Trait Theory (Sports Phycology) Essay Example
Definition of personality: due to the different number of theory that suggest the key to understanding personality it is proven difficult to come up with a definition that is acceptable to all theory’s i.e. trait theory, social learning theory and so on.
“Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which distinguish them from other people, making them unique but at the same time permit a comparison between individuals” (R.Gross), 1998, 21/01/2010
“Personality is the underlying relatively stable psychological structures and process that organise human experience and shape a person’s actions and reactions to the environment” (Lazarus and Mowat), 1998, 21/01/2010
Personality is made up of the individual’s characteristic and patterns of opinions, judgment, and behaviours in which make a person unique i.e. shy, outgoing, aggressive, laid back. Personality also comes from within the individual (such as their back ground or parents) and remains fairly consistent throughout life, for example a person with a very aggressive and up front personality never real changes from a young age though to old age, he may be calmer at times however in certain situations his aggressive personality will come out, i.e. on a rugby pitch. All individuals are unique to every other human, however every individual’s personality has comparison between each other, and they just react in different ways using the same characteristics as one another.
Different theories: * Trait theory * Social learning theory * Type A V’s Type B * Situational V’s. interactional
Trait theory
The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical areas in the study of personality. The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are built up of characteristics and that each individual has different traits such as outgoing, kind; shy, aggressive and so on.
There are three levels to the trait
“Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which distinguish them from other people, making them unique but at the same time permit a comparison between individuals” (R.Gross), 1998, 21/01/2010
“Personality is the underlying relatively stable psychological structures and process that organise human experience and shape a person’s actions and reactions to the environment” (Lazarus and Mowat), 1998, 21/01/2010
Personality is made up of the individual’s characteristic and patterns of opinions, judgment, and behaviours in which make a person unique i.e. shy, outgoing, aggressive, laid back. Personality also comes from within the individual (such as their back ground or parents) and remains fairly consistent throughout life, for example a person with a very aggressive and up front personality never real changes from a young age though to old age, he may be calmer at times however in certain situations his aggressive personality will come out, i.e. on a rugby pitch. All individuals are unique to every other human, however every individual’s personality has comparison between each other, and they just react in different ways using the same characteristics as one another.
Different theories: * Trait theory * Social learning theory * Type A V’s Type B * Situational V’s. interactional
Trait theory
The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical areas in the study of personality. The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are built up of characteristics and that each individual has different traits such as outgoing, kind; shy, aggressive and so on.
There are three levels to the trait