Analyzing Athlete Selection Through TAIS Results
PSY FPX 8841 Assessment 2 Professional sports clubs spend considerable resources scouting and choosing athletes that best suit their team chemistry. There are numerous tools used to determine athletes’ mental, physical, and emotional characteristics, and generate comparative information to use for further analysis. This essay examines the outcome of a TAIS Inventory report on an athlete in consideration for draft by management of a team. It explores some of the subcategories of the report, including awareness, distractibility, and self-recognition, comparing test levels against world champion standards and interpreting findings.
The TAIS Inventory
The Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) Inventory is a 144-item self-report questionnaire that measures 20 concentration skills and personality traits (Nideffer, 1990). With the use of this instrument, researchers and sport analysts are able to access the psychological profiles of athletes, catching glimpses of their potential for elite or champion-level performance. Despite some critics arguing its theoretical foundation, research suggests a high correlation between cognitive processes, emotional arousal, and competitive performance (Nideffer, 1990).
PSY FPX 8841 Assessment 2 Analyzing TAIS Results
The TAIS assesses distractibility and awareness, which are major determinants that affect professional and elite athletes (Vealy et al., 2017). It also assesses internal and external distractibility, establishing susceptibility to internal emotional distractions and external distractions. The awareness assesses an individual’s sensitivity to non-verbal emotional cues and how they attend to detail in their sporting environment. Other factors include expression, introversion/extroversion, and analytical attention, which assist in determining well-rounded applicants for sports teams.
Analyzing Athlete’s Results
PSY FPX 8841 Assessment 2 Andrew Athlete’s scores on the TAIS Inventory are given as percentiles relative to a standard group norm and world champion athletes. Interestingly, his self-confidence score is low at 23%, whereas his self-critical score is extremely high at 98%. These extremes are not conducive to an athlete’s performance, well below the average norm and the World Champion Range (WCR). Andrew’s extremely high internal and external distractibility, both more than 30% above the WCR, are concerning for potential teams. His distractibility is in line with his confidence and criticism of himself and indicates significant hindrances for sports success.
Besides, Andrew’s physical competitiveness of 39% is below average norm and the competitive range of WAR at 61%. Coupled with his high anger expression and criticism rate (94%), observers may anticipate pugnacious reactions to criticism. Nevertheless, his even introversion (44%) and extroversion (54%) portend space for learning and skill mastery without being overpowering.
Conclusion
While Andrew Athlete possesses competitive competencies and a pleasant personality, his TAIS Inventory results doubt whether he is ready for elite sports. His inability to think critically in situations where intellectual competence exists, and his coping styles, doubt whether he is ready for elite competition.
References
Jago, A., & Pain, M. (1998). Creating interventions for athletes based on TAIS and PDS scores. Journal of Sports Psychology, 25(3), 30-39.
Nideffer, R.M. (1990). Use of the test of attentional and interpersonal style (TAIS) in sport. The Sport Psychologist, 4(3), 285-300.
Nideffer, R. (2007). The attention and interpersonal style (TAIS) inventory. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Multi-Health Systems, Inc.
PSY FPX 8841 Assessment 2 Analyzing TAIS Results
Vallerand, R. (2003). Attention and decision making: A test of the predictive validity of the test of attention and interpersonal style (TAIS) in a sports setting. Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychology, 5(4), 449-459.
Vealy, R., Cooley, R., Nilsson, E., Block, C., & Galli, N. (2017). [Title of the article]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Page Range.
