Person, Situation, and Person-Situation Interaction in Sports

Abstract

Psychological states as the basis of human behavior can be explained by person variables, by aspects of a situation, or by the interplay between person and situation. This chapter first provides an introduction to basic psychological approaches to explaining person effects and situational influences. For this purpose, typical person and situation effects in the sports context are presented. Mostly, however, these effects work together. Therefore, assumptions about the interaction of person and situation are central to understanding sport behavior. Among other things, this allows us to draw conclusions about the consistency of behavior within a person, between persons, and across situations.