Disposition is a term developed and used in the
human psychology clinical and research literatures to
refer to “any (hypothesized) organized and enduring part
of the total or psychophysiology organization in virtue of
which a person is likely to respond to certain
stable conditions with a certain kind of behavior”
(English & English, 1958, p. 158). As is evident from this
definition, a disposition was conceived to be internal to
the actor and exhibited in a relatively consistent behavioral
manner across a range of contexts. The construct
itself was primarily developed to account for the similarity
in behavior that individuals tend to exhibit across a
variety of similar situations (e.g., an individual high in the
disposition identified as need for achievement would
exhibit achievement-oriented and achievement-striving
behavior across many/most achievement contexts).
The early research on dispositions in the sport and
exercise psychology literature focused largely on traits,
defined as individual difference factors that would predispose
a person to respond in a particular way. One
particularly popular example from this early research
focused on the study of competitive trait anxiety,
defined as an acquired behavioral tendency or predisposition
to perceive competitive situations (e.g., sport
performance) as threatening and to respond with disproportionate
levels of state anxiety and arousal (see anxiety). Similar other dispositions or traits that
were examined as potential correlates or predictors of
behavior and affective reactions in sport as well as in
exercise psychology were trait sport (or exercise) selfconfidence,
and need for achievement (or the achievement
motive).
More recent research in the sport and exercise psychology
field has conceptualized and investigated personal
dispositions as cognitive, affective, or emotional
mindsets that predispose one to behave or react in
achievement contexts in consistent or predicted ways.
Examples of such mindsets include Dweck’s (1999)
implicit theories of ability, which hypothesizes that
individuals either hold a fixed mindset regarding a specific
human trait or ability (e.g., intelligence, sport
competence) or an incremental mindset. A fixed mindset
regarding intelligence or sport competence predisposes
individuals to believe that their competencies in
those areas cannot be changed with practice or effort
while an incremental mindset is associated with the
belief that level of competence can be improved with
practice and persistence. Such differential ability perceptions
affect how individuals will approach engagement
in different types of tasks (e.g., learning a new
sport) and how they will react to initial failure or success
in that context. Related cognitive, affective, and
emotional mindsets currently under investigation in the
sport and physical activity research literature include:
attributional style, achievement goal orientation, and
coping approaches (Weinberg & Gould, 2015).
