Personality

• Personality


  An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. The unique, psychological, temperamental features of an individual
• Trait Theory (personality)

  You are born with your personality, they are stable and do not change
• Social Learning Theory (Personality)

  Copying others behaviour: role models, parents, media. They are more likely to remember if its successful or praised by a coach etc. It changes according to the situation so personality and behaviour cannot be predicted. Socialisation also plays an important part
• Interactionist Theory (Personality)

  Behaviour is made up of traits and the influence of what you have learned from environmental experiences. It is adapted dependant on the situation:

  core- inner belief, unchanging

  typical response- main response, can change

  role related behaviour- changes dependant on people you are with and the situation
• How can a coach use interactionist

  Identify the different personalities, know how situations that change their behaviour, give punishment to see the reaction, situations to test personality to see their reaction.
• Definition: Personality comprises of the unique, psychological, temperamental features of an individual.
• Trait perspective


  Suggests that a performer is born with their personality - it is determined genetically
• Extroverts


  • Show their outgoing personalities on and off the field of play
• Introverts


  • Always be reserved
• Trait theorists


  Include Eysenck, Cattell and Girdano
• Trait theorists


  • Suggest personality shown in all situations so personality can be predicted
  • Suggest personality = stable + enduring
• The trait perspective doesn't consider any effects environmental learning may have on the performer
• Personality cannot always be predicted
• Individuals may consciously decide to structure their own personality
• 1)     Social learning perspective - suggests that personality is not innate but is learned from our experiences. It changes according to the situation, so personality and behaviour cannot be predicted. We observe and copy the behaviour and personality of significant others.
• Social learning perspective of personality:

  o   Bandura is a social learning perspective theorist.

  o   Socialisation also plays an important part.

  o   If behaviour is successful or praised by a coach, it is highly likely that we will imitate it.

  o   Performer is more likely to copy the behaviour/personality of those who share similar characteristics such as gender, age and ability levels, as well as those who are significant.

  o   The opposing views of trait and social learning approaches give rise to the nature vs nurture debate.

   
• 1)     Interactionist perspective – suggests that personality is made up of traits and the influence of what you have learned from your environmental experiences (combination).
• Interactionist: 


  Lewin suggested that an individual’s personality is produced when both their natural predisposition and the experiences they have combine in a specific situation. B= f (PxE) meaning behaviour is a function of personality traits and environment. A performer will adapt to the situation they find themselves in, maybe behaving differently to how they would normally.

  o   Interactionist approach suggests that we can predict personality and behaviour in a specific situation.
• Interactionist:

  Hollander suggested that there are 3 aspects to an individual’s personality: the core, typical responses, and role-related behaviour. The core = the real you, what your true beliefs and values are, it doesn’t change and represents the stable aspect of your personality, often this is kept hidden. Typical responses = how an individual usually responds. Role-related behaviour = how an individual responds in a specific environment, may be uncharacteristic behaviour, the most unstable aspect of your personality and does not necessarily reflect the psychological.
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  How can knowledge of the interactionist perspective improve performance?

   

  A coach should understand their players innate personalities and how they would normally respond in specific situations and use this to their advantage. For example, a player might be known to have an aggressive personality and retaliate when fouled. The coach knowing this might therefore sub her out if they notice her level of aggression increasing. The coach might try to adapt the players behaviour by coaching her with somatic and cognitive strategies to reduce stress and therefore levels of aggression.

   
• How can knowledge of the interactionist perspective improve performance?

   

  This can be done in training sessions by creating demanding situations which will cause a negative response from the aggressive player. They can then be offered a chance to use the stress management techniques. In the future, when they are fouled, they will ignore their instinct to be aggressive and act in a more controlled way (what they have learned).