The Effect of Personality and Motivation on Sports Performance
For this assignment I will explain the effect of personality and motivation on sports performance.
Introduction
Personality is the sum of a person’s individual characteristics that make him/her unique. (Adams et al, 2010) A person’s personality determines how they react in certain situations, their general mood and the consistency of it and their emotions. Personality can affect many aspects of sport right from the selection process because as well as raw talent, coaches need performers to have good mentality to be able to reach their required potential.
Personality theories
There are four main personality theories, these are the different ideas behind where individuals get there personalities from. I will explain three of these four personality theories. These are Trait theory, the Social learning theory and the Situational theory. The final theory which I won’t be discussing is the interactionist theory.
Trait theory
This is the theory that People are born with their characteristics and they are past down in their genes from their parents. This theory is also known as the nature approach. Trait is a word used to describe personality characteristics and it is generally defined as a continuous quality that individuals possess such as sociability, leadership and determination. Trait theory suggests traits can be seen as enduring and consistent behaviours across a range of situations. Trait theory takes several traits and using these works out what causes people to behave in certain ways in certain situations. For example an anxious, irritable, impatient, nervous person would be more likely to crumble under pressure. This could cause a footballer who is more than capable of scoring a penalty kick to miss an important penalty in a big game under pressure.
Someone who I feel could have been born with important traits in their sport is Usain Bolt, he is an outgoing sociable person with bags of confidence. This aids him in his sport and many other
Introduction
Personality is the sum of a person’s individual characteristics that make him/her unique. (Adams et al, 2010) A person’s personality determines how they react in certain situations, their general mood and the consistency of it and their emotions. Personality can affect many aspects of sport right from the selection process because as well as raw talent, coaches need performers to have good mentality to be able to reach their required potential.
Personality theories
There are four main personality theories, these are the different ideas behind where individuals get there personalities from. I will explain three of these four personality theories. These are Trait theory, the Social learning theory and the Situational theory. The final theory which I won’t be discussing is the interactionist theory.
Trait theory
This is the theory that People are born with their characteristics and they are past down in their genes from their parents. This theory is also known as the nature approach. Trait is a word used to describe personality characteristics and it is generally defined as a continuous quality that individuals possess such as sociability, leadership and determination. Trait theory suggests traits can be seen as enduring and consistent behaviours across a range of situations. Trait theory takes several traits and using these works out what causes people to behave in certain ways in certain situations. For example an anxious, irritable, impatient, nervous person would be more likely to crumble under pressure. This could cause a footballer who is more than capable of scoring a penalty kick to miss an important penalty in a big game under pressure.
Someone who I feel could have been born with important traits in their sport is Usain Bolt, he is an outgoing sociable person with bags of confidence. This aids him in his sport and many other
References: (COX, 1998) (SAGE, 1977) BOTH INDIRECT QUOTES FROM http://www.slideshare.net/garylintern/motivation-and-sport-8990763