Comparative study on personality amongst athletes of individual and team sports

Objective of the study is to assess the mental toughness level of the archers and shooter and to compare the mental toughness level between the two sports athletes i.e., archers and shooters. Methods: For the purpose of the study two hundred forty eight (248) athletes participate in individual sports (124) and athletes participate in team sports (124) were selected from various parts of India i.e., (R.G.U) Itanagar, Amritsar, Pune, Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Imphal, Shillong and Kohima were selected for the purpose of the study. The age of the athletes were ranged from 21 to 29 years. And to assess the personality of the athletes the Big Five Inventory Questionnaire by John, O. P. and Srivastava, S. (1999) used. The descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, std. error mean etc. was used and for the comparison between the two groups on the factor of personality the independent “t-test” was used. Results: The mean and standard deviation of the factors of personality for individual and team sports are Extraversion (24.53 ± 4.26) and (26.41 ± 4.28), Agreeableness (29.98 ± 5.47) and (31.06 ± 5.13), Conscientiousness (29.11 ± 5.14) and (29.42 ± 5.23), Neuroticism (23.81 ± 4.71) and (24.00 ± 4.70), and Openness (31.36 ± 4.78) and (34.83 ± 5.22) respectively. The “t-test” results depicts that out of all the selected factors there exists a significant difference in Extraversion (p = .001), and Openness (p = .000) as the obtain p values were less than 0.05 (p ˂ .05). This implies that in spite of similarities in nature of sports events there exists differences, or there are special requirements for participation in these sports. The existence of similarities in between individual and team sports is prevalent in Agreeableness (p = .107), Conscientiousness (p = .642) and Neuroticism (p = .746), as their obtained p values were less than 0.05 (p ˃ .05). Conclusion: The present study shows that team sports athletes are bit better in extraversion and openness than individual sports athletes and rest of the factors of personality are similar. It must be noted that the present research was solely a comparison in nature and that future studies would be needed to assess how athletes actually interpret behavior in competitive sports situations. Again additional research is needed to find out the real reason of similarities and difference exists in the present study. And elaboration of this information could be potentially useful to coaches and athletes in order to optimize the experience of participants in sport and exercise activities.