This paper will review literature, which has investigated the relationship between personality and sports performance. Primarily, the discussion will center around the issue of introversion and player position. An experiment will be proposed which will attempt to describe the possible differences between offensive and defensive positions and introversion.
Personality and Sports Performance Studies
The growing knowledge about aptitude, abilities, and skills has just begun to explain performance differences, in terms of depending to some extent on the individual's unique and personal and behavioral dispositions. Such dispositions that an individual brings to a performance are not fully understood, neither as to the nature of the predisposition nor as to the predictive value. This is not surprising, given that the field of personality trait theories within psychology is a complex and imprecise science. Yet these theories purport to deal with such issues as the permanence of personality states, the effects of cognitive and perceptual styles, the nature of motivation, and the individual's mode of interpreting learning experiences.
The physical education literature dealing with personality factors and their effects on performance is heavy with implied and stated links between personality development and involvement in appropriately conducted programs of planned physical activity, games, dance, and sport. Most recently, the argument for the existence of these links has focused attention of the possible effects of physical activity on body image and self-concept (Kane, 1972). Additionally, some recent psychological literature has tended to strengthen the hopes and expectations of coaches and advisers that the selection, training, and performance of talented athletes could benefit from psychological insights.
The research aimed at accounting for the personality variables in motor and sports performance has had to rely on i...