Big five personality as a part of talent detection: A review

Abstract

The harnessing of Talent is one of the significant challenges in sports. Talent detection is a preliminary step within the Talent Identification and Development Model, where the discovery of potential children who are not currently involved in sports is made. The sieving of children towards the talent selection process is determined by batteries consisting of anthropometry, physical performance, and motor abilities. Many researchers have pointed out the importance and lack of checking psychological parameters at the talent detection stage. The assessment of a child's psychological parameters at this stage must be scientific, grounded, and suitable for the child-teacher-parent environment. Big Five Traits provides such an opportunity. This paper discusses the viability of testing Big Five Personality Traits as a part of Talent Detection. The components of the Big Five Personality are Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN). These traits have shown agreeable correlations with sports participation and performance. The paper discusses the feasibility of using this model at the Talent Detection stage and assesses the recent assessment tools of the Big Five traits, such as pictorial personality tests, which the child himself/herself can undergo with ease. This multidisciplinary approach to the talent detection stage allows sports educationists/coaches and physical education teachers to devise a better model to discover a better talent pool of children for sports who may be both physically and psychologically apt.