The 5th Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences - The Academic College at Wingate

Matching Sports Field According to Personality

Asaf Blatt
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Background: Matching for the several types of sports relies basically on children with extraordinary physiological and genetic characteristics, while the amount of attention that is devoted for the psychological characteristics of the individual is negligible (Abbott & Collins, 2004). Previous studies showed inconsistent findings in matching between personalities and suitable sports (Dolphin, O`Brien, Cahill & Cullen, 1980), and therefore this line of research was abandoned for years (Allen & Labrode, 2014). Recently, the Social Defense Theory (SDT) has extended the attachment theory by illustrating that each of the attachment styles - secure, avoidant and anxious – holds adaptive advantages and disadvantages which are expressed in different domains (Ein-Dor, Mikulincer, Doron, & Shaver, 2010). In a sport context, a longitudinal study that followed the official ranking of tennis players showed that players characterized with an avoidance attachment personality were more likely to achieve higher ranking since the demands of the game of tennis corresponds with their coping skills (Ein-Dor, Reizer, Shaver & Dotan, 2012).

Aims: Study 1 examined the matching of the different types of attachment style towards an individual (tennis and judo) or team sports (soccer and water-polo). Study 2 examined whether an intervention to succeed in sport improves the matching to a specific sport, even given a lesser correlation between personal style and sport.

Methods: The study included two waves of research over one year. The young athletes completed a series of self-report questionnaires measuring attachment style (ECR; Experiences in Close Relationships; Brennan, et al., 1998), extraversion–introversion dimension (BFI; Big Five Inventory; John et al., 1991), mental skills (OMSAT; The Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool; Durand-Bush, et al., 2001), persistence (Grit; Duckworth et al., 2007), and enjoyment of the sports activity (PACES; Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale; Motl et al., 2001). The coaches reported about the retirement rates and ranked the commitment, effort, and the discipline of their athletes.

Results: In study 1, according to the research hypothesis, those who scored higher on avoidance attachment personality showed a better matching towards individual sport and less success in team sports. Vice versa, the anxious and the secure attachment personalities showed a long-term success in team sports together with a deterioration over time in individual sports. However, as opposed to the hypothesis, study 2 showed that the participation in the intervention program was beneficial only for those with avoidance and anxious attachment personalities, but not for those with a secure attachment personality.

Discussion: The present study provides a significant layer of the overall picture of matching between people and sports and shows that the human personality determines a lot of success and commitment to the sport, to such an extent of creating an opposite effect in different kinds of sports.

Asaf Blatt
Asaf Blatt
Florida State University








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