Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate temperament features of students of the School of Physical Education and Sports. The design was by "Personal Information Form" developed by researchers and Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego – Auto questionnaire (TEMPS-A) Scale developed by Akiskal et al. (1997) were used in this general screening study. The sample group was consisted of a total of 200 volunteers (72 female participants and 128 male participants) studying at Teaching Department, Sports Management Department and Recreation Department of the school. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.0 was used to assess the data. Data were summarized in means and standard deviations. One–Sample Kolmogorov–Simirnov test was used to determine normal distribution. Error threshold was accepted as 0.05. The results show the ratio of dominant affective temperaments (8%) in a specific sample without any psychiatric disorders which was found to be similar to those reported in literature. Cyclothymic and anxious temperament was significantly more common in sportswomen. Hyperthymic temperament including leadership features were more common in sports players compared to the general society. Conclusively, defining the temperamental nature of sportsmen might help predicting how they relate to their team members, improving sportive performance and making them psychologically more stable.

Key words: Cyclothymic disorder, temperament, occupation, psychology, leadership.