A personality study of successful male and female athletes and professionals

The hypotheses that there would be no significant differences between successful male and female individuals in law, medicine and athletics on six selected personality traits and five socio-cultural factors were tested by administering Cattell's 16 PF Form C. and a socio-cultural questionnaire. Cattell's 16 PF data obtained from: twenty-eight male athletes, twenty-nine female athletes, twenty male professionals and twelve female professionals (professionals being lawyers and doctors), was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance. Results indicated that there were no significant differences among the four groups on the six personality traits examined: emotional stability, assertiveness, conscientiousness, tough-mindedness, self-assuredness and self-sufficiency. A Chi Square statistic was used to analyze the data from the socio-cultural questionnaire. The results indicated that there were no significant differences among the four groups on birth order, family size and culture. Significant differences were observed for athletic experience (p ≤ .00001) and educational experience (p ≤ .008). These differences, however, were anticipated as the criteria for selection of subjects was based on their achievement in athletics and education.Education, Faculty ofCurriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department ofGraduat