Another one of the “Big Five” personality traits, the main traits in which psychologists consider to make up an individual’s unique personality, is that of conscientiousness. You have probably heard someone refer to an act as conscientious at some point or another.  What likely comes to mind when you think of this is that the act had another person’s, or other people’s, best interest in mind. Although part of the definition of the word, “conscientious,” is “to be fair to others,” the trait of conscientiousness is so much more than that.  The full Cambridge Dictionary American definition of “conscientious” is: “feeling a moral responsibility to do your work carefully and to be fair to others.”  Within psychology, a person’s level of conscientiousness has been described as reflecting, “an individual’s task-orientation and goal-orientation behaviors as well as their level of impulse control.” So, based off of these definitions, conscientiousness has to do with an individual’s awareness, discipline, character, integrity, and self-control.

A conscientious person, or someone who is high in the trait of conscientiousness, exhibits a number of positive and desirable personal characteristics.  Their motives and direction are typically more goal-oriented. They maintain purpose behind their actions.  Conscientious individuals tend to be ambitious as well as organized.  They are responsible, exhibit high levels of self-discipline, and research shows that high levels of conscientiousness in individuals correlates to more success.  But how does the trait of conscientiousness relate to athletics and performance?

Character is commonly credited as the number one quality coaches look for in players.  Integrity also goes hand-in-hand with character. Athletes that display a great deal of character always strive to do the right thing in all situations, step up in adverse scenarios, and continue to work hard at all times, even when no one else is looking.  Looking back to the attributes of conscientious individuals described above, we can see a lot of parallel and how the two easily relate.  Goal-oriented motives: top-level athletes are constantly playing for a purpose and trying to achieve a goal, both in practice and in competition.  Responsibility and self-discipline: coaches aren’t always around to tell players what to do and when to do it.  It takes personal responsibility and a high level of self-discipline to do what is necessary to continue competing at an elite level and to push for improvement. That means keeping up with conditioning in the off-season, taking extra reps after training to try and perfect a skill that might need some work, or even on a personal level being able to hold oneself accountable when things don’t go right instead of placing blame elsewhere.  This is the foundation necessary for athletes to continue climbing the ladder and to reach the highest level possible; what determines how high the peak will be.

Studies show, based off of the results of widely used scales and personality assessments, that athletes tend to display higher levels of certain personality traits than do their non-athlete counterparts.1  Conscientiousness is one of the biggest traits in which this is true for. Furthermore, an athlete’s level of conscientiousness has been found to be a good predictor of athletic performance. A study on football players showed exactly this, as well as another study on female NCAA Division 1 athletes.2,3  The same study revealed that conscientiousness was one of two personality traits that positively impacts coaches’ ratings of players, and that this trait was the sole predictor of positive in-game statistics.3 Conscientiousness in athletes has also been positively correlated with self-confidence, while athletes that are low scorers of conscientiousness are more likely to be described as lazy or unreliable.4  The last thing a coach wants is a lazy player, and no player wants an unreliable teammate.  Teams find themselves in tight situations all the time.  Who do you think the coach wants involved in these high-pressure, possibly game-deciding situations: the self-confident player who has been putting in the extra work to prepare for those types of scenarios or the one who is lazy and unreliable?  In fact, individuals of high-level conscientiousness have been found to handle their emotions and attention in more efficient ways.  Both high-pressure scenarios and adverse situations in sports tend to be very emotional and require immense focus and attention.  As such, it is within-reason to speculate that a player of higher conscientiousness would tend to fare better in these situations, which are often of most importance.

Differences have been found and studied in levels of conscientiousness between team-sport athletes and individual-sport athletes, as well.  What might come off as surprising, as a result of the connotation conscientiousness carries of having to do with others, is that individual-sport athletes consistently demonstrate higher levels of the trait than do team-sport athletes.5  On the surface this might sound counterintuitive, but when you relate it to the definition and associated qualities above, it begins to make more sense. Someone who is conscientious displays ambition, personal drive, high organization, and sets many personal goals. In a team sport, an athlete is more likely to have others motivating and pushing them to work hard, set goals, and better themselves.  This might not be the case so much with individual-sport athletes.  These players need that extra degree of conscientiousness instilled within them to be able to do all of these things on their own. Also, within team-sport athletes, those that display higher levels of conscientiousness are more likely to evolve as leaders and captains.5  The best way to lead is by example, so it should come as no surprise that with the positive traits that accompany it, those exhibiting high conscientiousness make the best leaders.

High levels of conscientiousness among individuals has been shown to correlate with positive outcomes across a range of scenarios and environments.  As such, it should come as no surprise that conscientiousness in athletes is a desirable trait and has a positive relationship to athletic performance and success within sports. My F.A.S.T. platform identifies players who are strong in this area, or show potential, and which environmental factors will promote positive conscientious expression.

References

1. Talyabee, S.R.; Moghadam, R.S. & Salimi, M. (2013). The investigation of personality characteristics in athlete and non-athlete students. European Journal of Experimental Biology 3(3): 254-256.

2. 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).

3. Piedmont, R. L., Hill, D. C., & Blanco, S. (1997). Predicting athletic performance using the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences27: 769-777.

4. Trninic, V., Barancic, M. & Nazor, M. (2008). The five-factor model of personality and aggressiveness in prisoners and athletes. Journal of Kinesiology 40(2):170-181.

5. 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.