Exploring Personality Antecedents in Coach Interpersonal Styles

Matosic et al. (2015) conducted a study to examine the relationship between personality antecedents and coach interpersonal styles from a self-determination theory perspective. Often, coaches play an extremely influential role in the lives of the athletes that they are responsible for. Motosic et al. stated that coaches exert a major impact on athletes’ “well-being,” “performance,” and “motivation” (p. 1). The researchers claimed that previous research had acknowledged the influential role of coaches by studying outcomes of coach interpersonal relations, however, previous studies had failed to examine any possible antecedents associated with coach interpersonal styles. Considering this, Matosic et al. attempted to address this gap in the research literature by formulating a study that examined the relationship between a personality antecedent and coach interpersonal styles. Self-Determination Theory provided an

(2015) attempted to address the previously mentioned gap in the research literature by conducting a study that sought to demonstrate if a specific personality antecedent, narcissism, could be used to predict controlling and autonomy-supportive interactions among coaches. According to the researchers, a great deal of previous research has focused upon narcissism and found that the personality trait is frequently exhibited by those in leadership positions. Additionally, previous research has implied that narcissism could be a possible antecedent controlling interpersonal styles and behaviors among coaches since they are positioned in highly influential leadership roles. Therefore, Matosic et al. conducted a study that sought to determine the potential of narcissism being predictive of coach interpersonal behaviors. In addition to this, the researchers included measures of dominance and empathic concern in their study to determine if such variables mediated the relationship between coaches’ interpersonal styles and