Personality

-Personality is the combination of those characteristics which make a person unique.

-Personality refers to those relatively stable and enduring aspects of an individual's behaviour.

-The study of personality has tended to consider it as a result of 'nature' or 'nurture'

-Trait theories see personality as being innate and stable predispositions, enabling behaviour patterns to be predicted in all situations.

-Interactionist theories see personality as being a combination between traits and the environments.

-A variety of methods can be used to test personality, the most common being questionnaires, observations and interviews.

-Personality tests should not be used in isolation to identify potential talented performers as there are question marks over their validity.

-There are no definate findings suggesting different personalities lead to more successful athletes.

-The closest we can get to predict behaviour is through the Profile of Mood States.

-For success in sport each individual must be viewed differently by the coach according to the three levels of personality made up of psychological core, typical responses and role related behaviours.

-Achievement motivation is a predisposition to strive for success, persist and expereince pride in one's success.

-Two types of motives; need to achieve and need to avoid failure.

-Whether a person is a high achiever of low, it has been found to affect task selection, effort and persistence.

-Performer's also evaluate the probability of success and the incentive value of the success.

-Goal setting is seen as an important tool in developing achievement motivation.

-The adoption of task orientated goals emphasising comparisons with personal performance rather than outcome goals has been found to be more effective.

-Coaches should aim to develop approach behaviour rather than avoidance behaviour.