IJEAR Vol. 2, Issue 2, July - December 2012
ISSN: 2348-0033 (Online) ISSN : 2249-4944 (Print)
Analysis of the Personality Traits of Athletes in
Individual and Team Sports
1
Sucha Singh Dhesi, 2Dr. Baljinder Singh Bal
Research Scholar, Singhania University
Professor, GNDU Amritsar, Punjab, India
1
2
Abstracts
To find out the significant differences of the personality traits
of athletes in individual and team sports. A group of 250 male
players (mean age 21.80 ± 2.13 years) after having been informed
about the objective and protocol of the study gave their written
consent and volunteered to participate in the study. The subjects
were purposively assigned into 2 groups: A (Individual Game)
and B (Team Game). Student’s t-test for independent data was
used to assess the between-group differences. The level of p≤0.05
was considered significant. Significant between-group differences
were found for factors A (t=1.76*), factors B (t=5.47*), factors
C (t=3.38*), factors E(t=1.82*), factors F (t=1.95*), factors G
(t=4.48*), factors H (t=3.00*), factors I (t=4.49*), factors L
(t=5.16*), factors O (t=4.57*), factors Q3 (t=3.37*) , factors
Q4 (t=3.49*) whereas no significant between-group differences
were found for factors M (t=1.63), factors N (t=1.36), factors Q1
(t=1.61) and factors Q2 (t=1.39). Thus it may be concluded that
personality traits of athletes in individual and team sports found
to be statistically significant in factors A, factors B, factors C,
factors E, factors F, factors G, factors H, factors I, factors L, factors
O, factors Q3, factors Q4 whereas no significant between-group
differences were found for factors M, factors N, factors Q1 and
factors Q2. Considering the various parameters as applied on
different set of subjects the results prove to be variant in nature
and scope in relation to personality traits of athletes in individual
and team sports.
Keywords
Personality, Traits, Athletes, Individual and Team Sports
I. Introduction
Structure of athletes’ personality was often subject of sport
psychologists’ researches. Understanding personality structure,
basically, is to determine prominent individuals’ disposition:
specific, which control behavior of one type situation, and
general, which are in the base of behavior in broad class situations
(Havelka & Lazarević, 1981). Architecture of athletes’ personality
is significantly different compared with non-athletes. But, it is not
been confirmed that individuals with a specific structure or specific
set of personality traits more disposed to be successfully engaged
in professional sports or a specific structure and organization
of personality dispositions acquire and develop during longterm participation in sports activities (Havelka and Lazarević,
1981). In relation to this dilemma is prevalent notion that there
is a mutual dependence in relationship between sports and
personality structure: some personality traits determine success
of the sport, and sport influences as formation and development of
specific characteristics, that further behavior become inseparable
components of personality athletes (Havelka and Lazarević,
1981). Personality is typically measured using a self-report
questionnaire on which respondents indicate their feelings or
behaviors, yielding measurements of traits such as neuroticism,
anxiety, extraversion, dominance, assertiveness, sensitivity,
conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Personality either predicts
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or is related to many things, including performance motivation
(Judge & Ilies, 2002), leadership (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt,
2002; Hogan & Kaiser, 2005), and job performance (Thoresen,
Bradley, Bliese, & Thoresen, 2004).The Sixteen Personality Factor
Questionnaire (16PF) is a comprehensive measure of normal range
personality found to be effective in a variety of settings where
an in-depth assessment of the whole person is needed. From the
beginning, Cattell proposed a multi-level, hierarchical structure of
personality: the second-order global measures describe personality
at a broader, conceptual level, while the more precise primary
factors reveal the fine details and nuances that make each person
unique, and are more powerful in predicting actual behavior. Due
to its scientific origins, the 16PF Questionnaire has a long history
of empirical research and is embedded in a well-established theory
of individual differences. This questionnaire’s extensive body of
research stretches backs over half a century, providing evidence
of its utility in clinical, counseling, industrial-organizational,
educational, and research settings (Cattell, R.B. et al., 1970;
H.E.P. Cattell and Schuerger, 2003; Conn and Rieke, 1994;
Krug and Johns, 1990; Russell and Karol, 2002). A conservative
estimate of 16PF research since 1974 includes more than 2,000
publications (Hofer and Eber, 2002). Most studies have found the
16PF to be among the top five most commonly used normal-range
instruments in both research and practice (Butcher and Rouse,
1996; Piotrowski and Zalewski, 1993; Watkins et al., 1995). The
measure is also widely used internationally, and since its inception
has been adapted into over 35 languages worldwide. Thus, the aim
of the present study investigates the difference of the personality
traits of athletes in individual and team sports.
II. Methods
A group of 250 male players (mean age 21.81± 2.14 years) after
having been informed about the objective and protocol of the
study gave their written consent and volunteered to participate in
the study. The study was delimited to the psychological variables
of (16 PF) personality traits. The study was further delimited
to individual and team sports including: (individual sports)
athletics, weightlifting, judo, boxing and swimming; (team sports)
volleyball, basketball, football, handball and kabaddi. The details
of the subject are presented in Table 1.
III. Methodology
For the purposes of this study, individual and team sports
players were asked to complete Cattell 16PF questionnaire (Fifth
edition) based on the Raymond Cattell’s theory of personality.
This questionnaire was very often used in clinical, counselling,
industrial-organizational, educational, and research settings (Cattell
and Schverger, 2003). Also, this questionnaire (early editions) was
often used in the past few decades in testing athletes’ personality in
Serbia (Havelka and Lazarević, 1981; Bačanac, 2001; Jakovljević,
Karalejić and Lazarević, 2010). Cattell’s theory implies existence
of different kinds of personality traits, as characteristic individuals’
tendency to determine extent and manner of his behaviour (Cattell
and Schverger, 2003). The primary factors that the Cattell 16 PF
International Journal of Education and applied research
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ISSN: 2348-0033 (Online) ISSN : 2249-4944 (Print)
IJEAR Vol. 2, Issue 2, July - December 2012
test measure are bipolar dimensions of personality: A - Warmth; B Reasoning; C - Emotional Stability; E - Dominance; F - Liveliness;
G - Rule–Consciousness; H - Social Boldness; I - Sensitivity; L Vigilance; M - Abstractedness; N - Privateness; O - Apprehension;
Q1- Openness to Change; Q2 - Self-Reliance; Q3 - Perfectionism;
Q4-Tension. The 16PF global scales have even higher reliabilities;
2-week test-retest estimates ranged from .84 to .91 with a mean
of .87, and 2-month test-retest estimates ranged from .70 to .82
with a median of .80 (Cattell and Schverger, 2003).
IV. Data Analysis
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 14.0
was used for all analyses. Student’s t-test was used to assess the
between group differences. In all the analyses, the 5% critical level
(p≤0.05) was considered to indicate statistical significance.
Q2-group dependent v/s self sufficient, Q3-group dependent v/s
self sufficient, Q4-relaxed v/s tensed) between the individual and
team sports athletes are presented in table-1. In case of personality
traits of individual and team sports athletes significant betweengroup differences were found for factors A (t=1.76*), factors
B (t=5.47*), factors C (t=3.38*), factors E(t=1.82*), factors F
(t=1.95*), factors G (t=4.48*), factors H (t=3.00*), factors I
(t=4.49*), factors L (t=5.16*), factors O (t=4.57*), factors Q3
(t=3.37*) , factors Q4 (t=3.49*)whereas no significant betweengroup differences were found for factors M (t=1.63), factors N
(t=1.36), factors Q1 (t=1.61) and factors Q2 (t=1.39).
V. Results
Findings of this study were made in sequence of all the factors
namely: A-Warmth, B-Reasoning, C- Emotional Stability,
E-Dominance, F- Live lines, G- Rule Consciousness, H- Social
Boldness, I- Sensitivity, L- Vigilance, M- Abstractedness, NPrivateness, O- Apprehension, Q1- Openness to Change, Q2- Self
Reliance, Q3- Perfectionism and Q4- Tension. For each of the
chosen factor, the results pertaining to significant difference, if
any, between the national level individual and team sports athletes
is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Mean Values (±SD), Standard error of the Mean and
Test Statistic t of Personality Traits Among Individual Sports (n
= 125) and Team Sports (n = 125)
Mean
SD
SEM
Dimension
Individual
Sports
Team
Sports
Individual
Sports
Team
Sports
Individual
Sports
Team
Sports
t-value
factor-A
5.73
6.10
1.55
1.93
0.13
0.17
1.76*
factor-B
7.28
6.24
1.33
1.71
0.11
0.15
5.47*
factor-C
7.38
6.60
1.83
1.58
0.16
0.14
3.38*
factor-E
6.00
6.36
1.36
1.78
0.12
0.16
1.82*
factor-F
6.10
6.48
1.36
1.60
0.12
0.14
1.95*
factor-G
7.23
6.16
1.93
1.80
0.17
0.16
4.48*
factor-H
7.23
6.60
1.93
1.41
0.17
0.12
3.00*
factor-I
7.21
6.13
1.55
2.14
0.13
0.19
4.49*
factor-L
4.84
6.09
1.93
1.65
0.17
0.14
5.16*
factor-M
6.00
6.28
1.15
1.73
0.10
0.15
1.63
factor-N
6.61
6.88
1.41
1.81
0.12
0.16
1.36
factor-O
5.24
6.36
2.19
1.45
0.19
0.13
4.57*
factor-Q1
6.15
6.45
1.63
1.50
0.14
0.13
1.61
factor-Q2
7.19
7.42
1.10
1.63
0.098
0.14
1.39
factor-Q3
5.72
6.48
1.71
1.71
0.15
0.15
3.37*
factor-Q4
5.43
6.19
2.10
1.24
0.18
0.11
3.49*
Significant at .05 level of significance.
t.05 (249) =1.645
The results of personality traits of individual and team sports
athletes (i.e., factors namely: A- reserved v/s outgoing, B
-less intelligent v/s more intelligent, C- affected by feeling v/s
emotionally stable, E-humble v/s aggressive, F-sober v/s happygo-lucky, G-expedient v/s conscientious, H-shy v/s venturesome,
I-tough minded v/s tender minded, L-trusting v/s mistrusting,
M-practical v/s imaginative, N-unsophisticated v/s calculating,
O-placid v/s apprehensive, Q1-conservative v/s experimenting,
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International Journal of Education and applied research
Fig. 1: Mean Values (±SD), Standard Error of the Mean and
Test statistic t of Personality Traits Among Individual Sports (n
= 125) and Team Sports (n = 125)
VI. Disscussion
Personality is typically measured using a self-report questionnaire
on which respondents indicate their feelings or behaviors, yielding
measurements of traits such as neuroticism, anxiety, extraversion,
dominance, assertiveness, sensitivity, conscientiousness, and
agreeableness. Personality either predicts or is related to many
things, including performance motivation (Judge & Ilies, 2002),
leadership (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002; Hogan &
Kaiser, 2005), and job performance (Thoresen, Bradley, Bliese,
& Thoresen, 2004).The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
(16PF) is a comprehensive measure of normal range personality
found to be effective in a variety of settings where an in-depth
assessment of the whole person is needed. The aim of the present
study was to investigate difference of the personality traits of
athletes in individual and team sports. Analysis of data revealed
significant difference of personality traits of individual and team
sports athletes significant between-group differences were found
for factors A, factors B, factors C, factors E, factors F, factors G,
factors H, factors I, factors L, factors O, factors Q3, factors Q4
whereas no significant between-group differences were found for
factors M, factors N, factors Q1 and factors Q2.These findings are
supported by other reports. Study conducted by (Etemadi et al.
2010) revealed that individual sport athlete scored significantly
higher on conscientiousness and autonomy than did team sport
athletes. The team sport athletes scored significantly higher on
agreeableness and sociotropy than did the individual sport athletes.
Further the study conducted by Aidman, E.V. (2007) revealed
that role of personality in converting ability into achievement. In
practical terms, they confirm the utility of combining estimates
of physical ability with personality profiling in predicting the
likelihood of success in junior players’ transition to seniors
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ISSN: 2348-0033 (Online) ISSN : 2249-4944 (Print)
competition. Therefore, in the process of sport orientation, primary
and secondary selections, as well as pedagogical and psychological
work with athletes, we should bear in mind the compatibility of
their psychological traits with specific requirements for successful
achievement in a chosen sport.
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