Actual and preferred personality characteristics of physical educators

• Published in: Psihološka obzorja Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 87 - 102
• Main Authors: Saša Cecić Erpič, Dušica Boben, Vlasta Zabukovec, Branko Škof
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slovenian Psychologists' Association 01-12-2002
• Subjects: five factor model; personality traits; physical education; teachers
• ISSN: 2350-5141; 2350-5141

The Five-Factor Model of personality, which includes dimensions energy, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness, gained a growing acceptance by personality researchers. In the present study the actual personality characteristics of physical educators and the personality profile of an ideal (according to subjective evaluations of experts) physical educator were investigated. The aim of the study was to examine differences between profiles of actual and preferred personality characteristics and to present differences in personality characteristics between male and female physical educators of different ages. The study included 76 (40 male, 36 female) 24 to 58 year-old physical educators (mean age 39.7 years). 34 experts from the field of sport, physical education, and kinesiology evaluated the preferred personality structure of an ideal physical educator. The Big Five Observer (BFO) was used to assess actual and preferred personality structures. These results show that the actual personality profile of physical educators is described with all five moderately high dimensions, which is relatively congruent with the social type from Holland's typology, characteristic of educators. In comparison with participants, an ideal physical educator should have equally expressed agreeableness, while other four dimensions should be highly expressed. Gender differences in energy and agreeableness (women have higher results in both dimensions) were found significant. No significant age differences in the personality structure were obtained by a cross-sectional comparison.