SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

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SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

• The Individual Sport
• PERSONALITY

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What is personality? 1

• Are some people more likely than others to
  succeed at sport because of their personality?
• Definition personality is the sum total of an
  individuals characteristics that make him
  unique (Edwin Hollander, 1971)
• Biological theory
• The structure of the brain, hormone levels or
  genetics

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What is personality? 2

• Psychodynamic theory
• Freuds idea of the unconscious
• Humanistic theory
• The importance of self-image and self-esteem

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What is personality? 3

• Some psychologists would deny there is any such
  thing as a personality that remains reasonably
  consistent in all situations and over a period of
  time.
• Social Learning Theory
• Our so-called personality is a collection of
  learned behaviours derived from copying other
  people

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What is personality? 4

• Trait theory
• Personality is a cocktail of traits
• Everyone has these traits in different mixtures
• You can test them with a questionnaire
• Classify people by traits they are strong in

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Cognitive view of Personality

• Assumption people share basic personality
  structures (were all to some extent outgoing, or
  caring, or shy)
• But we differ in the extent to which we show
  certain traits
• It should be possible to predict behaviour a
  person with a high competitiveness trait will be
  competitive in lots of different situations
• DISPOSITIONAL view
• Psychometric tests measure personality traits
• Empirical and quantitative
• (vs. open-ended projective tests popular with
  Freudian/humanistic psychology)

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The BIG FIVE

• Psychologists have summarised the Big Five
  traits
• Extraversion
• Neuroticism
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Openness to experience
• Extroversion and neuroticism vary the most
  between individuals
• The Big Five tend to be relatively stable over
  time
• Problem they are poor predictors of any specific
  behaviour

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Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)

• One of the first trait theorists (1940s)
• He started with 18,000 words for describing
  personality taken from dictionaries
• Narrowed this down to 170 by choosing words that
  were most representative and independent of each
  other
• Participants then described themselves and others
  using these words
• Subjected the descriptions to factor analysis to
  see which descriptions tended to occur together

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Cattells 16 Personality Factors

• suspicious vs trusting
• imaginative vs practical
• shrewd vs naïve
• guilt proclivity vs guilt rejection
• radical vs conservative
• self-sufficiency vs group adherence
• self-disciplined vs uncontrolled will
• tense vs relaxed

• sociable vs unsociable
• intelligent vs unintelligent
• emotionally stable vs unstable
• dominant vs submissive
• cheerful vs brooding
• Conscientious vs undependable
• bold vs timid
• sensitive vs insensitive

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Cattells 16PF test (1965)

• The 16PF Questionnaire measures how much of a
  trait a person shows
• One of the most widely used psychometric tests
• The respondent places themselves on a 1-10 scale
  for each factor
• Eg. on a scale from reserved/cool/impersonal
  through to warm/easygoing
• Cattell groups the 16 factors into 5 different
  themes extraversion, anxiety, will,
  independence and self-control
• However, Cattell admits the scales are not
  particularly reliable.

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Hans Eysenck (1916-97)

• Born in Germany but came to Britain to escape the
  Nazis
• Very famous before he died he was the most
  cited psychologist in the world!
• Studied IQ and personality
• Controversial supported ideas of racial
  differences in IQ

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Eysenck 1 The A.R.A.S.

• Eysenck took a more PHYSIOLOGICAL view of
  personality argued only 25 is down to
  upbringing/environment
• Suggested the brain has an Ascending Reticular
  Activating System
• Its job is to regulate how aroused the brain is
• Over-aroused ? anxiety!
• Under-aroused ? zzz-zz-zzzz..

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Eysenck 2 Extraversion

• If youre A.R.A.S. is under-effective, your brain
  requires stimulation from outside
• You need noise, crowds, change and excitement
• You get bored easily, find it hard to settle
• You are an EXTRAVERT

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Eysenck 3 Introversion

• If your A.R.A.S. is over-effective, your brain
  stimulates itself
• You are happy with your own company, prefer quiet
  pursuits
• You get overwhelmed easily, hate crowds and
  commotion
• You are an INTROVERT

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Eysenck 4 The A.N.S.

• Biologists know that the bodys Autonomic Nervous
  System responds to stress
• Eysenck suggests some people respond effectively
  to stress
• They have consistent moods
• They learn from experiences easily
• They are STABLE personalities

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Eysenck 5 Neuroticism

• Some peoples A.N.S. makes them respond badly to
  stress
• They have mood swings
• They are strongly affected by situations
• They dont learn effectively
• This is the NEUROTIC or unstable personality

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Eysenck 6 The E and N scales

• The E-scale measures where you fall between
  Extravert and Introvert
• The N-scale measures Neurotic-Stable
• Stable extraverts are easy going, easily bored
  and resistant to pain

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Eysenck 7 Psychoticism

• Eysenck later added a third dimension the
  P-scale
• This measures how Psychotic you are
• Psychotic individuals are callous, hostile and
  impulsive
• Biological basis is your hormone system
• Linked to Freuds idea of a weak Super-Ego
• Criticised tested out on male convicts (not
  representative of normal people? Women tend to
  score low on P)

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Eysenck 8 The E.P.I.

• Hans Eysenck, with his wife Sybil, developed the
  1975 Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)
• Still used by psychologists to measure
  extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism
• Respondents give yes/no answers to 57 questions
• Takes about 10 minutes
• There are 24 E-questions, 24 N-questions and 9
  lie questions are to control for social
  desirability
• Eysenck tested his scale on battle-fatigued
  soldiers diagnosed as neurotic and found high N
  scores, as predicted

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Personality Performance 1

• Do certain personality types do better at sport?
• OR. Does succeeding at sport change you into a
  certain personality type?
• E.g. Robert Harlow (1951) argued that body
  builders suffer from masculine inadequacy
• The more inadequate you feel as a man the better
  youll be as a body builder?

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Personality Performance 2

• Are certain personality types suited to some
  sports more than others?
• Kroll Crenshaw (1970) compared footballers,
  gymnasts, wrestlers and karate players all
  highly skilled
• The completed Cattells 16PF
• Wrestlers footballers had similar profiles
• Gymnasts and karate players differed
• Karate players were more tense, conscientious
  independent than gymnasts more reserved/detached
  than wrestlers

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Personality Performance 3

• Do players at an elite level have a different
  sort of personality from players at a local
  level?
• Williams Parkin (1980) compared male hockey
  players at elite, national and club standard
• They completed Cattells 16PF
• Elite athletes were different very positive
  profile low in tension, depression and anger
• National/club level were similar

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The Iceberg Profile

• William Morgan (1974) tested athletes trying out
  for the US Olympic heavyweight rowing team
• Used the EPQ
• Identified the most stable extraverts
• Predicted who would make the squad
• Correct for 10 of the 16 selected
• People with the iceberg profile are drawn to
  sport and rise to the top

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Evaluating Performance

• David Hemery (1986) interviewed 63 international
  athletes
• 86 reported being shy/introverted when they
  started sports
• Robin Vealey (1992) finds no correlation between
  personality and sport-choice or sporting
  performance
• So mixed views

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Credulous-Sceptical Argument

• William Morgan (1979) sums the debate up as
  CREDULOUS psychologists vs SCEPTICAL
  psychologists
• Creds believe personality profiling is useful
• Sceps think its useless
• Morgans view performance is affected by
  personality, but situations matter too
• (an INTERACTIONIST view)