AUTHOR(S): Chandan Preet and Shruti Shourie

ABSTRACT:
Aiming sports are assumed to be sensitive to stress and pressure demanding effective coping for competitive excellence. Previous research has revealed that personality may affect coping selection in a direct way by restricting or assisting the use of specific coping strategies or in an indirect way by influencing the nature and appraisal of the stressor experienced or coping effectiveness. Surprisingly, little is known about the influence of personality on appraisal and coping with stressor specifically in aiming sport and in sport, in general. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of personality on the appraisal process, coping and perceived effectiveness among 200 national level athletes (male n = 100, female n = 100) aged between 16 and 25 years (mean = 20.43, SD = 3.03) from a variety of aiming sports. Results revealed that personality influenced coping selection, coping effectiveness, and the intensity of the stressor experienced and perceived control, but not the type of stressor reported. Findings indicated that higher level of neuroticism was associated with lower extraversion, conscientiousness, decreased perception of stress control and lower use of problem-focused coping and lower level of neuroticism was associated with higher intensity of stress experienced and higher use of emotion-focused coping. Higher level of neuroticism was also associated negatively with the effectiveness of useful coping strategies. The other four personality dimensions were associated with the usage and effectiveness of more adaptive coping strategies. Therefore, the present study revealed that personality affects coping selection directly and influences the appraisal process, coping and coping effectiveness.

Pages: 544-550  |  977 Views  140 Downloads