Personality

Personality is the sum of an individual's characteristics/traits which make them unique/behave in a certain way.

Explanation of theory:

• mixture of personality traits and the situation/environment
• behaviour can alter in different situations
• Lewin's formula -> B=f(PE) -> behaviour (B) is a function (f) of our personality traits (P) and the environment (E) we find ourselves in

Application of theory:

• Theories suggest performers can be taught to alter their behaviour and improve performance
• Coach identifies aspects of personality or behaviour to be changed
• Creates situations/experiences to cause a change of behaviour eg teach aggressive player to be assertive and not to become over-aroused in front of a crowd  

Hollander's model:

• Interactionist theory
• Psychological core -> inner core of fairly permanent beliefs and values
• Typical response -> middle layer represents usual response in a given situation
• Role-related behaviour -> specific behaviour in a certain situation/behaviour alters to suit a situation - most changeable aspect of personality

Trait theories:

• 'nature' approach
• suggest we are born with inherited characteristics -> cause us to react in a similar way irrespective of situation
• traits -> stable, enduring and consistent 

If concept of trait theories correct (strengths):

• allow us to predict behaviour patterns in all situations 
• able to identify potential peformers who could cope with pressure
• potential leaders/captains could be identified

Weaknesses:

• using traits is unreliable -> behaviour may alter from one situation to the next
• no common traits that are required to perform at elite level

Social learning theory:

• suggests behaviour is learned through mimicking/copying others i.e. role models
• inherited factors do not influence personality -> repsonse cannot be predicted

For:

• Personality traits linked to specific types of sports/characteristics of elite performance, eg calm under pressure/not aggressive
• Used as part of talent identification programmes
• Iceberg profile (Profile of mood states)
• Linked into high levels of vigour 

Against:

• No clear link between success/choice of sport and personality type 
• Personality can change due to situation 
• Research often contradicts each other  

Questionnaires:

• fairly cheap and easy to produce/administer
• fairly reliable and can be used almost anywhere
• produces a considerable amount of data -> can be analysed
• difficult for performers to self-assess
• answers to please the researcher -> not true reflection
• low validity

Interviews:

• greater validity than questionnaires -> can uncover issues within individuals
  
• lower reliability than questionnaires 
• method depends on ability of interviewer to interpet answers
• expensive and time-consuming

Observation:

• person is more likely to behave as they would naturally
• expensive and time consuming
• low validity -> difficult to intepret behaviour/pps behaviour affected by being watched

POMS measures:

• Tension
• Depression
• Anger
• Vigour
• Fatigue
• Confusion

Morgan compared successful and unsuccessful athletes on each of these moods:

• successful athletes tend to score higher on anger and vigour, and lower on tension, depression, fatigue and confusion than unsuccessful athletes
• unsuccessful athletes tend to score equally acrsoss all mood states
• elite athletes score higher on positive moods/lower on negative
• research is not applicable to all performers -> not all elite performers in every sport show an iceberg profile
• results could suggest that rather than successful athletes having an iceberg profile, it could be that, by becoming successful, athletes acquire self conficence to devlop positive mood states

• states that within our personality we have a need to achieve and a need to avoid failure
• the achievement motive is the need to overcome obstacles, to strive to do something difficult -> it is what urges a player to be the best 

need to achieve (nAch):

• the motivation to succeed/ attain particular goals
  
• show approach behaviours -> seek out competitive situations/not afraid to fail
• concerned with standards of performance -> will do extra training
• high nAch prefer tasks with 50% chance of success
• low nAch prefer relatively certain outcomes (failure or success)
• high nAch prefer to play than not

need to avoid failure (Naf):

• the motivation to avoid failure
  
• show avoidance behaviours -> avoid competitve situations/challenging tasks
• tends to be preoccupied with failure
• lacks task persistence
• does not value feedback

Our behaviour depends on an evaluation of the situation -> in terms of likelihood of success (task difficulty) and the incentive value (the shame/pride felt following the result)

Interpreting success:

• ego oriented -> success only occurs if they have beaten someone else/victory is everything
• task oriented ->success is due to own efforts and abilities/dont't mind losing if they have played well