Lesson 2

Describing your personality

Where does it come from- born with it or environment?
Sum total of an individuals characteristics which make him or her unique
Each person is like others, like some others, and like no others
Like all others- food water affiliation
Like some others- you have inherited certain physical and psychological characteristics
Like no others- sum total makes you unique
What makes up personality? - Diagram
Base- psychological core- internal and constant
Basis of personality
Your basic values- who you really are
Values- family religion sport
Middle- typical responses
How we adjust and respond to the world around us
Reflect your core values
Top- role related behavior- external and dynamic
Can change from situation to situation- nrequire you to be different roles
Behavior changes accordingly
A very changeable aspect of personality
Meet demands of that situation
Social environment influence personality
Will vary in degree from component to component
Characteristics of personality
Relatively stable- behavior may change
Traits/dispositions
Likely to respond the same way among situations
From internal and constant at the base to being influenced by the social
environment and dynamic at the apex
Why study personality?
The stable aspect (core values) of personality is important for effective functioning in
society
The dynamic aspect (role-related) is important for learning and adaptation
Assessing and understanding personality
Main theories- psychodynamic - Freud
Focus is on internal unconscious processes that are constantly in conflict with one
another
Study of the interrelationship of various parts of the mind, personality or psyche as they
relate to the mental emotional motivational forces at the unconscious level
Views the individual as a whole rather than on individual characteristics
Weakness- little support for its utility in sport and physical activity, hard to test, ignores
influence of the social environment
Trait theory
Behavior is determined by relatively stable traits which are fundamental units of
personality
Traits predispose to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation

Weaknesses- approach that behavior is consistant and generalizable- not always so in

sport, ignores social environment
Might be able to asses traits but ignores social environment and situations
Situational theories
Behavior is determined largely by the situation or environment
Important effects of modeling and social reinforcement
Watching what other people do, we can acquire new ideas and behavior
Bobo doll experiment- bandura
Studied influence of modeling and social influence on behavior
Children watched adults beat up a doll and they did exactly as they adults did
Reran experiment watching on tv and results were the same
Weakness- ignores genetics, stable core, station cannot influence everyones behavior
at least not in the same way
Interactional approach
Behavior is determined by persona and situational factors, as well as interaction
Behavior = f (person, environment)
Most useful approach for understanding sport and exercise behavior
Sport personality research
Why measure personality in sport? Certain traits be beneficial for certain atheltes.
Aggression good for wrestling, not ballet
Measuring personality
Clinical approaches
Interviews, projective tests
Inkblots and interp of drawing
Vary from assessor to assessor
Behavioral measures
Intensive observation and detailed coding behaviors
Time consuming requires extensive training- CBAS coaching behavior assessment
system
Subjective measures structured responses measuring overall personality or selected
aspects of personality
Sport confidence inventory- trait- how athletes feel in competition. State- how they feel
prior to event
General vs sport specific measures of personality
General measures indicate how you are likely to respond across a variety of situations
Sport- how you will respond in the context of sport
Allows better understanding and prediction of sport behavior
Sport competition anxiety test
Who will respond to competitive sport situation with high degree of state anxiety?
High score more likely to have anxiety
Trait anxious- across many situations
State anxious- at any one moment
High trait leads to high state anxiety
Traits of success and unsuccessful athletes
Positive mental health and iceberg profile
Profile of mood states (POMS)

Assessment on tension, vigor, depression, fatigue, confusion, anger

Provides a profile that represents positive mental health
Profile of mood states (POMS)
William Morgan: profiles reflecting positive mental health discriminated between
successful and unsuccessful athletes. Mental health of athletes should differ from others
Athletes are below norm is depression anger tension, confusion, fatigue. Above norm in
vigor to population
Problems of iceberg profile
Original poms developed for mental health patients. Not developed for sports
Only one positive mood state
Sport specific- used on only individual sport athletes
Accounts for little variance for prediction of success
Athletes with dissimilar profile maybe as successful (too general)
Perhaps success in sport enhances positive mental health profile. not other way around
What should be in effective selection model
Physiological capacity- how fast can run how far can throw jump highest
Past performance data- stats
Psychological profile- sport specific
Performance during practice
Possible uses of POMS
Method of self-reflection
Early problem indication- might be indicative of some things burnout
When to return to play
Monitoring emotional response to injury
Problems with sport personality research
Conceptual
Lack of basic underlying theory
Many studies take shotgun approach
Methodological
Inappropriate use of measures
Over-generalization
Interpretive
Most studies are correlational
Unable to infer cause and effect
Can still use personality info to better understand team members?
Yes but you must consider traits and situations be an informed consumer, good
communicator, observer and knowledgeable about mental strategies. Nature and nurture
contribute to personal development
Summary
Personality info is useful if it employed within theoretical and interactional framework consider
both person and situation
Impossible to ignore strong influence the environments has in sports