Personality and motivation of top athletes

• Main Authors: Tanja Kajtna, Matej Tušak, Otmar Kugovnik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slovenian Psychologists' Association 2003-04-01
• Series: Psihološka Obzorja
• Subjects: personality structure; motivation; state anxiety; trait anxiety; top athletes; gender
• Online Access: http://psiholoska-obzorja.si/arhiv_clanki/2003_1/kajtna_et_al.pdf

The research investigated the differences in personality structure and the motivational structure of top athletes and athletes and male and female athletes, and we also looked for the interactive effect of sport success and gender. We also investigated anxiety in the mentioned groups. We gathered the results from 385 athletes, divided into two groups according to their success. World class athletes and international class athletes, as categorized according to the Slovenian Olympic committee, were assigned to "top athletes" group, whereas those with the perspective, national and youth class were assigned to the group of "athletes". We found no effect of sport success in the personality structure and anxiety, while we found that successful athletes are more competitive, have stronger win orientation, stronger need for power and stronger need for success and are more self – motivated. Differences between male and female athletes have demonstrated themselves to be significant in all three investigated areas – female athletes are more failure avoidant in the motivational scope of our investigation, express a higher level of state and trait anxiety than male athletes, and are less emotionally stable and are more agreeable as far as personality is concerned. We found no interactive effect of sport success and sex in any of the investigated areas.