PERSONALITY AND THE ATHLETE:Personality Defined, Psychodynamic Theory

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SportPsychology (PSY407)

LESSON 14

PERSONALITY AND THE ATHLETE

Sport psychologists have long beenintrigued with the question of whether or not successful athletic

performancecan be accurately predicted on the basis of personality or psychologicalassessment.

Effectiveness of psychological testing in predicting athletic success is quite frequent. A large percentage

of professional teams usepsychological testing to assist them in making personnel decisions.

In the 1960s and 1970s,research involving the athleteand personality assessment was very popular.

Ruffer(1975, 1976a, 1976b), forexample, cited 572 sources of original research in a compilation of

references on the relationship between personality and athletic performance. In recent years, however,

interest in this kind of research haswaned because of lack of consistent correlations between

personality factors and athletic prowess.

Theconcepts to be introduced andstudied in this lectureare:

Definition of personality

Theories of personality

Measurement of personality

Thecredulous versus skepticalargument

Personalityand sport performance.

Personality Defined

Personality is defined as an individual'scharacteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. In other

words personality is "all the consistent ways in which the behavior of oneperson differs from that of

others,especially in social situations." Thekey words in this definitionare basically "consistent"and

"differs". An individual's personality defines the person in unique ways thatremain stable and

consistentover time. If an athlete consistentlyexhibits the characteristics of being assertive on and off

the athletic field, we might saythat he is an assertiveperson.

Theories of Personality

Thefour major theoretical approaches to the study of personality are as follows:

1. Psychodynamic theory

2. Social learning theory

3. Humanistic theory

4. Trait theory

PsychodynamicTheory

This theory basically deals withUnconscious conflicts between internalimpulses and socialrestraints.

Perhaps the most influential proponent of psychodynamic theory wasSigmund Freud. Among the neo-

Freudiansare Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, and Eric Erickson. Freud'spsychodynamic theory andhis

method of treating personality disturbances werebased primarily uponself-analysis andextensive

clinical observation of neurotics.

Two distinguishing characteristics of the psychodynamicapproach to personality have beenits

emphasisupon in-depth examination of the wholeperson, and its emphasisupon unconsciousmotives.

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SportPsychology (PSY407)

In Freud's view, the id, ego,and superego form the tripartite structure of personality. The id represents the

unconscious instinctual core of personality; in a sense, the id is the pleasure-seeking mechanism. In contrast, the

egorepresents the conscious, logical,reality-oriented aspect of the personality. The superego represents the

conscience of the individual; it is the internalized moral standards of society impressedupon the person by

parentalcontrol and the process of socialization. Freud proposed that the ego aids in the resolution of conflicts

between the id and the superego. Essentially, Freud advocated a conflict theory of personality. In this respect,

the three parts of the psychistructure are always in conflict.

Theindividual's personality is the sum total of the dynamic conflicts between the impulse to seek releaseand

the inhibition against the impulses.The individual's unconscioussexual and aggressiveinstincts are major

determinants of behavior according to Freud.Athletic aggression represents a potential example of this

approach.Instinct theory provides one explanation for the phenomenon of violence in sport.

SocialLearning Theory

Thebasic position of the social learning theory is that humanbehavior is a function of social learning and the

strength of the situation. An individual behavesaccording to how she haslearned to behave as this is consistent

withenvironmental constraints. If the environmental situation is prominent, the effect of personality traits or

unconsciousmotives upon behavior should be minimal. According to social learning theory, a child's

performanceand behavior is a function of the child's experiences andenvironment.

Theorigin of social learning theorycan be traced to Clark Hull's1943 theory of learning and to B.F. Skinner's

(1953) behaviorism. Other researchers, such as Miller and Dollard (Miller,1941), Mischel (1986), andBandura

(1977,1986), extended the Hulliannotions of human behavior.Two of the primary mechanisms throughwhich

individualslearn are modelingandsocialreinforcement. Modeling, or imitative behavior, refers to the

phenomenon of learning through observation. AlbertBandura's social learning theory is based primarily upon

this important concept. According to Bandura, behavior is best explained as a function of observational

learning. Social reinforcement is based upon the notion that rewardedbehaviors are likely to be repeated.

Forexample, a young cricket player observes on television that professional athletesare often able to intimidate

bowlersthrough aggressive behavior. Using the professional athletes as his model, he tries the same tactics in his

game,and is reinforced by the coach with a pat on the back. This exampleillustrates how young athletes

develop questionable behaviors through modeling and social reinforcement.

HumanisticTheory

The major proponents of the humanistic theory of personality are Carl Rogersand Abraham Maslow.Rogers

andMaslow argued that humannature is inherently healthy andconstructive. At the center of the humanistic

theory of personality is the concept of self-actualization. Thehuman organism possesses an innate drive or

tendency to enhance itself, to realize capacities,and to act to become a better and more self-fulfilledperson. In

the developing personality, openness to experiencesthat then shape the individual is of c critical importance. It

is not necessarily the experiencethat shape the individual,but the individual's perception of thatexperience.

Self-actualization is an on going process of seekingcongruence between one'sexperience and one'sself

concept.

Maslow'scontribution to the humanistic theory is in the development of his hierarchicalmotive system based

on the notion of hierarchical needs.For Maslow, the end goal of all human experience is self-actualization, but

to get there the person mustfirst have lesser needsfulfilled.

SportPsychology (PSY407)

TraitTheory

Thebasic position of trait or factor theory is that personality can be described in terms of traits possessed by

individuals. These personality traits are consideredsynonymous with dispositions to act in a certain way. Traits

areconsidered to be stable, enduring, andconsistent across a variety of differingsituations.

Among the most ardent advocates of traitpsychology are psychologistssuch as GordonAllport,

Raymond Cattell, and Hans Eysenck. Cattell (1965, 1973) identifiedthirty-five different traits that he

believed described a personality. Using a similarapproach, British psychologists(Eysenck & Eysenck,

1968)concentrated on the dimensional traits of neuroticism-stability and introversion-extraversion.

Cattell emphasized the importance of the environment. Cattell (1965) believed that typical responsesare

a function of both the situation(environment) and the personality disposition. This is evident fromhis

formula,

R = S x P in which, R= response, S= situation, and P= Personality.

Thethirty-five specific personality traits originally identified by Cattell in 1965form the basis of the fifth

edition of the 16PF, a measure of personality. In recent years, traits psychologistsclaim to haveidentified

the big five personality traits (John & Srivastava, 1999; Kalat,1999). The big five traits which are believed

to represent a consolidation of Cattell'soriginal thirty-five personality traits are the following:

Neuroticism

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Openness to new ideas.

Thegreater strength of the trait theory of personality is that it allows for the easy and objective

measurement of personality through the use of inventories. If it can be demonstrated that a collection of

traits can accurately describe a person's psychological profile,then this certainly is superior to a

psychoanalyticapproach, in which personality is inferred through less objective techniques. Conversely,

the weakness of the trait approach is that it may fail to consider the whole person, sinceaccording to this

approach; personality is represented by a collection of specific traits.

References

Cox, H. Richard. (2002). Sport Psychology:Concepts and Applications.(Fifth Edition). NewYork:

McGraw-HillCompanies

Lavallec.D., Kremer, J., Moran,A., & Williams. M. (2004)Sports Psychology: Contemporary Themes.

NewYork: Palgrave MacmillanPublishers

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