The purpose of the present research was to describe and compare the personality traits(extroversion, neuroticism, responsibility, flexibility, and sociability) of competitive athletes in individual and team sports. The method was descriptive-comparative. The population of the research consisted of all the team and individual athletes in Golestan Province who were participating in national league tournaments. The sample was selected using random sampling and by means of Morgan’s table including 130 team athletes (basketball, football, volleyball, kabaddi, Sepak takraw, handball, and hockey) and 50 individual athletes (karate, shooting, badminton, cycling, and track and field) and were evaluated and compared using the NEO Five- Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The results of statistical analysis showed that there is a significant difference between individual and team athletes in extraversion, responsibility, and neuroticism and that team athletes have higher levels of extraversion and responsibility andindividual athletes have higher neuroticism, while no significant difference was observed between the two groups in other components ( 0.05). These results will be discussed in the nature of the sports and its effect on athletes.
