Allocentric versus Psychocentric
Alice Kahrs
Allocentric and psychocentric are personality types that will determine not only how a person participates in sport and recreation, but also his or her stance on participation in life. Stanley Plog developed a model of allocentricity and psychocentricity for the tourism industry in 1972. He presented these two personality traits as the opposite ends of a continuum of traits. Psychocentric refers to people who are nervous, not adventurous, self-inhabited, and like structure. On the other end of the spectrum are those who are allocentric, or outgoing, curious, self-confident explorers. Applying this model to sports, psychocentric participants are those who look for structured sports with rules, little risk, and someone to ...