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Personality traits of national representative swimmers : Canada 1962

University of British Columbia

The study was an investigation of the personality characteristics of a group of champion swimmers. Thirty-five subjects were divided into two groups, "selected" and "non-selected" champion swimmers. Selection refers to the team named to represent Canada at the VIIth British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, 1962. Two problems were examined. First, whether or not the champion swimmers employed in this study differed, as a group, from the mean group score of the average general population in any of the sixteen personality factors measured by the test instrument. Second, whether or not there was a difference between the selected and non-selected champion swimmers in the personality areas measured by the test instrument. The writer administered the Cattell "Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire" to each of the subjects under standard conditions. This test involved the answering of 374 questions by each subject of the particular test form used by the writer. The subjects did the test only once. The results indicated that the subjects, as a group showed differences from the average population in fifteen of the sixteen factor areas. Only in one factor was the difference between the populations not significant. There appeared to be no significant differences in personality between the groups of selected and non-selected champion swimmers. Individual descriptions of the personalities of members of the selected swimmers group were shown using graphic profiles. The results agree with earlier studies which showed that champion athletes apparently possess marked extremes in personality factor scores.

Text

2011-10-28

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38390

Physical Education

University of British Columbia

Graduate