Autotelic personality as a predictor of engagement in sports

Abstract

Summary Study aim: The aim of the study was to empirically evaluate the structure of autotelic personality of athletes in the context of engagement under competitive conditions. Material and methods: The study examined fifty athletes (volleyball players, basketball players, track and field athletes, rugby players and mountain bikers) following competitive events. The methodologies used included NEO-FFI Personality Inventory by Costa and McCrae to determine the level of personality traits and Flow Questionnaire (Csikszentmihalyi) to measure the level of subjective feeling of the state of engagement. Results: Other significant relationships (p < 0.001) between the personality traits of athletes and the feeling of the state of engagement during competition (positive correlations of consciousness with concentration of attention on current tasks, with autotelic experiences and with transformation of the sense of time; negative correlations between neuroticism/ extroversion with unequivocal understanding of information). Conclusions: Personality traits and feeling of the state of engagement during sports competitions determine the structure of autotelic personality of athletes, which is a predicator of engagement in sport.

The autotelic involvement of attention induced by EEG neurofeedback training improves the performance of an athlete’s mind

“…Therefore, the paradigm adopted before neurofeedback-EEG training which assumed changes in autotelic engagement [2,26] in a positive direction was supported by the results of the study. The results also show that the neurofeedback-EEG training of athletes is competitive compared to the mental reinforcement of the effectiveness of athletic training using psychological methods.…”

“…A natural manifestation of this reinforcement is feedback from a person who experiences the engagement and autotelic character of the action the person performs [26]. The term 'autotelic' stems from the Greek word Auto, meaning self or self-oriented, whereas telos means 'goal'.…”

“…The term 'autotelic' stems from the Greek word Auto, meaning self or self-oriented, whereas telos means 'goal'. Therefore, autotelic activities are performed because they are rewarding in themselves [10,26]. Autotelic engagement is connected with the behavioural experiencing of perception supported by automated attention which follows the mind.…”

“…The relationships between engagement and personality [2,13,24,26], which reveal the level of autotelicity, are in a varied manner and are revealed by aspects of engagement and factors of personality. The most typical of these relationships (the autotelic personality of athletes) is the structure where common components, including conscientiousness (with a positive correlation to conscious activity), concentration on current tasks, autotelic experience, balance between abilities and challenges, a lack of confusion, the paradox of control and time transformation as well as extroversion (introversion and neuroticism) and emotional stability, are negatively correlated with an unequivocal understanding of information and clarity of goals.…”

“…The most typical of these relationships (the autotelic personality of athletes) is the structure where common components, including conscientiousness (with a positive correlation to conscious activity), concentration on current tasks, autotelic experience, balance between abilities and challenges, a lack of confusion, the paradox of control and time transformation as well as extroversion (introversion and neuroticism) and emotional stability, are negatively correlated with an unequivocal understanding of information and clarity of goals. Balanced relationships were also observed between abilities and challenges and between agreeableness and self-consciousness [1,26].…”