Personality
Personality is different characteristics that make a person unique.
Personality trait theory
Trait theory suggests that we are born with certain characteristics and no one can change them, those characteristics will be with you for the whole life. Characteristics are consistent across varied situations. Hans Eysenck (1968) argued that traits can be grouped on two continuum; Extrovert-Introvert and stable Neurotic. This puts people into different categories and tells how they usually behave .
People who are extrovert are more outgoing, sociable, become aroused more slowly than introverts. Introvert are usually opposite of extroverts. They are shy and reserved, they prefer to be isolated from others, become aroused more quickly than extroverts. Neurotic people experience high degrees of dress, they recover slowly from stress and their moods are unreliable. Stable people are opposite to Neurotic, they display predictable emotions in appropriate situation, their moods are predictable and they tend not to experience intense stress; recovery from stress is rapid. An example of this would be when my athlete is always encouraging his players in the world and the IPL regardless of the situation he is in. He is calm throughout the match and supporting all the players unlike other captains who get aggressive and start scream at their team mates.
Social learning theory (situational approach)
Social learning theory is also known as situational theory. This theory is opposite to Trait Theory, it suggests that you are who you were brought up to be and won't remain the same for all of your life. Developed by Albert Bandura (1977) the theory argues that behaviour is a product of modelling and feedback. An example of this would be De Villiers learning to behave calm with his players from someone else and understands that if he behaves in a good way this would encourage his team mates to perform better even though they are losing or close to the target. During the world cup South Africa were far from the target score but at the end when they lost De Villiers didn't blame any of the players for losing the match. This would be because he may have seen other team captain do it and it may creative a positive environment for the other players.
Situational Approach
Situational theory is different from trait theories as it tells how a person responds in various situations. An example of this would be De Villiers not screaming at players when they miss a catch or let the ball roll for 4's. Where as other team captains would blame the people who missed the catches in the game and say they lost the match because of those players, De Villiers would rather be really calm and encourage the players by saying well tried. As a wicket keeper if the ball goes wide or no ball he wouldn't be aggressive and say 'ball properly' he'll instead tell them to be relaxed so they can be focused.
Interactional Approach
This theory is a mixture of the Trait Theory and Situational theory. Bowers (1973) states that the person and situation offers twice as much predictive power on behaviour as Traits and Situations alone. An example of this would be De Villiers making his players practice really hard before they go into the world cup as South Africa haven't won any trophy till yet; this allows the players to work more hard and work more competitively in the world cup. AB De Villiers becomes really competitive during the world cup but does not blame the players for losing the match or does not get angry and frustrated during the match.
Type A and Type B Personalities
Friedman and Rosenman (1959) developed a questionnaire to identify people who were prone to stress-related illness.
After the questionnaire people were put into 2 categories Type A and Type B. Type A people are competitive, achievement orientated, aggressive, highly stressed and are like control where as Type B people are less competitive, more relaxed, delegators, and have less stress level. My athlete fits into both categories because he is competitive as well as more relaxed and calm.
Marten's Schematic
Marten's Schematic view shows that personality has three different levels and they all are related to each other:
- Role-related behavior
- Typical responses
- Psychological core
Your role-related behavior is often insistent by the circumstances you find yourself in, this is the most changeable outlook of personality. A person's personality changes as the intuition of your environment changes. An example of this would be when De Villiers is the captain for his team in the Cricket World Cup and he gives instructions to his team mates to follow, where as in the IPL someone else is the captain and he needs to follow the instructions he is being given because there are different players in the IPL team and he may not understand the players.
The psychological core is called 'the real you'. This is the part of you that contains your values, interests, attitude; these aspects are constant, they can't be changed. An example of this would be how Ab De Villiers talks to his team after the match or during the match, there is a lot of pressure during the match which will make him act the way he is and his attitude, value and interest will be the same in the match as there is a lot of competition and he wants to win the match.
Typical responses are the way you respond to the people around you or the way you respond to in different situations. An example of this would be when South Africa had to get players from the other team and they kept missing easy catches, some captains would really get angry in these situations but De Villiers kept calm encouraging them that they can get them out next time. Even though it was a really close match De Villiers didn't blame other players for dropping the catch. Typical responses are often seen as good indicators of your psychological core.
Effects on training and performance:
A athletes personality tells how they are and how they reach when they are in a certain situation. Ab De Villiers is a positive captain, he does not let his team members feel that they've done something wrong in the match; if his team succeeds than it's the whole team work not just one players work. During training his behavior and attitude towards the sport is constant, whilst playing the match he is more calm and where as in training he helps his team members work on their weaknesses as well as his weaknesses so they don't lose the match. During the world cup, South Africa made it to Semi-finals, this may have encouraged the captain to focus on their fielding and work better on their skills so in the next world cup they are a strong team.
