5. The Athlete Personality

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about different ways of characterising the athlete personality, focusing in particular on: (i) how the personality profile of athletes can be graphed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS); (ii) how research into personality and individual differences has evolved over time to include more sport-specific measures; (iii) the history of psychological models of personality more broadly (e.g. Allport, Eysenck); (iv) the Big Five model of personality traits (Costa and McCrae, 1992) and its application to sport and exercise; (v) a more recent model by Laborde et al. (2016), in which traditional personality traits have been replaced by so-called personality-trait-like individual differences (PTLID) (vi) how insights from research into the athlete personality can be applied practically to increase sport participation among individuals with a range of different personality traits.

Course

In this course, Dr Dan Bishop (Brunel University London) explores a range of topics in sports and exercise psychology. In the first lecture, we think how anxiety impacts sport performance. In the second lecture, we think about the relationship between exercise and mental health. In the third lecture, we think about the reinvestment model and its impact on decision-making. Next, we think about learning by observing and imagining. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about different psychological models of the athlete personality.

Lecturer

Dr Dan Bishop is a Researcher and Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Psychology at Brunel University London, a British Psychological Society (BPS) Chartered Psychologist registered to practise with the HCPC, an Associate Fellow of the BPS, and a Fellow of Advance HE.