Individual Differences in Movement

This book is an attempt to bridge the gap between differential psychology and human movement. It is curious that each discipline has received considerable attention in its own right but little effort has been made to cross-fertilize them. Some experimentalists view this union as the equivalent of committing academic adultery; they have tended to concentrate on general theories and models of motor control and movement, viewing individual differences as awkward and best assigned to the error variance component of an analysis. By neglecting person variables, valuable information is discarded: people do differ in terms of ability, attitude, motivation and temperament and it is hardly surprising that such differences interact with a variety of experimental and situational para­ digms. The causes and determinants of individual differences must be examined at an interdisciplinary level, incorporating studies from experimental, physio­ logical, clinical and educational psychology. This synthesis could not have been actualized by any single contributor. For this reason, a multi-authored approach has been adopted, in which 17 specialists have been assembled to present the current position of individual difference research in their respective disciplines. The authors were granted maximum freedom in their selection and present­ ation of material. What emerges is, hopefully, a novel and informative col­ lection of articles addressed to a wide audience and providing an impulse for further research.