Emotion related traits and their influence on sports performance: An overview
Authors: Mosley, E.
Abstract:Emotion related traits can be considered as stable characteristics that can influence the way in which individuals experience their own and others emotions. These traits fall under an umbrella term called personality-trait-like individual differences (PTLID). PTLIDs reflect psychological individual differences at the trait level but do not fall into the traditional classifications of personality such as the big five (Laborde and Allen, 2016). This phenomena is of interest in sport psychology given the need to have to regulate emotions and mange behavioural reactions when performing in demanding and pressurised environments. For example, trait emotional intelligence is considered a personality trait rather than a cognitive ability and involves self-perceptions which embrace the subjective nature of emotion (Petrides, Pita & Kokkinaki, 2007), and has been shown to facilitate coping under stress and better emotional responses to competition (Lane & Wilson, 2011). Another example is alexithymia, whereby individuals cannot identify emotions within themselves, but may experience blunted emotional responses which could aid performance in pressurised environments (Robert and Woodman, 2017). However, emotion related traits have yet to be clearly defined within current literature and consistently linked to sporting performance. Therefore, the aim of this overview is to highlight emotion related traits and discuss how they may play a role within sporting performance. Traits within this overview include: trait emotional intelligence, alexithymia, trait anger, trait emotion suppression and trait emotion regulation.
Source: Manual