Abstract

Introduction: Personality is more or less stable and enduring organization of person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determines his unique adjustment to the environment. The most supported and accepted models empirically are the Three-dimensional model of personality (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) including dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism; and five factor model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992) including dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Objective: The current study aims to elucidate the personality differences between athletes pursuing individual and team sports. Methodology: The sample comprised of 100 athletes (50 individual & 50 team sports) currently studying in National Sports University. NEO-FFI by Costa & McCrae was used for measuring the personality traits. Results & conclusion: The data was analysed using SPSS. The results highlighted significant differences in the personality traits of extraversion and conscientiousness among the two groups. It can be concluded that, there is a difference in the personality traits between athletes pursuing individual and team sports.

Keywords: Personality traits, team sports, individual sports, athletes

Introduction:

Sport psychology researchers have been interested in how athletes’ psychological and characteristics influence performance. From this point, it is clear that psychological characteristics differ between more and less effective athletes and teams. Moreover, the ability to mentally prepare is considered a key component of such differences (Brewer, B.,2009). Examining the relationship between sport and personality traits is another field of research (Tafti, Pakdaman, & Asgari, 2008). Although little evidence exists to support the existence of a specific sports personality, the personality characteristics of the elite athletes are different from those of nonathletes as well as those related to each discipline (Gill, 1986). Cologne 2013 believes that sporting success in any race and discipline is not possible without proper mental state (Kleanthous et al., 2013). Many factors, such as learning problems, educational levels, age, gender, and personality characteristics, are generally effective in determining the success of most exercises. (Galloway, 2010)

Personality is more or less stable and enduring organization of person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determines his unique adjustment to the environment. The most supported and accepted models empirically are the Three-dimensional model of personality (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) including dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism; and five factor model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992) including dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.  The first of the big five, Neuroticism, reveals an individuals' emotional stability and their tendency to experience distress and to be able to effectively handle, emotionally, any such stressful situation. Anxiety, depression and worry are often associated with this dimension of personality. The second dimension, Extraversion, deals with an individual’s tendency toward being either extraverted or introverted and, therefore, whether a person is talkative, assertive, sociable, or not. Extraversion and neuroticism are often referred to as the "big two." Third is Openness, or, more specifically, openness to experiences. This is related to an individual's creativity and divergent thinking. It also describes whether or not a person is open to new feelings and ideas, flexible, or willing to use their imagination. The fourth of the big five is Agreeableness. It describes a person's humanity, or, in other words, their emotional support or hostility, caring, and nurturance or a lack there of. Behaviorally, this factor describes a person as being good-natured, courteous, soft-hearted, tolerant, or not. The fifth factor is Conscientiousness, which deals with an individual's will to achieve goals and their dependability. This dimension can also be used to describe a person as careful, responsible and thorough (Singh, G., Manoj, K.; 2012).

Several  studies have assessed the relations between five factor model dimensions and sport activities; these studies highlighted a positive correlation between sport activities, extraversion and conscientiousness and also a negative correlation between sport activities and neuroticism (Rhodes, Couneya, & Bobick, 2001; Conner & Abraham, 2001; Naseri, Pakdaman & Asgari, 2008; Saklofske, Austin, Rohr & Andrews, 2007). Also, the results of studies connected with Three-dimensional model of personality have shown a correlation between sport activities with one or more dimensions of low neuroticism, high extraversion and low psychoticism (Arai & Hisamichi, 1998; Potgieter & Venter, 1995; Davis, Elliott, Dionne, & Mitchell, 1991; Yeung, & Hemsley, 1997). A study compared athletes’ personality characteristics in individual and team sports and results revealed that individual sport athletes 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. (Nia,M.E,& Besharat,M.A.(2010). In another study, individual sportsmen have a higher degree of extraversion, openness and conscientious than team sportsmen and no significance difference in agreeableness and neuroticism between individual and team sportsmen (Ilyasi, G, & Salehian, M.H;2011).

Objective:

The current study aims to compare the personality characteristics of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness between athletes pursuing individual and team sports.

Methodology:

The study is a comparative study which aims to see the personality differences between athletes pursuing individual (Badminton, weightlifting, archery, shooting, athletics) and team sports (handball, football, basketball,cricket).  The sample for the study was collected through convenient sampling technique.  The sample comprised of 100 athletes (50 individual & 50 team sports) currently studying in the undergraduate programme at the National Sports University age range between 18 to 23 years. The athletes should have had completed at least 2 years of formal training in their respective sports. Data was collected using the 60-item NEO-FFI personality questionnaire by Costa & Mc Crae(1992) which measure five personality dimensions: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The responses are marked on a 5-point likert scale. The NEO-FFI was developed as a short form of the NEO-PI and each domain comprising of 12-items each. The reliability of the NEO-FFI had been established by evaluating the Cronbach’s-alpha reliability coefficients. The values of the coefficient are 0.90, 0.78, 0.76, 0.86 and 0.90 for the dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, respectively. These values are high enough (0.76 and more) to reflect on the reliability of the inventory. NEO-FFI is found to have  both convergent and discriminant validity with  NEO-PI-R domains.

Results

Means and standard deviations related with neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness for individual and team sport athletes are shown in Table-1. For comparing the scores of personality characteristics of neuroticism, extraversion, openness agreeableness, conscientiousness in individual and team sport, independent group t-test was used.

Table 1. Means, standard deviations, and the t-test results for comparing the scores of personality characteristics of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, among athletes pursuing individual and team sport

** significant at 0.01 level

The synopses of the t-test results showed that there is significant difference in the scores of athletes of individual and team sport only on the domains of Extraversion and Conscientiousness (p <0.01) with the athletes pursuing individual sports scoring higher mean values than the athletes in team sports.  No significant difference was found between the two groups on the domains of neuroticism, openness and agreeableness of the NEO-FFI.

Figure 1: Figure showing the mean comparison between Individual and Team Sports on Personality Domains

Discussion

The results of the current study show that athletes of individual sports have a higher degree of extraversion  and conscientious than athletes of team sports. Extraversion deals with an individual’s tendency toward being either extraverted or introverted and, therefore, whether a person is talkative, assertive, sociable, or not. Garousi (2000) believed that extraversion people love people, prefer large assembled groups and are courageous, strong, active, talkative, with high power and paratelic. According to Eysenck's theory, central nervous system affects extraversions, they are less sensitive to the stimulus, looking for things that are provocative (Devon,S;2000). Similar results were found by study on athletes of sports like judo, weightlifting and climbing are considered individually, but they need power risk, high motion and excitement which are factors of extraversions traits (Ilyasi, G, & Salehian, M.H;2011). Thus, it can be ascertained that athletes of individual games (Badminton, weightlifting, archery, shooting, athletics) take more power risk, seek stimulation from external environment and seek for excitement than the athletes of team games (handball, football, basketball, cricket). However, another study found no significant differences were found in Extraversion, regardless of the type of sport and age (Trninić,V.,  Trninić, M. and Penezić, V;2017).

The results also indicated a significant difference on the scores of Conscientiousness between athletes of individual and the athletes of team games. Similar results were found by  Ilyasi, G, & Salehian, M.H.(2011) where they concluded that individual athletes rely on their own abilities, but team athletes play with a scattered responsibilities of work, which could indicate of the low conscientious trait, since to win or get a result individually is much more difficult and also requires much effort. These findings confirm previous findings (Eysenck et al., 1982) about the possibility of difference between personality characteristics of individual sport athletes and team sport athletes. Nia,M.E,& Besharat, M.A. (2010) also highlighted that achieving competence is possible both in individual and team activities, but its values belong totally to the person when earned by individual endeavours. The state of athletes’ more conscientious in individual sports comparison with team sports can be approximately ascribed to the personal competence achievement process. Another factor of conscientiousness in the 5-factor model is achievement striving. The state of athletes’ more conscientious in individual sports in comparison with team sports can be attributed to their more desire for the achievement. Self-discipline is another factor of conscientiousness. This characteristic which signify the tendency and attention to order and discipline especially in personal matters, affect the individual’s predominant direction in comparison with team and collective tendencies.

Conclusion

From the current study it can be concluded that athletes of individual sports have a higher degree of extraversion and conscientious than athletes of team sports which means that individual sports athletes take more power risk, seek stimulation from external environment and seek for excitement, talkative, looking for things that are provocative. They are also high on conscientious trait which makes these athletes rely on their own abilities, more desire for the achievement, self-disciplined, the tendency and attention to order and discipline especially in personal matters. No significant difference was found in other domains of Big Five model namely: openness, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Limitations and Future directions

The current study has certain limitations to it, small sample size being one of them. Considering other variables which may have effect on the results like environmental factors, social influence, achievement motivation, comparison of these traits in different individual sports and different team sports and possible correlation between sports success, would help yield better understanding. The outcomes of this study can be useful in sport psychology as it will enable the in-time recognition of personality characteristics for decision making of counsellors, sport trainers and coaches in relation to sports selection and for investing time in the same game. It will also guide and help plan modules and sessions which will help develop the characteristics essential for a particular sport type.

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