Can you measure character?

This is a question I get asked a lot. The easy answer is no, however there are things we can look at to develop a person for our environment and identify the right people for our environment before they join.

The first thing we need to do is define what we are looking for and what we mean when we say the word character.? Character can be defined as the “mental and moral qualities distinct to an individual”. To understand a persons character Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (Gray, 1987) can help explain how athletes respond to reward, punishment, challenge, and competition.

The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) is responsible for threat detection, caution, and anxiety regulation. The Behavioral Activation system (BAS) is responsible for goal pursuit, motivation, and reward-seeking behavior.

By assessing where an athlete falls on the BIS and BAS spectrum, we can predict their responses to training, competition, setbacks, and high-pressure situations. By understanding this model we can create a language to help us understand an athlete we are working with. When we integrate this into our coaching language we can help athletes understand themselves and you can both work together to help the athlete get into the state they need to be in for their performance.

Now that we have a language we have a framework we can use to integrate it within our environment. We can help athletes move from needing to tap into? a detailed mindset during training to a fearless mindset in games. Most importantly we can practice different mindsets for different training sessions during the training week to help players prepare for the next game.

Going back to the original question, “Can you measure character?”, I think we can but we are not measuring it to say one type of character is better than another. We are doing it with the view to help someone tap into all aspects of their own character while acknowledging we all have our own preferences.