LO1: Know the effect of personality and motivation on

sports performance.

“Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and

behaviors that make a person unique. In addition to this, personality arises
from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.” (
www.about.com)

In sport, there are many things that affect performance. These being;

• Personality
• Confidence
• Concentration
• Motivation
• Arousal
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Aggression
• Goal Setting

These factors can affect performers in a positive and negative way and
this depends on the coaching they’re receiving, preparation and all the
above factors. An example of this would be over confidence which can
result in a poor performance and being over aroused can have a negative
result. (Class notes)

“To be able to coach successfully it is important to know your athletes

physically and just as importantly mentally and the demands of the sport
on these aspects. It is important to know when to alert a performer up and
when to calm them down. This is not always easy as there are many
 different personalities within team sports and sport itself. Personality will
dictate how an athlete performs or reacts to different situations.” (J.
Whitmore, 2004)

There are a number of theories and approaches that have been suggested to
try and explain personality and how it can influence sports performance. The
main theories are;

• Martens Schematic View

In this view, personality is seen as having three different levels that are
related to each other;

1. Psychological core

2. Typical responses

3. Role- related behaviour

The psychological core is what people often call ‘the real you’ and is part of
you that contains your beliefs, values, attitudes and interests; these aspects
are seen as being relatively constant or stable. Typical responses are the
usual ways that you respond to the world around you or different situations
you may find yourself in. Your role related behaviour is often determined by
the circumstances to find yourself in and this is the most changeable aspect of
personality, your personality changes as your perception of your environment
changes.

• Psychodynamic theory

• Trait theory

• Situational approach

• Interactional approach

(Sport level 3, M.Adams et al)

Psychodynamic theory

The psychodynamic approach to personality tries to understand the individual

as a whole and states that conscious and unconcscious parts make up
personality. The first part known as the ‘id’ (stands for instinctive drive), is the
part of your personality that is unconscious and makes you do certain things
without thinking about them. For example, a sprinter on the start line in the
Olympic final may feel so threatened by the expectations upon them, that they
respond with high levels of anxiety and their muscles freeze. The second, is
the conscious part and known as your ‘ego’. The final part is known as your
‘super ego’ and this can be seen in sport when a football player refuses to be
involved in a penalty shoot out due to their worries of missing and therefore
letting the team down. (Sport level 3, M.Adams et al)

Trait-centred views

Trait theories suggest that individuals have certain characteristics that will
partly determine how they behave. Traits are relatively stable aspects of
personality and early trait theories like Eysenck and Cattell, who argued that
traits were mainly inherited. There are two main dimensions to personality;

1. An Introvert- Extrovert dimension

2. A stable-neurotic dimension

(Sport level 3, M.Adams et al)

In sport, there are two types of personality. You are either an extrovert or
introvert, or even a little of both. However, professional athletes will only
be one of the two types. Most team players, for example the Welsh rugby
team would be Extroverts. Usain Bolt, on the other hand would be an
Introvert, even though he does show extrovert characteristics.

(www.topendsports.com )

“Hans Eysenck was a German born psychologist who's work on personality is

still used today. He identified two dimensions of personality which act as
continuums, with an individuals personality falling anywhere along the two
lines, as shown below

These two dimensions are stable/unstable and introverted/extroverted. For

example, if an individual is introverted (shy of social contact) but stable, they
are likely to be reliable, calm and controlled. An extroverted (enjoys social
affiliation) unstable individual is likely to be tough, aggressive and excitable.”

(teachpe.com)
Introverts are individuals who are usually involved in solo sports, however this
is not always the case, they don’t tend to seek excitement and thrill, and
would rather be in clam environments. They are not usually fans of the
unexpected and change, and prefer tasks that require concentration.

Extroverts, are quite simply the opposite. They are usually athletes involved in
team, invasion games and seek excitement, they don’t like sticking to the
same routine and enjoy the unexpected nature of the sport, they tend to be
more outspoken and loud, and can be very competitive.

Stable individuals are people who tend to be more easy going and sometimes
tempered, however neurotic, also known as unstable tend to be more
excitable, restless, tend to become more anxious and are more highly
aroused.

The trait theory proves that personality alone cannot predict the outcome of
sporting results, however it can help to explain why individuals participate in
different sports, and how they behave whilst doing so.

The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical areas in the
study of personality. The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are
composed broad dispositions. Consider how you would describe the
personality of a close friend. Chances are that you would list a number of
traits, such as outgoing, kind and even-tempered. A trait can be thought of as
a relatively stable characteristic that causes individuals to behave in certain
ways. (google.com)

Situational approach (social learning theory)

This theory suggests that personality is not a stable characteristic, but it is

constantly changing and a result of our experiences of different social
situations. It is unlikely that an athlete will behave in the same way in different
scenarios. The theory is that individuals learn through two processes;

1. Modelling

2. Re-inforcement

Modelling states that individuals are likely to model themselves on people

they can relate to, like role models, weather its individuals in their sport, or an
elite performer. They observe their behaviour and then attempt to copy it.

Reinforcement is important because if an individuals behaviour is reinforced

or rewarded in some way it is likely that the behaviour will be repeated, they
recognise that they were successful so therefore re apply this behaviour to
succeed yet again. Bandura, A leading psychologist identified four main
strategies of observing learning that demonstrate how modelling influences
personality and behaviour, these are;

• Attention

The athlete must have a certain level of respect and admiration for the
model they are observing. If the model is successful, aesthetically pleasing
and powerful they will capture and maintain the athlete’s attention.

• Retention

The athlete must be able to retain the observed skill or behaviour in their
memory and recall it when necessary.

• Motor reproduction

Athlete must be able to physically perform the task they are observing, and
also needs time to practise the skill in order to learn how it should be
performed correctly.

• Motivational response
 If the athlete is not motivated, they will not go through the first 3 stages of
modelling. Motivation depends on how much reinforcement the athlete
receives. (www.learning-theories.com)

“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from

observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed,
and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for
action.” (Bandura) (www.learning-theories.com)

Interactional View

This theory suggest that when situational factors are particularly strong, for
example, during competitive sporting scenarios like a penalty-shoot out in
football, they are more likely to predict behaviour than personality traits.

The theory involves a number of ‘axioms’ and these comprise “rules of the
game”.

Axiom 1 - One Cannot Not Communicate

Everything a person does, whether verbal or nonverbal is a form of

communication and it will relay a message.

Axiom 2 - Human Beings Communicate Both Digitally and Analogically

The ways a person communicates can be both specifically defined in words

and actions can be interpreted.

Axiom 3 - Communication = Content + Relationship

An act of communication is made up of what is said and the context in which it

is said.

Axiom 4 - The Nature of a Relationship Depends on How Both Parties

Punctuate the Communication Sequence

Each person in an act of communication will perceive the beginning and

ending of that act to be in different places.

Axiom 5 - All Communication is Either Symmetrical or Complementary.

Everyone in
Everyone in an interaction either has equal power or unequal power in the
situation.

(www. oak.cats.ohiou.edu)

Personality types

Another approach in sports psychology suggests that personality traits can be

sectioned in to Type A & Type B personalities.

Type A tend to lack patience, have a strong urge for competition, a high
desire to achieve goals, always rush to complete activities, will happily multi-
task when placed under time constraints, lack tolerance towards others and
experience higher levels of anxiety.

Type B tend to be more tolerant towards others, more relaxed and reflective
than their type A counterparts, experience lower levels of anxiety and display
higher levels of imagination and creativity.

(Sport level 3, M.Adams et al)

Motivation

Motivation is the self drive and individual has, to participate in an activity. The
way in which an athlete is motivated is split into two categories, Intrinsic and
Extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation comes from within, internal factors such as your
love for the sport, motivate you to participate. Athletes in this category tend to
care more about the performance, than the result, for example, they’ll notice
that their defending was very effective, even if they did lose. Extrinsic
motivation comes from your surroundings, the environment. External factors
such as, money or trophies drive you to participate, and for this type of
motivation to be effective rewards need to be used effectively to keep the
athlete involved. Athletes in this category tend to care more about the
knowledge of results, it might not matter if their defending was effective or not,
they lost and that was that. (Sport level 3, M.Adams et al)

Motivation is an essential component of successful sports performance.

However when someone is so motivated that they wont stop, problems can
occur. Someone who is motivated to play, perform and train at an optimum
level will experience increases in performance. It is the role of athletes,
coaches, managers and support staff to make sure the athlete is at optimum
levels of motivation, without experiencing any negative side affects.

However, being over- motivated can be a big problem for athletes. Athletes
are usually under a lot of pressure to perform at a high level, therefore feel the
need to train more regularly. Further more, over motivation and a very strict
schedule can lead to over training (when athlete trains under and excessive
training load), staleness (when athlete is unable to maintain a previous
performance level )and burnout (when an athlete strives to meet training and
competition demands despite being repeatedly unsuccessful previously, so
tries harder). (Sport level 3, M.Adams et al)

“It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many
times you get up.” -Vince Lombardi
BIBLIOGRAPHY!

Class notes

www.about.com

J. Whitmore, 2004

Sport level 3, (M.Adams, R.Barker, A.Gledhill, C.Lydon,

C.Mulligan, P.Phillippo, L.Sutton 2010, Harlow, Essex)

www.teachpe.com

www.google.com

www.learning-theories.com

www.oak.cats.ohiou.edu

www.topendsports.com

By Natalie Beer, 12 PDL.