CHAPTER-9

Psychology and Sports

CONTENTS
9.1. Personality: Its Definition Trait and Types (Jung Classification and Big Five Theory)
9.2. Motivation: Its Types and Techniques
9.3. Exercise Adherence: Reasons, Benefits and Strategies for Enhancing it
9.4. Meaning, Concept and types of Aggressions in Sports
9.5. Psychological Attributes in Sports: Self Esteem, Mental Imagery, Self-Talk, Goal Setting

9.1. Personality: Its Definition Trait and Types (Jung Classification and Big Five Theory)

Meaning of Personality:
 The personality is a collective part of a person’s abilities, capabilities, qualities and
specificities.
 The word ‘personality’ is originated from the Latin word ‘persona’ which means mask or the
outlook.
 Personality means build-up of ideas, feelings, emotions, social co-ordination and the displayed
performance from time to time. All these things extremely affect man’s hope, admittance,
viewpoints and values.

Psychologists have given the following definitions of personality:

 “Personality is an entire organization of a human being at any stage of his development”. -

Warren
 “Personality is the sum-total of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies,
appetite and instincts of the individual and the dispositions and tendencies acquired by
experience”. - Morton Prince, “Personality is the most characteristic integration of an
individual’s structures, modes of interest, attitudes, behaviour, capacities, abilities and
aptitudes”- Munn
 “An individual personality is a unique pattern of traits.” - Gilford

Dimensions of Personality
Personality is a combination of several unique traits. But this unit of personality is made up of different
dimensions. These dimensions of personality are interdependent. In fact, personality is the sum-total of
all dimensions which cover physical, mental, intellectual, social and emotional dimensions respectively.
The following are the description of the following dimensions:
1. Physical Dimension
It defines the first impression of a man’s personality. One pays attention to a man’s personality at first.
In fact, nice physical dimension like a healthy, muscular appealing, tall, broad personality depicts that a
person is hale and hearty. On the other hand, a person who is weak, down with an illness will not leave
any positive impression on others, though he is endowed with several virtues. So, in the beginning, inner
traits have no value. A person’s physical structure depends on his hereditary features. This is the reason
why Greek and Roman people lay stress on the development of physical structure, glory, strength, etc.
This is the sole reason for the origination of Olympic Games.
2. Mental Dimension
It is an equally important dimension. The body’s mental and intellectual dimension is like an effigy which
is lifeless. The true identity of man’s personality is reflected by these dimensions. The famous
psychologists, philosophers, leaders, etc. are known through their mental and intellectual capabilities.
3. Social Dimension
Man is a social animal. He learns to read, write, act, speak, etc. to live in a society. He becomes
socialized. A person spends his life not only for himself but also for his family and society. Sociality is
inherited in man right from his childhood. It starts right from his infancy. Man begins to learn etiquettes,
morality, attitude, cooperation, relations, rituals, confidence, tradition, etc. to survive in a society
4. Emotional Dimension
It is also an important dimension of a personality. It reflects man’s emotional stability. But in the modern
world, a man has no control over his emotions. Having control over one’s fear, anger, love, hate, care,
woe, weal, jealousy, etc. is a must for a good and pleasing personality
Types of Personality
Various psychologists have given different classification of personality. These types are as follows:
 Types on the basis of Temperament: Galen and Hippocrates have given the classification of
personality on the basis of temperament. Its types are as follows:
I. Sanguine Personality: It is characterized by active expression of feeling of pleasanter;
enthusiasm etc. or it is light heated, cheerful and happy.
II. Choleric Personality: It is characterized by rapidity and intensity of emotions, especially the
emotion of anger or it is irritable, short tempered, strong and imaginative.
III. Melancholic Personality: It is characterized by frequent and protracted spells of depression or it
is considered as bad tempered, depressed, defected and pessimistic.
IV. Phlegmatic Personality: It is characterized by passive and indifferent attitude of the person in
his feelings or it is considered as slow, cold, indifferent and unresolved

 Types on the basis of Physical Traits: Kretschmer has made a classification of various types of
personality on the basis of physical traits as follows:
(i) Pyknic Personality: (Having round and fat bodies) who were good natured, happy, sociable
and easy going.
(ii) Athletic Personality: (Having robust, well-built and balanced body) who were energetic,
adjustable and social by temperament.
(iii) Athletic Personality: In it the body is long in proportion to the diameter of the body. It is
characterized by long arms and long legs. The trunk is comparatively short.
(iv) Dysplastic: This type includes all these persons.
  Types of Personality according to C.G. Jung: Jung has classified personality into two main types
i.e., Extroverts and Introverts.
(i) Extroverts have more self-confidence, take more interest in others, lively and realistic.
They are very social and form friends quite easily. Actors, social and political leaders
etc. belong to this group.
(ii) Introverts: Introverts are too self-conscious, shy, reserved, lack self-confidence, and
lovers of solitude. They do not make friends easily and keep in background on social
occasion. Philosophers, poets, artists, scientists etc. belong to this class.
Big Five Theory
Human resources professionals often use the Big Five personality theory to help to place
employees. That is because these dimensions are considered to be the underlying traits that
make up an individual’s overall personality. The Big Five traits are Openness, Conscientiousness,
Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism or OCEAN:
 Openness: People who like to learn new things and enjoy new experiences usually score high in
openness. Openness includes traits like being insightful and imaginative and having a wide
variety of interests.
 Conscientiousness: People that have a high degree of conscientiousness are reliable and
prompt. Traits include being organized, methodic and through.
 Extroversion: Extroversion get their energy from interacting with others, while introverts get
their energy from within themselves. Extra version includes the traits of energetic, talkative and
assertive.
 Agreeableness: These individuals are friendly, cooperative, and compassionate. People with
low agreeableness may be more distant. Traits include being kind, affectionate and
sympathetic.
 Neuroticism: Neuroticism is also sometimes called Emotional Stability. This dimension relates to
one’s emotional stability and degree of negative emotions. People that score low on
neuroticism often experience emotional instability and negative emotions. Traits include being
moody and tense.
9.2. Motivation: Its Types and Techniques
Motivation—Its Types and Techniques
Meaning of Motivation
Motivation is derived from the word ‘motive’ which is defined as a need that requires
satisfaction. These needs could also be wants or desires that are acquired through influence of
culture, society, lifestyle, etc. or generally innate.
Definition of Motivation
Motivation is the reason for people’s actions, willingness and goals.
Motivation is one’s direction to behavior, or what causes a person to want to repeat a behavior,
a set of force that acts behind the motives.
Motivation is inherent in each and every work we perform in our life. Many scholars have
defined motivation in the following manner:
“Motivation is the inclination towards the capability of doing work with determination and
following rules to play a game.”
Types of Motivation
 Motivation is of two kinds:
1. Intrinsic Motivation.
2. Extrinsic Motivation.
1. Intrinsic Motivation or Internal or Natural: Internal motivation is also known as natural
motivation. This is that type of motivation in which a person does not require an external help
for motivation. Instead, the motivation comes from with the person. So, it is referred as internal
motivation. Various sources of internal motivation are:
Bodily Needs like hunger, sex, thirst etc.
Emotional like love, affection, attachment etc.
Social Factors like prestige, popularity, honor etc.

2. Extrinsic Motivation: When outside forces compel a person to do something, the extrinsic
motivation comes into play. Prize/ Award, popularity, glory/goodwill, praise, reward, etc. are all
forms of extrinsic motivation. When Saina Nehwal bagged the second position in
Commonwealth Games, she was honored with cash prizes by the police of Andhra Pradesh and
Haryana. These incidents gave motivation other people as well and they try to perform better.
Other examples of extrinsic motivation are—trophies, cash amount, scholarship, prizes,
promotion, selection, etc. In fact, extrinsic motivation drives a person to achieve his good and
to get these fringe benefits as well.

Techniques of Motivation
Various techniques of motivation are applied on players. These techniques enable players to
reach high in their respective field by performing better and better with each passing day. The
description of techniques is as follow:
1. Positive Sports Environment: Positive sports environment plays an important role in
motivating players. It includes plain and clean playing field, good sitting arrangement and clean
drinking water, good climate and appropriate temperature, good-quality equipment, etc.
Positive sports environment motivates players so that they may perform better and make new
records in their respective fields.
2. Verbal Encouragement: Verbal encouragement during a competition is quite important
because players are motivated. New players may get motivated much through this technique.
Verbal encouragement should be immediate. In other words, it should be used at appropriate
time only, not always.
3. Competition and Cooperation: Holding competitions also plays an important role in
motivating players. Each player tries to perform better in a competition if it is organized
emphatically and in an exhaustive manner. But unexperienced players are not able to perform
better in such competition. Competition should be held on grand scale so that players may get
motivated and thus perform better.
4. Knowledge of Progress: Through knowledge of progress a man is able to establish his success
and failure, and can set his future goals. It is said that the man who is not sure as where he is
standing, can’t reach to his goal/destination.
9.3. Exercise Adherence: Reasons, Benefits and Strategies for Enhancing it
Exercise: Exercise is an activity which keeps our body fit and encourages working smoothly. In fact,
exercise not only warms the body parts but it also improves and increase body capacity to work more.
Why exercise is required, there are some reasons to explain it. Meaning of Exercise Those physical
actions and activities which help a person to get a full and balanced development is called as Exercise.
Types of Exercises: Exercises are classified into two parts:
General Exercise: Which helps to maintain all physiological system of human body and develop fitness
and health related components. O Specific Exercise: Which help to develop specific kind of human
system or particular skills as per the requirement of sport.
 General Exercise: I. Walking in morning and evening II. Exercise of hands and shoulders
III. Exercise of neck IV. Exercise of waist V. Exercise of knees VI. Exercise of legs
 Specific Exercise: I. Jogging II. Slow running III. Sprinting IV. Long strides V. Stretching exercises
VI. Hot water bath
Sports specific exercises Reasons of Exercises
 To prevent diseases
 To strengthen the heart muscles
 To remove stress and tension
 To help growth of skills of players
 To strengthen muscles
 For overall development of the body
 Increases self esteem
 Helps to deal with depression
 Increase the learning skills
 Increases metabolism rate
 Increases flexibility
Benefits of Exercises Exercise provides the following benefits:
1. Increases Flexibility: All the trainers and sports coaches agree that exercise develops flexibility. When
we get up in the morning the body feels stiffness because the body becomes lazy due to sleep. But by
the little exercise the body feels energetic and become flexible.
2. Improves the Performance: Regular exercises improve the capacity of a person to perform better in
the competition.
3. Exercise Builds Strong and Healthy Muscles: Exercise makes muscles stronger, allowing people to do
tasks that they otherwise might not be able to do them more easily. Every physical task requires muscle
strength and some degree of range of motion in joints.
4. Exercise Boosts Energy Level: When you’re feeling exhausted, the last thing you might want to do is
to squeeze in a workout. But, according to experts, that’s exactly what you should do. They found that
low-intensity exercise, the equivalent of a leisurely stroll, experienced a drop in fatigue levels and a 20
per cent energy boost.
5. Exercise Improves Neuro-Muscular Coordination: It increases strength and muscles mass. Muscle
loss happens through ageing and a lack of regular exercise. It also increases metabolic rate. Sensible
strength training results in the use of more calories all day long and reduces the likelihood of fat
accumulation.
6. Exercise Helps in Digestive Process: Exercise and digestion are mutually exclusive. When you
exercise, your body isn’t using its energy for digestion. Instead, it slows any digestion currently taking
place so it can divert as much blood as it can to feed your muscles and your lungs. If you’ve just eaten
before exercising, you can experience gastrointestinal problems.
7. Exercise Helps in Motor Development: Physical activity is fundamental to the early development of
each child and affects many aspects of a child’s health. Contemporary health organizations propose that
higher levels of physical activity in school-aged children are associated with important short-terms and
long-term health benefits in physical, emotional, social, and cognitive domains across the lifespan.
8. Exercise Controls Weight: Along with diet, exercise plays an important role in controlling your weight
and preventing obesity. To maintain your weight, the calories you eat and drink must equal the energy
you burn. To lose weight, you must use more calories than you eat and drink.
9. Exercise Strengthens Bones: Regular exercise can help kids and teens build strong bones. Later in life,
it can also slow the loss of bone density that comes with age. Doing muscle-strengthening, activities can
help you increase or maintain your muscle mass and strength.
10. Exercise Strengthens the Lungs: During exercise, two of the important organs of the body come into
action: the heart and the lungs. The lungs bring oxygen into the body, to provide energy, and remove
carbon dioxide. The waste product created when you produce energy. The heart pumps the oxygen to
the muscles that are doing the exercise. When your lungs are healthy, you keep a large breathing
reserve.
11. Exercise Strengthens the Heart: Exercise strengthens your heart and improves your blood
circulation. The increased blood flow raises the oxygen levels in your body. This helps lower your risk of
heart diseases such as high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, and heart attack. Regular exercise can
also lower your blood pressure and triglyceride levels.
12. Exercise Reduces Blood Sugar Level: Regular exercise makes the heart stronger and the lungs fitter,
enabling the cardiovascular system to deliver more oxygen to the body with every heartbeat and the
pulmonary system to increase the maximum amount of oxygen that the lungs can take in.

Strategies for Enhancing to Exercise Practice Serial When we try to do any work or any sports activity
repeatedly, then it is known as practice serial.
The following are the strategies for practice serial:

1. To Know the Difficulty: If the player is not been able to practice, then firstly the reason should be
found out and then resolve the matter.
2. Positive Self Talk: The motivation to exercise regularly generally falls in two major categories (a)
Intrinsic (b) Extrinsic. In other words, a person’s motivation to exercise comes from either internal or
external reasons. Intrinsic motivation comes in the form of challenges, enjoyment or satisfaction, while
external motivation reason is usually body-related issues or social factors.
3. Healthy Sports Environment: If a client’s family and friends are giving them encouragement and
support, their chance of adopting exercise as a life style is far greater. You can remind your clients that if
they take care of themselves, they will better be able to take care of their family.
4. Duration of Practice: The duration of practice should be carefully administered to motivate the
players. The duration should be small to develop their interest and it should include the lead-up games
of their interest.
5. Rewards: The players can be motivated to practice by giving rewards.
6. Records of achievement: By keeping the records of players, they can be motivated to practice harder
by showing their previous achievements.
7. Appreciation: The players can be motivated by appreciating them when they practice well.
8. Knowledge of Progress: The players should know about their progress and practice state timely. They
should have the full knowledge about the aim and whether they will achieve it or not.
9.4. Meaning, Concept and types of Aggressions in Sports

Aggression: Meaning and Concept

In other words, aggression is also our behavior which is used to fulfill some objectives. It may occur
either in retaliation or without provocation. In humans, frustration due to blocked goals can cause
aggression. Human aggression can be classified into direct and indirect aggression; whilst the former is
characterized by physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm to someone, the latter is
characterized by behavior intended to harm the social relations of an individual or group.

Concept of Aggression

In psychology, aggression is an action or response by an individual that delivers something unpleasant to

another person. Some definitions include that the individual must intend to harm another person.
Predatory or defensive behavior between members of different species may not be considered
aggression in the same sense. Overall development and recreation whether it is a field of working or
arena of sports aggression is noticed in our daily life.

Definition

 Aggression is a behavior which is used to achieve the goal and to improve the performance and
it is motivated by the trainers.
 According to Baron and Richardson, “Aggression is generally defined as any behavior that is
intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed.”

Types of Aggression in Sports

The aggression in sports is of following types:

1. Hostile Aggression: Hostile aggression is a type of aggression that is committed in response to a

perceived threat or insult. It is unplanned, reactionary, impulsive, and fueled by intense emotion
as opposed to desire to achieve a goal. Aggressors typically have a sense of a loss of control
during outbursts, and characteristically experience physiological hyper arousal. Aggression in
children and adolescents can take many forms. It can include bullying, fighting, teasing, or rumor
spreading. Definitions of aggression have varied; some define it by intention of causing harm
while others define it by the action of causing harm itself. Aggression in general has been
classified on various different dimensions. Most notably, it has been classified by the type of
aggressive acts committed and by the state of mind or intention of the aggressor.
2. Instrumental Aggression: Instrumental aggression refers to an aggressive behavior intended to
achieve a goal. It is made against another person in whom the aggression is used as a means of
securing some reward or to achieve an external goal such as a victory. When one receives a
 reward because of deviant aggressive act, she will be conditioned towards committing that act
again when motivated to obtain that previously possessed reward.
3. Assertive Behavior: The aim of assertive behavior is to communicate productively with another
person, achieving what is often described as a win/win outcome. This involves standing up for
your own rights without violating those of the other person. To do this, you need to express
your needs, wants, opinions, beliefs and feelings in a direct, honest and adult way. The aim of
aggressive behavior is to win, if necessary, at the expense of others. To achieve this, you stand
up for your rights in such a way that you violate those of other people. It involves expressing
your needs, wants, opinions, beliefs and feelings in inappropriate ways, often ignoring or
dismissing the rights and opinions of others.

Suggestions to Reduce Aggression in Sports

The following suggestions can be used during sports to reduce aggression:

 The coach, manager and captain of the team should force the players to play with game spirit.
 An aggression management workshop should be organized during the training session to reduce
the aggression of players during sports
 The hard action should be taken against the aggressive behavior of players.
 The media should also not give more importance to the aggressive players but to censure their
behavior.

9.5. Psychological Attributes in Sports: Self Esteem, Mental Imagery, Self-Talk,

Goal Setting
 Attribution is a term used in psychology which deals with how individuals perceive the causes of
everyday experiences; it may be either external or internal.
 These initial perceptions are called attributions. Psychologists use these attributions to better
understand an individual’s motivation and competence.
 This theory is being used for particular interest to employers who use it to increase worker
motivation, goal orientation, and productivity. In the modern era in the field of sports training
and competitive events it is commonly taken in to practice.
 We cannot forget that everyone having a different kind of attitude, behaviour, thought process
but everyone has to come on common platform. This aim can be achieved with deep
understanding of psychological attribution in sports.

We must understand the following term:

Self-Esteem Mental Imagery Self-Talk Goal Setting

Self-Esteem: It is an individual’s subjective evaluation of their own worth. Self-esteem encompasses

beliefs about oneself as “I am unloved” and “I am worthy, as well as emotional states, such as triumph,
despair, pride, and shame. The self-concept is what we think about the self as positive or negative
evaluations of the self. Self-esteem is an attractive psychological construct because it predicts certain
outcomes, such as achievement at various level of events, happiness, satisfaction and social and
personal relationships. Self-esteem can apply to a specific attribute on globally.
Mental Imagery: A mental image or mental picture is an experience that, in most occasions, significantly
resembles the experience of visual perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the
relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses. There are some times episodes,
particularly on falling in to deep sleep is called hypnagogic imager and waking up condition is called
hypnopompic. Mental imagery can sometimes produce the same effects as would be produced by the
behaviour or experience imagined. When a player deeply involves in training and competitive events
during that period, they are very close to mental imagery situation. It is prime motivational tool for
participants.

Self-Talk: Self-talk is our internal dialogue. It’s influenced by our subconscious mind, and it reveals our
thoughts, beliefs, questions, and ideas. Self-talk can be both negative and positive. It can be
encouraging, and it can be distressing. Much of our self-talk depends on our type of personality.

Goal Setting: Goal setting involves the development of plan of action it includes motivation and guide
and individual or group to achieve goal. Therefore, setting of goals means that a person has committed
thoughts, emotions, and behaviour towards attaining the goal. The goal setter has established a desired
to fill-up the gap from current state to future state of achievements. Goal setting can be guided by
goalsetting criteria (or rules) Smart criteria personal-development and management. The goals should
be specific, time constrained and difficult. The player has to go under training of all aspects of sports
training, for several years of practice and participation at various level.

The theory of Locke and colleague’s states that the simplest most direct motivational explanation of why
some people perform better than others is because they have different performance goals. The essence
of the theory is:

 Difficult specific goals lead to significantly higher performance than easy goals, no goals, or even
the setting of an abstract goal such as urging people to do their best.
 Holding ability constant, and given that there is goal commitment, the higher the goal the higher
the performance.
 Variables such as praise, feedback, or the participation of people in decision-making about the
goal only influence behaviour to the extent that they lead to the setting of and subsequent
commitment to a specific difficult goal.