SPORT PERSONOLOGY
Hollanders Definition and Model of Personality
MODEL
Role
Related
Behaviours
Typical Responses
Psychological Core (Traits)
1. Psychological Core - attitudes, values, interests, motives,
and self-concept
2. Typical Responses - characteristic way of responding to
frustration, humour, and anxieties
3. Role Related Behaviour - behaviour we engage in based
on our perception of the social position in which we are
placed
Approaches to the Study of Personology
Nomethetic - Deals with groups, consistency in a particular
trait or group of traits (The bulk of research is in this area)
Ideographic - Takes the “whole person” approach and looks
at individual differences
Trait - A disposition to act in certain ways
State - feelings in a particular situation
3 Major Areas in the Study of Personology
1. Trait Psychology - B = f(p) (Behaviour is a function of
personality)
2. Behavioural or Situational Psychology - B = f(s)
(Behaviour is a function of the situation)
3. Interaction Psychology - B = f(p+s) (Behaviour is a
function of personality dispositions and the situation)
B------------------P
E
Behaviour, personality, and environment all interact
Personality Research in Sport
A. Older Research - trait approach
1. Between 1950-1973 202 references to personality in
sport but no consistent findings.
2. Researchers tried to look at typical responses and
ascribe it to a trait or consistent way of behaving.
B. New Research - dispositions
1. Dispositions are tendencies to act or react in certain
ways.
2. States - situation specific measure of behaviour or
feelings.
3. Morgan’s work with Iceberg Profile (states and traits)
C. Problems - reliability and validity
1. Methodological
a. Inability of operationalize important variables
b. Poor sampling procedures
c. Inappropriate statistical analysis (univariate not
multivariate)
d. Lack of theory based instrument selection
2. Interpretative
a. Inferring causal relationships form Correlations
b. Reviewers reporting unsupported generalisations
c. Clinical assessment of personality for prognosis of
success in sport and remediation of personality
deficiencies