Sports Psychology: Individual Differences

Personality

Personality refers to the unique patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour that characterise a person.
Certain personality traits, like extroversion and determination, may correlate with success in particular sports and can shape an individual’s approach and style of play.
Models of personality include trait theory (Eysenck, Costa and McCrae’s Big Five) and social learning theory (Bandura), which postulates that behaviour is learned through observation and imitation.
Trait theory assumes personality is largely innate while social learning theory focuses on the impact of the environment and learning experiences.

Motivation

Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an individual to act towards a desired goal.
Intrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity for inherent satisfaction, enjoyment, or a sense of accomplishment. Athletes who are intrinsically motivated participate in sport because they love it.
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside rewards such as trophies, money, or public recognition, or from external pressures like fear of punishment or desire to please others.
The Self-Determination Theory (Ryan and Deci) suggests that secure, internally motivated individuals strive to meet their basic needs of competence, autonomy, and psychological relatedness.

Anxiety and Stress

Anxiety is an emotional state characterised by feelings of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
In a sports context, competitive anxiety can lead to reduced performance, so effective management of this emotion is crucial.
The Inverted-U Hypothesis (Yerkes-Dodson Law) proposes that performance improves with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a certain point, when further arousal leads to decreased performance.
Techniques to manage and reduce anxiety in athletes include relaxation, imagery, and self-talk.

Attribution Theory

The Attribution Theory (Weiner) explains how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behaviour.
Athletes attribute outcomes of their performance to internal/external and stable/unstable causes. For example, an athlete might attribute a loss to not feeling well (internal, unstable), or to the referee being unfair (external, stable).
How an athlete explains their success or failure - their attribution style - can affect their motivation, confidence, and future performance.
An important goal of sports psychology is to help athletes develop a self-serving bias (attributing successes to internal factors and failures to external factors), which tends to enhance motivation and perseverance in sport.

Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy (Bandura) is the belief in one’s capabilities to organise and execute the course of action required to manage prospective situations.
In sports, high levels of self-efficacy can lead to greater confidence, increased motivation, and improved performance.
Self-efficacy can be developed through mastery experiences (succesful performance), vicarious experiences (observing others succeed), verbal persuasion (encouragement), and physiological states (interpreting emotional states).