Dr. Charles A Joseph

My research mainly focuses on the Personality and Emotional Competence of Athletes. Personality in Psychology is the pattern of behaviour, thought, and emotions unique to an individual, and the ways they interact to help or hinder the adjustment of a person to other people and situations. Emotional competence refers to one’s ability to express or release one’s inner feelings or emotions. It is described as an essential social skill to recognise, interpret, and respond constructively to emotions in yourself and others.

The main objective of the study is to measure the emotional competence and personality of athletes belonging to Track & Field, Volleyball, Football and Basketball. The secondary objective of the study is to compare emotional competence and personality of athletes belonging to various age groups (junior, youth and senior) in Track & Field, Volleyball, Football and Basketball. The questionnaires used for the study was (A) Eysencks’s Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQ-R) by Eysenck H. J and Eysenck S. B. G (1975) ready measures of three important personality dimensions i.e. Psychoticism, Neuroticism and Extraversion.(B) Emotional Competence by Sharma H C and Bharadwaj R (1995) which measures the five competence abilities ie, (ADF) Adequate Depth of Feeling, (AEC) Adequate Expression and Control of Emotions, (AFE) Ability to Function with Emotions, (ACPE) Ability to Cope with Problem Emotions, (EPE) Encouragement of Positive Emotions. For the purpose of this study, 960 male athletes were selected from Junior (16-18), Youth (19-21), Senior (22 year and above from Track & Field, Volleyball, Football and Basket ball. There were a minimum of 150 subjects in each sports. For each one to qualify as a subject in this study, these athletes were to participate in a minimum of single event at District level. The questionnaires were administered to the subjects by the investigator himself. The objectives and purpose of the test were made clear to the subjects for each one to understand and perform their task accordingly

The result shows that there exists a significant difference in the Personality and Emotional competence factors of various sports and age groups. For the total sample in various sports, the dominant personality factor is Extraversion followed by Neuroticism and Psychoticism. And in Emotional competence for the total sample in various sports, 57.6% of athletes belong to average competence, 22.3% belong to competent level and 20.1% of athletes belong to Incompetent level. The studies indicate that emotional competency and personality awareness will help the athletes know their psychological ability and to perform at their best.