Content area
Full Text
Are correspondences between personality traits and hockey positions a matter of perception rather than reality? This exploratory study assessed self-reported and ascribed characteristics in a sample of 578 male hockey players (163 defensemen, 305 forwards, and 110 goaltenders), who completed a measure of the Big-Five personality domains and then rated the extent to which they thought the traits applied to players of each position. Contrary to the "goalies are different" hypothesis, self-reported personality traits did not correlate with hockey position. There was, however, some consensus about what players of different positions are like, with forwards seen as more extroverted, disagreeable, undisciplined, and open to experience than defensemen and goalies. Overall, players rated goaltenders as the most conscientious and defensemen as the most emotionally stable. Moderating effects of participants' own position reflected systematic biases, such that players tended to accentuate the relative positive distinctiveness of their in-group. Results are interpreted with respect to perceptual processes accompanying social categorization and stereotyping.
Do hockey players possess characteristics that correspond to the position they play? Some anecdotal evidence, such as the common observation that goaltenders are a "breed apart" (Plante, 1972, p. ii) suggests that this is the case. We examined this issue from two complementary perspectives: (a) the correlation of self-reported personality traits with hockey position, and (b) the characteristics perceived to be associated with position. The latter approach views hockey positions-goaltender, defense, and forward-as social categories, and therefore subject to biased perception such as stereotyping.
Hockey Position and Self-Reported Personality
Personality and Position. Between-groups comparisons on personality dimensionsinvolving athletes and non-athletes, more and less successful athletes, and different sportsrepresent an early theme in the sport psychology literature (Van den Auweele, Ny s, Rzewnicki, & Van Mele, 2001), but there are only a handful of findings regarding the correlation between personality and position. Kircaldy's (1982) analysis of university team sports indicated, for example, that offensive players were less emotionally stable, more toughminded, and (at least for male athletes) more extraverted than less defensive players. Other studies investigated personality-position associations in baseball (Greenwood & Simpson, 1994) and football (Cox & Yoo, 1995; Schurr, Ruble, Nisbet, & Wallace, 1984), but various idiosyncrasies-different positions across sports, and different measures across studies-mean that the generalizability of these findings is unclear. Moreover,...