A Study of the Relationship of Personality Development and Achievement in Junior High School Physical Education in the City of San Antonio, Texas

Author

Ada S. Clark, Prairie View A&M College

Date of Award

8-1953

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Discipline

Physical Education

Abstract

The problem of personality maladjustment in school children has interested educators for generations. Before the advent of the testing movement, teachers were compelled to rely on estimates that were generally largely subjective in nature and often even erroneous. The development of standardized. teats of intelligence achievement and personality traits, however, has provided educators more objective measuring instruments and has eliminated much of the subjective element in the evaluation of pupil achievement and personality adjustment.

Williams and Brownell¹ define a healthy personality as "not one that is perfect and free from defects, but one that is able, when difficulties occur, to adjust, to integrate its wishes, its achievements, and its failures."

The fact that personality is now considered a unity has many implications for physical education. Personality, like muscle, grows through exercise. The child must have opportunity to make a contribution, to earn recognition, not too rapidly, but at its own rate. Its personality must have opportunity for expression in relationship not only with people but in those play activities that bring satisfaction.

Physical education helps tremendously to integrate the various phases of school life thus affording the physical education teacher abundant opportunity to mould personality. Because of the nature of physical education activities and the manner in which they are taught, physical education provides laboratory experience in socialization for the pupil. The physical educator guides the timid and hesitant into activity that builds self-confidence. He helps to create much needed successes in those with inferiority feelings. Caring for equipment, participation in turnabout activities, acknowledgement of personal error, cooperation in team play, showing respect for the property of others, and the bumps of competition are in themselves, opportunities for the leadership and for the development of individual initiative that can be experienced through physical education.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between personality development and achievement in physical education. A secondary purpose was to evaluate the physical education of Douglas Junior High School in San Antonio, Texas by means of the personality ratings, and to make recommendations for any changes that may appear.

¹ Jesse F. Williams and Clifford L. Brownell, The Administration of Health and Physical Education, p. 162.

Committee Chair/Advisor

John C. Mitchem

Publisher

Prairie View A&M College

Rights

Date of Digitization

1-18-2022

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Clark, A. S. (1953). A Study of the Relationship of Personality Development and Achievement in Junior High School Physical Education in the City of San Antonio, Texas. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/947