Summary

Summary — Unit IX: Psychology and Sports

• Personality is the relatively stable and unique way an individual responds to others and situations. It is studied through type and trait approaches. Jung's classification splits people by attitude (introvert / extrovert, with the ambivert in between) and by four functions (thinking, feeling, sensing, intuition). The Big Five (OCEAN) model describes personality along five dimensions — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism — each relevant to sport performance.
• Motivation is the driving force that initiates, guides and maintains behaviour. It is intrinsic (from within — joy, satisfaction, challenge) or extrinsic (from outside — reward, prize, praise, avoiding punishment). Coaches motivate athletes through cognitive, pedagogical, social-support and facilitation approaches, and most sport participation is fundamentally intrinsically motivated.
• Exercise adherence is the extent to which a person keeps up regular physical activity despite pressures to quit. People exercise to overcome social physique anxiety, reduce disease risk, for recreation, mental relaxation and socialisation, and gain wide-ranging physical, mental and social benefits. Adherence is enhanced through goal setting (SMART), variety, social support, contracts, reinforcement, feedback, process orientation, problem solving, health-risk appraisal and health education.
• Aggression is intentional, observable behaviour aimed at harming a living being who wants to avoid it (APA; Gill's four-part criterion). Its two types are hostile aggression (impulsive, angry, reactive — harm is the goal) and instrumental aggression (planned, learned — harm is a means to win). It is distinct from positive assertive behaviour, which pursues a win through legitimate means with no intent to harm. Aggression is managed through catharsis, positive and negative reinforcement, modelling, training/role play and controlling external cues. …