Lecture 4: What is Personality?

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

reflects psychological qualities that contribute to an individual’s enduring and distinctive patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving: an abstraction used to describe a psychological variable

Question 2

Is there an “Athletic/Sporting Personality”?

Answer 2

There are traits but no one single personality

Question 3

What do personalities help us to understand?

Answer 3

Why people do what they do, but there is no certain rule for which personalities participate in certain activities such as sports
- E.g. risk takers don’t have different personalities to the average person

Question 4

What are the 4 components of Hollanders (1971) Model of Personality?

Answer 4

1. Psychological Core
2. Typical Responses
3. Role-Related Behaviours
4. Social Environment

Question 5

What is the psychological core?

Answer 5

Internal and consistent personality characteristics, “INNER SELF”; basic values, beliefs, identity, self-esteem

Question 6

What are typical responses?

Answer 6

Learned methods of dealing with the environment (i.e. Traits). A valid indicator of the Psychological Core.
- The way people typically behave, NOT 100% of the time
- Traits that are learned, not DNA

Question 7

What are role-related behaviours?

Answer 7

Behaviours that change in response to environmental situations. NOT a valid indicator of the psychological core
- Roles change based on circumstances
- Going off expectations of what people want us to behave like

Question 8

What is the social enviornment?

Answer 8

Psychological core, typical responses, and role-related behaviours exist within and are affected by the social environment (social group, society, culture, team)
- We are reminded everyday whether we are doing the right thing, if we are rewarded or if we are punished in our environment

Question 9

What is a trait?

Answer 9

a relatively stable disposition to behave in a certain way; traits are the fundamental units of personality – How you generally act or behave

Question 10

What is the equation for the trait approach?

Answer 10

B = f (P)
- behaviour (B) is a function of the Person (P), specifically their personality traits.

Question 11

What does the personality approach refer to?

Answer 11

Personality & behaviour is determined largely by the social environment. Draws from Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977), which explains behaviour in terms of observational learning (modelling) and social reinforcement (feedback).

Question 12

What is the equation for the personality approach?

Answer 12

B = f ( E )
- behaviour is a function of the environment or external factors

Question 13

What is the interactionist approach?

Answer 13

Situation and person are co-determinants of personality and behaviour.

Question 14

What is the equation for the interactionist approach?

Answer 14

B = f( P x E )
- Person vs. Environment

Question 15

What are 2 commonly used theoretical frameworks for measuring personality?

Answer 15

1. Trait Framework
2. Interaction Framework

Question 16

What is the trait framework?

Answer 16

The framework emphasizes that certain inherent characteristics or traits of individuals predict their behaviors in various situations.

Question 17

What is the equation for the trait framework?

Answer 17

B = f( P )

Question 18

What questionaires are used to measure the trait framework?

Answer 18

1. Big Five personality traits
2. California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
3. Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
4. Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)

Question 19

What is the interaction framework?

Answer 19

neither personality traits nor the environment alone are sufficient to predict behavior. Instead, behavior emerges from the complex interplay between an individual’s characteristics (P) and the situation or environment (E) they are in

Question 20

What is the interaction framework equation?

Answer 20

B = f( P x E )

Question 21

In what ways is the interaction framework measured?

Answer 21

1. State and Trait measures
2. Situation-Specific measures
3. Sport-Specific measures
4. Psychological measures

Question 22

What are state and trait measures?

Answer 22

An aspect of the interaction framework - help differentiate between temporary conditions and stable, long-term characteristic

Question 23

What are state measures?

Answer 23

temporary conditions or emotions that can fluctuate depending on the situation or environment

Question 24

What are trait measures?

Answer 24

enduring, consistent characteristics or qualities that a person possesses over time and across different situations

Question 25

What are situation-specific measures?

Answer 25

focus on how individuals behave or respond under specific circumstances e.g. Exam/test anxiety

Question 26

What are sport-specific measures?

Answer 26

assessments designed to evaluate psychological, physical, and behavioural traits directly related to athletic performance and the unique demands of a particular sport e.g. SCAT and CSAI-2

Question 27

What is the SCAT?

Answer 27

Sport competition anxiety test : trait measure

Question 28

What is the CSAI-2?

Answer 28

Competitive state anxiety inventory - 2 : state measure

Question 29

What has personality research revealed?

Answer 29

• Trait measures of personality have produced inconsistent results.
• Trait measures alone have limited value for sport personality researchers.
• Studies using an interactionist framework have been more useful.

Question 30

Why is using an interactionist framework more useful?

Answer 30

these studies consider BOTH states and traits.