In the previous articles, it has been made clear that there is a definitive relationship between personality traits and factors surrounding athletics and performance. Specifically noted have been the traits of openness (to experience) and conscientiousness, both of which are important traits for athletes in their own respective ways. This piece is going to look at another dimension of the “Big Five” personality traits – agreeableness. Now, agreeableness is going to be a lot like conscientiousness in that the standard definition of the word or root does not necessarily equate to the defining factors of the personality trait from a psychological perspective. When you hear the word, you might first be inclined to believe it has to do with a person’s tendency to agree with those around them. After all, Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word, agreeable, as, “ready or willing to agree or consent.”
Within psychology, agreeableness takes a bit of a different meaning and represents a whole lot more. The personality trait has to do a lot with an individual’s overall likability and their ability to harmonize with those around them. As such, agreeable people are typically more sociable and willing to cooperate with others. They exhibit warm and friendly behaviors and are more likely to be empathetic and trusting. There are actually 6 sub-traits within the larger trait of agreeableness: trust, altruism, modesty, sympathy, cooperation, and honesty or morality. Intuitively, a person who exhibits many of these sub-traits is a highly agreeable person, and alternatively, someone who exhibits few or none of these is low in agreeableness. A common defining factor of an agreeable person is that they place importance in getting along with others, often putting aside their own interests, opinions, and desires for the benefit of other people.
Like the other personality traits discussed in prior articles, agreeableness also has its place within athletics. Unlike some of the other traits of the Big Five, individual scores on agreeableness, assessed by personality questionnaires, do not differ between athletes and non-athletes, based on the results of some studies. There are other studies that contest this, though. This information, however, does not mean that it is an unimportant trait for athletes. One study on football rankings showed a positive correlation with agreeableness scores.1 A psychophysiological study done on taekwondo athletes also yielded some positive results, where in one aspect of the research the athletes had their electrodermal activity (EDA) measured one hour prior to competition as a measure of physiological arousal.2 The results showed that the athletes high in agreeableness had the highest pre-competition EDA activity, meaning that athletes high in the agreeableness trait might be more likely to “get up” for competition. They might be the most prepared and ready to go at game-time.
As you probably already know, it is impossible to please everyone around you. In athletics, this is even more true. It is logical to infer that if you are trying to please everyone else during competition and placing more emphasis on others around you than yourself, you might hurt your own performance. Well, there are studies to back this up, especially in high pressure scenarios. One particular study showed that agreeableness in athletes negatively correlated with decision-making, and even more so when time pressure was added.3 The goal of this study was to uncover which personality types were more likely to “choke under pressure.” The agreeable athletes were less likely to make decisions that would yield positive short-term and long-term results. This could be related to in-game scenarios. The goal of practice is often defined as to hone in skills so that they become second-nature in competition, when time could be scarce and the movements or skills necessary could be solely reactive or reflexive. The time pressured scenarios of the study were utilized to reflect these in-game situations where decisions need to be made on the fly. If the highly agreeable athletes make decisions that yield bad results in the experiment, it is believed that they will thus “choke” in high pressure situations within competition. For example, a highly agreeable quarterback under pressure might make the decision to try and squeeze a pass through instead of throwing the ball away, possibly resulting in an interception. This conclusion, obviously, requires a good deal of speculation, but it is based in sound philosophy. Someone who is high in agreeableness looks to please others. Perhaps the agreeable athlete misses out on reps at practice as a result because he spends a great deal of time helping others. The trait of agreeableness in athletes appears to have its upsides and its downsides.
Team sport athletes tend to score higher on agreeableness than do their individual sport counterparts.4 Being that the trait is a highly social one, and has a great deal to do with surrounding people, this is logical. Agreeableness is inherently part of being a team player. When playing a team sport, the individual cannot only do those things that benefits themselves. Most coaches preach the idea of “team before self”, and this obviously becomes reflected in the players’ personality traits.
It does not seem that there is a definitive answer on the place agreeableness has in athletics, but the relationships definitely exist. There are positive aspects to athletes exhibiting the trait but there are also negative ones. Taking into account an athlete’s life experiences and relationships in association with other variables allows successful determination if agreeableness will represent a major impact, and in what way. My F.A.S.T. platform allows teams to determine a trait’s impact and preventatively prepare resources to strengthen and support identified needs.
References
1. Tran, X. (2012). Football Scores on the Big Five Personality Factors across 50 States in the U.S. Journal of Sports Medicine & Doping Studies 2(6).
2. Binboga, E.; et al. (2012). Psychophysiological Responses to Competition and the Big Five Personality Traits. Journal of Human Kinetics 33:187-194.
3. Byrne, K.A.; Silasi-Mansat, C.D. & Worthy, D.A. (2015). Who chokes under pressure? The Big Five personality traits and decision-making under pressure. Personality and Individual Differences 74:22-28.
4. Nia, M.E. & Besharat, M.A. (2010). Comparison of athletes’ personality characteristics in individual and team sports. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 5:808-812.