PhD, Associate Professor M.E. Guzich¹
PhD, Associate Professor I.P. Grekhova^1
1 Surgut State University, Surgut

Keywords: sports activity, personality traits, volitional control, behavioral control, Cattell16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, basketball, boxing.

Background. Personality qualities tests and analyses are given a special priority by the modern sports psychology. The role of sports in this context may be viewed as multidimensional. On the one hand, they are dominant in the athlete's life being a driving force for personality progress. As provided by A.N. Leontyev, “multiple individual activity vectors intersect and are knotted by the relevant necessary social relationship. These knots and their hierarchy may be interpreted as the "mysterious personality core" commonly referred to as "I"; in other words, this personality core is formed in the individual living environment rather than inside the person, under his/her skin” [7, p. 17]. And on the other hand, sports facilitate progress of certain mental qualities like any other specific activity that may be profiled by personality research tools “as provided by the specific scientific mental phenomena research methods in context of the systemic fundamentals of the personality socializing, culturing and self-development agenda", as stated by A.G. Asmolov [1, p. 30].

Sports activity is of special interest in the above context. In some aspects it is much the same as any other activity, whilst in other aspects it is rather specific. It may be primarily due to the fact that a sports activity is geared to transform the athlete’s personality in the physical and mental domains rather than in the objective environment – i.e. the sporting subject is at the same time a sports activity object, with the individual competitive progress being indicative of the personality sport-specific transformations and achievements; and this is the reason why "competitions are deemed obligatory as an extreme test ground for the physical, technical and, the last but not least, mental qualities" [6].

Lately the sport research communities have given a growing priority to the mental qualities and their contributions to the competitive progresses, and many researchers have tried to identify the common and specific athletic personality traits in the sport contexts. Thus, an American sports psychology research team found the athletes "commonly tested with high aggression, high success motivations, extraversion, high willpower, authoritarianism, and excellent emotional balancing and self-control qualities" [8, p. 45].

V.P. Koryagina, having studied a large sample of elite athletes [5], found the following most typical personality traits: high emotional balance, confidence, independence, self-reliance, risk tolerance, high self-control, sociability etc. Of special interest for researchers and supporters is the question whether or not the personality traits contribute to the competitive successes, particularly in the modern team sports in view of their special entertainment aspects.

Objective of the study was to survey, analyze and find correlations in the personality traits of athletes in team and individual sports, with basketball players and boxers sampled for the study.

Methods and structure of the study. The Surgut State University’s Psychology Department has run for the last few years the athletes’ personality tests and surveys in Surgut in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (KMAO) and some other regions [2, 3]. We sampled for this study the 24-36 years old qualified and having the 3+ years long sport records Samara Basketball Club players for an Experimental Group (EG, n=10) and athletes of the Boxing Federation of Surgut (KMAO) for a Reference Group (RG, n=30). The sample was tested by the Cattell16 Personality Factor Questionnaire [4] to rate the relatively independent personality factors classified into 4 groups: communicative, intellectual, emotional and control ones. The EG and RG test data arrays were matched using the Mann-Whitney U-test.

Results and discussion. The survey failed to find any significant intergroup differences in the following groups of factors: communicative traits (Uemp. = 10.5), intellectual traits (Uemp. = 3) and emotional traits (Uemp. = 7.5), that means that both of the groups are sociable, open to cooperation, receptive to new things, innovative; demonstrate analytical thinking, good working capacity, realistic attitudes and social contacts, prepared for leadership, enthusiastic in teamwork, believe in luck; demonstrate high learning abilities and willingness to experiment.

The above test data give reasons to believe that both groups, regardless of the individual or team sports activity, have similar basic personality traits that may be developed as required by a specific sport discipline. At the same time, we found both the individual and team sport groups having certain distinctive personality traits that have been, as we believe, largely formed by their sports. Falling within the statistically significant zone are the intergroup differences on the following scales: Practicality/ Imagination development" (Uemp. = 14.5); “Rigidity/ Sensitivity” (Uemp. = 25), “Low/ high self-control” (Uemp. = 29.5), and “Impulsivity/ Standard behavioral control” (Uemp. = 13.5).

The survey found the following personality traits dominating in the EG: well developed imagination; creative resource; some rigidity in relationships; impulsivity; flexible attitudes to social norms; whilst the boxing RG was tested more practical; overly attentive to minor things; striving for patronage in communication; with strong self-controls; determination in the progress agenda; businesslike attitudes; and conscious observance of behavioral norms and rules. This gives us the reasons to believe that the individual personality traits are somewhat determined by the specific sporting activity.

The survey data and analysis showed that the team sporting EG is more introverted, somewhat callous towards the others; impulsive; focused on benefits in every situation; and at the same time more irresponsive. The individually sporting RG was tested more extraverted (focused on external reality); more responsible in adherence to accepted behavioral norms; higher on the emotional and behavioral control scales; and more empathic.

The correlation analysis of the survey data designed to find, above all, the volitional and behavioral self-control correlations in context of the individual psychological traits, was run using the Pearson criterion, with self-control [2, 3], volitional control [2, 3] and  personality factors rated on every scale. The EG survey data were found correlated in the following pairs: volitional control with the suspicion (rxy = 0.894); volitional control with dominance (rxy = 0.532); volitional control with intelligence (rxy = 0.846); and self-control with the emotional tension (rxy = 0.735).

The RG survey data were found correlated in the following pairs: volitional control with the emotional tension (rxy = 0.590); and self-control with the emotional tension (rxy = 0.535). The correlation analysis showed the behavioral self-control and individual psychological factors being similar in both groups, with the behavioral control largely determined by the emotional tension degree. The team and individual sports groups were also tested different in the following aspects: the basketball players’ volitional control was found correlated with intelligence, suspicion and proneness to leadership; whilst the boxers’ volitional control was found correlated with the emotional tension and behavioral control at the same time. The survey data and analysis on the whole showed that the subjective and objective mental status and personality traits are rather diverse and formatted by both the individual psychological traits and sporting activity.

Conclusion. The study once again demonstrated the need for efficient and professional psychological support in sports, since the competitive progress in modern sports requires the individual physical and mental resource being mobilized in full, formatted and developed for the sport-specific goals. The study data gives grounds to believe that the sports psychology in its evolution with give a growing priority to the more comprehensive personality studies and detailed differentiations in the personality inventories on a sport-specific basis.

References

1. Asmolov A.G. Historical-evolutionary approach to understanding of personality: problems and prospects of research. Voprosy psikhologii. 1986. No. 1. pp. 28-40.
2. Grekhova I.P., Guzich M.E. Boxers’ personality qualities versus psychosomatics rating in different competitive situations. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2018. no. 11. pp. 85-87.
3. Guzich M.E., Grekhova I.P. Psycho-emotional and psychosomatic status test rates in boxing. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2018, no. 3, pp. 83-85.
4. Kapustina A.N. The multifactorial personality technique of R. Kettell. Pract. guide. St. Petersburg: Rech publ., 2001. 142 p.
5. Koryagina V.P. Features of temporal characteristics of those practicing various sports. M.: Sport publ., 2006. 132 p.
6. Nebytova L.A. Athlete as a subject of sports activity. Psikhologiya obrazovaniya. 2007. No. 1. Electronic resource. Available at: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sportsmen-kak-subekt-sportivnoy-deyate...
7.  Petrovskiy A.V. Personality development and problem of leading activities. Voprosy psikhologii. 1987. No. 1. pp. 15-26.
8.  Weinberg R.S., Gould D. Fundamentals of psychology of sport and physical education. Kiev: Olimpiyskaya literatura publ., 2001. 262 p.

Corresponding author: apokin_vv@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to survey, analyze and find correlations in the personality traits of athletes in team and individual sports, with basketball players and boxers sampled for the study.

Methods and structure of the study. The Surgut State University’s Psychology Department has run for the last few years the athletes’ personality tests and surveys in Surgut in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (KMAO) and some other regions [2, 3]. We sampled for this study the 24-36 years old qualified and having the 3+ years long sport records Samara Basketball Club players for an Experimental Group (EG, n=10) and athletes of the Boxing Federation of Surgut (KMAO) for a Reference Group (RG, n=30). The sample was tested by the Cattell16 Personality Factor Questionnaire to rate the relatively independent personality factors classified into 4 groups: communicative, intellectual, emotional and control ones.

Research results and conclusions. The results of the analysis indicate the existence of a relationship between the parameters of volitional and behavioral self-regulation of athletes and their individual psychological characteristics, however, the nature of this dependence varies between representatives of team and individual sports. The study demonstrated the need for efficient and professional psychological support in sports, since the competitive progress in modern sports requires the individual physical and mental resource being mobilized in full, formatted and developed for the sport-specific goals. The study data gives grounds to believe that the sports psychology in its evolution with give a growing priority to the more comprehensive personality studies and detailed differentiations in the personality inventories on a sport-specific basis.