A comparative investigation of certain factors of the personality of interscholastic football players and a control group

Problem: The aim of thia investigation was to try to ascertain, by means of paper and pencil examinations, any psychological personality differences between Interscholastic football players and a control group. The Instrument used in this study was the Guilford-Martin Personality Inventory, which measures certain factors of personality. Procedure: After obtaining the approval of the authorities of the Houston Public School System, four of the senior high schools in the City of Houston were selected as examination centers. At each of these schools, the Guilford-Martin Personality Inventory was administered to the football players and also to a random sampling of male students. The latter served as a control group in this investigation. The raw scores obtained from the examination of the two groups were treated by standard statistical procedures and converted into meaningful Indices. Next, the scores of the two groups were evaluated in relationship to one another in order to determine if there were any significant personality differences between the experimental and the control groups. Conclusions: This study brought out two highly significant psychological personality differences: one, that football players are more socially introverted than average male students; and two, that football players are much higher in "rhathymia" than average male students.Psychology, Department o