat. In Stress and Anxiery (vol. 9).

(Edited by Spielberger C. D., Sarason I. G. and Defares P. B.). Hemisphere Publishing Company, Washington. Balazs E. and Nickerson, E. (1976) A personality needs profile of some outstanding female athletes. J. c/in. Psychol. 32,

45-49. Cattell R. B., Eber H. W. and Tatsuoka M. M. (1970) Handbook for rhe Si.rreen Personality Factor Queslionnaire. institute

for Personality and Ability Testing, Champaign, Ill. Dunleavy A. 0. and Rees C. R. (1979) The effect of achievement motivation and sports exposure upon the sports

involvement of American college males. Inr. J. Sporl Psychol. 10, 92-100. Eysenck, H. J. (1967) The Biological Basis of Personality. C. C. Thomas, Springfield. Eysenck H. J. (1973) Personality, Learning and “anxiety”. In Handbook of Abnormal Psychology (Edited by Eysenck H.

J.). Belfast University Press. Eysenck H. J. (1981) A Model for Personality. Springer, New York. Eysenck H. J.. Nias D. K. B. and Cox D. N. (1982) Sport and personality. Adv. Behac. Res. Thu. 4, l-56. Fahlbusch-Wendler C. (1982) Kinderhochleisrungssport. Die Zuliissigkeir der Staorlichen Fiirderung des Kinderhochieistungs-

sporrs in der BRD. Czwalina, Ahrensburg. Feij J. A. and Kuiper C. M. (1984) Adolescenren Temperumenren L+r (Adolescent Temperament List). Swets & Zeitlinger.

Lisse.

Fitts W. H. (1965) Tennessee Self-Concept Scale Manual. Counselor Recordings and Tests. Nashville. Fodero J. M. (1980) An analysis of achievement motivation and motivational tendencies among men and women collegiate

gymnasts. hr. J. Sporr Psychol. 11, 10&l 12. Folkins C. H. and Sime W. E. (1981) Physical fitness training and mental health. Am. Psychol. 36, 373-359.

Personality of dancers 131

Gabler H. (1976) Zur Entwicklung von Personlichkeitsmerkmalen bei Hochleistungssportlern. Spor(wissenschufi 6,247-276. Guildford J. P. (IYSY) Person&y. McGraw Hil!, New York. Hardman K. (1973) A dual approach to the study of personality and performance in sport. In Personality and Performunce

in Physical Education and Sporl (Edited by Whiting H. T. A., Hardman K.. Hendry L. B. and Jones M. G.). Henry Kimpton Publishers. London.

Helbing J. C. (1982) Zeifwaardering: meting en validiteit (Validity of a self-esteem questionnaire). Ned. Tijdschr. Psychol. 39, 257-277.

Helmreich R., Stapp J. and Ervin C. (1974) The Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI): an objective measure of self-esteem or social competence. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 4, 79.

Hendrv L. B. and Whiting H. T. A. (1968). Social and osvcholoaical trends in national calibre iunior swimmers. J. Sporls .Wed. Phvs. Fir. 8. 198-203.

. . I

Hermans H..J. M. (1969) Presrufie Morirutie Tesr coor Kinderen-resfboekje (Achievement Motivation Test for Children- Test booklet). Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse.

Hermans H. J. M. (1971) Presrorie-mofief en &ml-angst in gezin en onderwijs (Achievement motivation and debilitating anxiety in family and at school). Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse.

Kaminski G.. Mayer R. and RuolI B. A. (1984) Kinder and Jugendliche im Hochleismngssporf. Verlag Karl Hofmann, Schondorf.

Mummendey H. D. (1983). Sportliche Aktivitaet und Perdnlichkeit. Sportwissenschufr 13, Y-23. Morgan W. P. (1980) The trait psychology controversy. Res Q. 51, 50-76. Peterson S. L.. Weber J. C. and Lonsdale W. W. (1970) Personality traits of women in team sports vs. women in indivdual

sports. In Confemporury Readings in Sport Psychology (Edited by Morgan W. P.) C. C. Thomas, Springfield. Puretz S. L. (1982) Modem dance’s effect on the body image. Int. J. Sport Psychol. 13, 176-186. Rosenberg M. (1965) Society and rhe Adolescent Self-image. Princeton University Press. Ryckman R. M., Robbins M. A., Thornton B. and Cantrell P. (1982) Development and validation of a physical self-efficacy

scale. J. Person. Sot. Psychol. 42, 891-900. Sack H. G. (I 975) Sporrliche Betaetigung and Persiinlichkeit. Czwalina, Ahrensburg. Spielberger C. D., Edwards C. D., Lushene R. E., Montuori J. and Platzek D. (1973) The Smfe-Trait Anxiety Inrenrory

for Children (preliminury manual). Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, California.