More and more research reports assert that sport experience has an influence on shaping the personality of athletes. This paper aims at validating the connection between personality and sport experience. The research subject of were young Polish male athletes (N = 1,260) aged 20–29, out of 42 sports disciplines, with sport experience ranging from 3 to 12 years. In order to test the personality of the research subjects, a five-factor model of personality called the Big Five was applied. Statistical calculations and analyses were carried out with ver. 25 of the IBM SPSS Statistics software. The research has shown that all personality traits correlate in a statistically significant way with sport experience (p < 0.001): there is a negative correlation of sports experience with neuroticism and a positive correlation with traits such as extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Thus, we have identified a relationship between sport experience and personality traits of the researched Polish male athletes—the longer the sport experience, the lower level of neuroticism and higher levels of extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Duration of sport experience has a considerable influence on forming the personality of Polish male athletes. However, the interpretation of just the results regarding high level of extraversion and conscientiousness distinguishes Polish male athletes (20–29 years old) from the Polish male population of non-training people.

Research on personality in sport is very popular as it allows prediction of the behavior of players in the starting situation. Hence, verifications of players due to their sports level may turn out to be crucial. Due to the dynamic development of American football in Poland, we undertook research to verify the relationship between the sports level and the personality of these players. The Big Five personality study that we carried out involved players aged from 20 to 29—the representatives of American football clubs in Poland (N = 140) from three league games levels: LFA 1 (n = 75), LFA 2 (n = 40), and LFA 9 (n = 25). The NEO-FFI personality questionnaire was used as a research tool. The players from the top-level games were characterized by their openness to experience, the level of which decreases along with the decrease in the players’ sports levels. The differences in openness to experience were revealed, first of all, in divergent thinking and creativity. It was ascertained that openness to experience is a characteristic personality trait for American football players in Poland. Therefore, systematic conduct of personality tests among American football players in Poland, in the process of selecting candidates for the highest levels of football competition, would be recommended. This might significantly affect the development of the sports level of this discipline in Poland. The obtained results of research on personality may, moreover, prove to be useful in selecting players and improving the predictions of important sports behaviors in American football in Poland.

This article is a continuation of the research on personality in combat sports in karate. The authors’ goal was to verify the relationship between personality and age of kyokushin karate practitioners. The male national team of Ukraine in karate kyokushin (N = 7) participated in the personality study with the use of the Big Five model. The NEO-FFI (NEO Five-Factor Inventory) Personality Questionnaire was applied as a research tool and the package of statistical methods IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 (IBM Polska, Warszawa, Poland) was used to compute the research results. The study showed that there were differences in the intensity of openness to experiences between individual samples only at the level of the statistical trend. Masters showed a higher level of openness to experiences in relation to juniors (p = 0.081) and seniors (p = 0.097). Also, a negative and strong correlation between the intensity of neuroticism and conscientiousness among the respondents was noted. A conclusion was drawn that, with age, karatekas probably manifest greater openness to experience, which is the result of their sports experience, high sports level and pro-health values of karate. On the other hand, good emotional adaptation of karatekas is strictly related to conscientiousness.

A noticeably increased interest in mountain climbing, both as the form of extreme sport and a form of tourism, has been observed in Poland recently. The assumption of this study is that practicing different varieties of mountaineering influences the personality of Polish climbers in a different manner. The aim of the research was to compare the personality differences of Polish mountaineers. To this aim, the population of Polish high-performance mountaineers was studied (N = 81; including 39 women and 42 men). Due to the type of mountaineering practiced, the respondents were divided into Alpine climbers (n = 48) and Himalayan climbers (n = 33). The average age of the surveyed climbers is 33.85 years. The Big Five model was used including the NEO-FFI Personality Questionnaire and the analyzes were performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics statistical method package, version 27.0. Statistically significant differences were noted only for agreeableness F(1.77) = 5.05, p = 0.027. The Alpine climbers showed a higher level of agreeableness than the Himalayan climbers. After taking into account the Sidak amendment, significant differences in the level of agreeableness were found only among women. Comparisons between other personality traits were not statistically significant. There is a significant difference between the personalities of Polish Alpine climbers and Polish Himalayan climbers in the dimension of agreeableness only among women: female Alpine mountaineers are more agreeable than Himalayan mountaineers. It was presumed that in terms of ethics in the high mountains, the social competences of Alpine mountaineers are much more developed than that of Himalayan mountaineers.

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