Sport and personality

Abstract

SummaryIn a wide-ranging survey, ways are examined in which human personalities can be categorized and the relevance of these categories to sporting performance is examined. The profiles produced by studies of the Eysenck and Cattell type, the significance of the ‘trait’ and the ‘interactional’ approaches and the correlation of personalities with physical performance are considered. The importance of such factors as achievement motivation, causal attribution, selfefficacy, mental rehearsal and concentration is examined. Consideration is given to the role of sport in the fulfilment of the personality.