Personality is a product of heredity and environment a lot like mom and dad when you live with biological parents Personality theory research predict certain things to happen o is there a football type a tennis type are certain personalities needed to be successful in sports Traits are a classification of consistency in behavior Predict who you are Ways to determine personality Interviews are a way to determine personality Observation over a long period of time o Chargers guy Arnold Mandell found football positions based on how people behave Found that mental capabilities make selection process critical Saw consistencies in behavior defense vs offense defense lockers were unorganized messy Offense lockers had things in order Think about defense and offense Defense mess up play Offense needs to be organized and have a certain precision about them and move in a certain way center snaps the ball to QB centers had a leadership position and they were usually the brightest player on the team Needs to evaluate what s going on with defense and signal to the QB in seconds guards aggressive persistent mobile fast wide receivers a very special human being shares features with actors and movie stars vein loner courageous doesn t mind getting hit in the body but don t touch his face not that popular with the team QB s very self confident had the ability to stand in the pocket for a long amount of time with poise and composure Wrote all this in his article Some of this stands true an example of how personality traits were used in this football situation you can not react to anything unless you have a stimulus You have past experiences response will be based on past experiences and personality trait personality trait is like the mediator it assesses the situation and figures out how to respond o extraverts in a certain social situation their personality is they love being with people and they re very social they ll seek out situations where they don t want to be alone o Tough minded in stressful situations they ll respond in a way that s in control and un rattled Trait theory is all about finding consistencies in behavior Cattell s Four Second Order Factors Don t need to know traits unless they re related to a specific sporting situation don t need to know how he grouped them either for the test Researchers asked questions in a 3 way analysis of classifying sports direct vs parallel contact vs non contact sports individual vs team long vs short in reference to time Golf tennis and cross country takes a long time Then they asked certain questions and came up with conclusions using the 3 classifications of sport looked at athletes who participate in direct sport and compared them to non athletes don t worry about that for test want to find out how athletes will perform in the athletic arena and in general like being on a university campus Athletes are an investment Wanna know what type of reputation they ll have and what they ll do for your school by knowing personality make up a coach may not be so surprised at the behaviors an athlete expresses at practice and in stressful situations Helps understand some of the problems a player might have when working one on one A way for an athlete have a deeper understanding of themselves Optimize who they are helps in recruiting know how they ll act Scouts can chart players to ensure they ll get a decent kid Traits that have emerged as being necessary for sport participation self confidence and emotional stability when you have these traits you have the nucleus of being able to perform in a consistent way A coaches nightmare is an athlete that doesn t consistently perform Trait theory can allow you to hone in on those stability factors that a coach can hone in on aggressiveness Tough mindedness in many sport particularly contact sports controlled physical aggression is a primary requisite Acting out aggressively within the rules of the game a person who is really emotionally mature independent in actions and thoughts have a realistic appraisal of themselves Can overrule feelings in situations and are in control of feelings can stand strenuous work out pressure no anxiety not fearful of anything and tough in certain Anxious vs Non Anxious situations Authoritarianism individuals who like an authoritarian coach Like and need a coach that s a authority figure No grey matter know right and wrong and where they stand Achievement Needs people will choose sports to satisfy achievement need different levels of it can t have everyone on a team have high achievement need Everyone can t want to be number one Introverts vs Extraverts Intro s can focus don t need lots of stimulation long distance runners tennis players golfers Extra s need lots of stimulation sprinters and lineman Win more mentally tough emotionally stable achievement Winners vs Losers oriented Dorothy Harris sports psychologist at Penn State Found that people in sport who like composition are more stimulus seeking like a lot of noise KNES majors fit that build love sporting situation and never want to leave it like stimulus and action People in competitive sports need more stimulation to stay need to be aroused become bored without stimulation Male vs Female there is no distinction relationship between feminine masculine traits and non athletes athletes Its better to have BOTH men masculine traits self aware aggressive self protected and will act out when domain challenged women feminine traits selfless more concerned with others more sensitive more relational Male and female athletes are alike in their personality traits Also investigated fortune 500 CEOs like athletes they had male and female traits androgynous traits ability to act adaptively in any situation regardless of gender role constraints an androgynous person can comfort a baby or change a tire cook a meal or lead a meeting free to act without worrying of behavior being too feminine or too masculine androgynous adults are most well adjusted Personality theory is done in KNES workforce and military want the right people in the right place at the right time Don t want to make mistakes