In the field of sport psychology, self-talk did not emerge as an area of research focus until the cognitive revolution of 1970s, when researchers began to consider ways in which the thinking of athletes influenced performance and experiences in sport (Williams & Straub, 2006). That is, DES uses questions are both open-ended and “open-beginninged,” allowing participants to freely describe what, if anything, was their experience just prior to the moment of the beep. Various categories of self-talk such as self-talk valence, overtness, demands on working memory, and grammatical form have all been explored. (2014) found that for novices, instructional and motivational self-talk did not differ in their effects on throwing accuracy but motivational self-talk enhanced throwing for distance performance. System 2 self-talk involves the use of working memory and includes self-talk assigned in experimental self-talk studies, suggested by coaches, and selected by athletes for sport performance enhancement. A meta-analysis of research on instructional and motivational self-talk indicates such self-talk has a moderate beneficial effect on sport task performance (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2011). Overtness. With regard to valence, self-talk is typically categorised as positive and negative. The grid incorporates: 1) the activity, 2) the type of talk you apply (positive vs. negative), 3) the goal of which the activity is associated with, and 4) the outcome as a measureable entity. That is the self-talk that directs attention in a particular way including “bend your knees and follow through” or “you can do it!”. Perhaps to minimize the difficulties associated with measuring self-talk in situ, the majority of research on self-talk in sport settings or using sport tasks has focused on experimental studies. Unlike negative self-talk, positive self-talk applies positive encouragement (e.g., I can, I will) followed by positive reinforcement (success vs. non-success). For example, Van Raalte et al. A substantial amount of self-talk research has been dedicated to categorizing self-talk. As previously noted, self-talk is meant to serve of a guide for individuals to achieve goals and the initial approach of the goal helps set the foundation for future success. Olympic athletes have linked the use of visualization and self-talk to their “best performance ever.” This assists in simplifying the information for a more comprehensive review and assists in preventing redundant information to be presented with unfamiliar terminology. The sport-specific model of self-talk (Van Raalte et al., 2016a) offers a range of self-talk hypotheses that may be tested over the coming years by providing a conceptual schema for understanding how personal factors, behavior, and context interact with self-talk. Research testing the role of positive self-talk indicates that positive self-talk is effective in many circumstances but may not be ideal for everyone. Research surrounding self-talk revealed that not only can motivation and performance be increased, but physical feelings of strength and self-efficacy as well (Slimani & Cheour, 2016). Most of all, they must be totally believable. Van Raalte and colleagues (2000) studied competitive adult tennis players during tournament matches and found that only 1 player performed better after using positive self-talk, 2 players performed worse, and 15 players’ point outcomes were unaffected by their self-talk. Combining DES and/or elicitation interviews with assessment of neuronal brain changes via technology such as Brain TV may allow for the assessment of self-talk at the experiential and neuronal levels (Petitmengin & Lachaux, 2013). ), self-statements made by gestures, and self-statements made outside of the context of formal language. Additional research exploring the effects of self-talk of various grammatical forms in sport settings seems warranted. For example, Peters and Williams (2006) found that the self-talk of East Asian students was proportionally more negative than that of European American students on a dart-throwing task and that negative self-talk was associated with better performance for East Asians than for European Americans. Exercise 3: Positive self-talk Positive self-talk will affirm to you that you possess the skills, abilities, positive attitudes and beliefs that are the building blocks of success. Are inner speech self-report questionnaires reliable and valid? “There is robust evidence that self-talk strategies facilitate learning and enhance performance,” according to sport psychologist Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis, who … It has an important role in your success as an athlete and is essential for your recovery when you experience an injury. Self-talk focuses on positives statements. Harvey, Van Raalte, and Brewer (2002) found that positive self-talk was correlated with worse golf putting accuracy. For this reason, description, functions, and categorization of self-talk are presented in the following three sections. Defining self-talk as an “articulation of an internal position” anchors the meaning of self-talk statements within the individual and places the origin of self-talk in consciousness and information processing. Interventions such as thought stopping, thought replacement, and self-talk journaling are examples of interventions designed for the purpose of enhancing performance by making an athlete’s self-talk more positive (e.g., Ramirez & Beilock, 2011; Ziegler, 1987). I can complete each lap in 90 seconds. To that end, five key components of the sport-specific model of self-talk that are critical to self-talk interventions are described. Additional attention to measurement of self-talk will enhance understanding in this area. Although neurological approaches to measuring self-talk are promising, extant tools do not easily lend themselves to assessing self-talk during many sport performance tasks. The use of pre-performance positive self-talk in golf revealed enhanced putting performance and personal satisfaction both during and after the play. Research aimed at understanding overtness in self-talk in sport settings has not been conducted, perhaps in part due to the challenges associated with measuring covert self-talk. Anxiety such as this creates debilitative performance systems such as increased heart rate, irregular breathing, self-doubt, and lack of focus. System 1, which involves rapid, autonomous processing, involves intuition, gut feelings, and impressions, and System 2, which is typically slower, involves cognitive effort and relies on working memory. These findings may serve as impetus for future investigations specific to self-talk and sport performance. The awkwardness of writing or speaking private thoughts aloud, along with the actor-observer bias and the social desirability concerns that arise when writing or speaking self-talk aloud in the presence of others, make it likely that the self-talk identified via these methods does not fully reflect the self-talk as experienced by participants. While knowing goals are important and setting them is a good first step, it is the more complex foundation of how that goal was developed which determines the outcome. A distinction between assigned/strategic self-talk statements and self-selected/automatic self-talk statements in experimental studies is another approach to categorization (Theodorakis et al., 2012). Overall, the beneficial effects of self-talk were found to be most likely to accrue when participants were performing novel tasks and tasks that involve fine motor skills. Hatzigeorgiadis conducted a meta-analysis of 32 sport psychological studies with a total of 62 measured effects. One idea central to the sport-specific model of self-talk is that System 2 self-talk is consciously monitored and requires cognitive energy. Measures that assess self-talk focusing on the level of use include the Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS; Mahoney, Gabriel, & Perkins, 1987), the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28; Smith, Schutz, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1995), the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS; Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy, 1999, revised by Hardy, Roberts, Thomas, & Murphy, 2010), and the Athletes’ Positive and Negative Self-Talk Scale (Zourbanos, Hatzigeorgiadis, & Theodorakis, 2007). Thus, self-talk can alter the context even when it is self-directed. While there has been an extensive amount of research conducted surrounding positive vs. negative self-talk, this review is meant to assist in familiarizing oneself with the importance of performance related talk. Whether or not the goals are specific or broad, all goals are important to keep in realistic, attainable, measurable and specific. Unlike positive self-talk, negative self-talk is the use of negative words such as ‘cannot’, ‘will not’, ‘could have’, and ‘should have’. Using just two categories to identify the origin of self-talk appears to be insufficient because athletes may also pick up self-talk from teammates, the Internet, books, observing others being coached, in classes, and as part of and outside of conscious awareness. Another hypothesis that follows from the sport-specific model of self-talk is the self-talk dissonance hypothesis, which predicts that System 2 self-talk that conflicts with System 1 gut feelings and impressions is likely to deplete cognitive resources and have a detrimental effect on performance. With regard to self-talk, such research typically involved questionnaires that included items designed to determine how much self-talk was used and how effective the self-talk was perceived to be as an intervention strategy. This may assist in personal development for future performance. Self-talk may also be mouthed but not spoken aloud (Van Raalte et al., 2016a). This is where the concept of ‘self-talk’ becomes progressively more relevant. Research exploring neurological aspects of self-talk has shown that some participants (17%) who are at rest while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) report that self-talk is their dominant mental activity (Delamillieure et al., 2010). Lastly, this article will look at a real-time application of self-talk for sport. Results from Hatzigeorgiadis & Biddle (2008) have shown that positive self-talk help to mitigate pre-performance anxiety and can be used a predictor of negative self-talk. Self-talk is considered to be self-regulatory in that self-talk can be intentionally used to direct attentional focus, enhance confidence, serve to regulate effort, control emotional and cognitive reactions, and facilitate automatic execution (Theodorakis et al., 2008). In sport psychology, the cognitive revolution of the 1970s led researchers and practitioners to explore the ways in which self-talk affects performance. Valence refers to the emotional tone of a self-talk statement. Although such studies highlight the benefit of self-talk, research designs that include self-talk as part of a psychological skills intervention make it difficult to determine the unique effects of self-talk on sport performance. Self-Talk and Culture. In this way it is like building muscle; the more you do it the stronger you get. In their research, individuals with high self-esteem benefited from the use of positive self-talk, whereas individuals with low self-esteem who used positive self-talk reported feeling worse. Negative self-talk increases motivation and performance in some circumstances but is generally detrimental to sport performance. Self-talk tends to vary over the course of a contest, and it can be difficult for athletes to accurately recall. THEORY: Positive self-talk relates to the ability to overcome negative thinking. Application of self-talk has been based heavily on intuitive ideas around the value of “positive” self-talk rather than on the most up-to-date research and theory. Positive Self-talk. With respect to team culture, research has demonstrated that common acceptance of self-talk use as a performance strategy within a team leads to greater use of self-talk (Hardy & Hall, 2006) and that coach behaviors influence the types of self-talk used by their athletes (Conroy & Coatsworth, 2007; Theodorakis et al., 2012). Elaborating on this idea, they suggest that one of the functions of self-talk is to express intuitions, feelings, and other non-verbal thoughts (System 1) in a verbal, syntactically recognizable way. Such a definition also allows for self-talk to be distinguished from other cognitive, behavioral, and communicative phenomena that overlap with, but are distinct from, self-talk. Indeed, recent advances in the definition, theory, and measurement of self-talk present the possibility that self-talk could play an important role in moving the sport psychology literature forward. Thus, progress with regard to definition, measurement, and theory will provide the foundation for future developments in the field. The purpose of this grid is to provide a visual measure of success to draw from in future performance. In the area of definition, movement toward a commonly accepted understanding of what self-talk is and what it is not will streamline the research literature and open new doors in the areas of self-talk theory and measurement. Self-talk can be: positive – for example, 'I can run faster' or 'I will take this shot' negative – for example, 'I'm no good at running' or 'I'll probably miss the goal' Self-talk is defined as the expression of a syntactically recognizable internal position in which the sender of the message is also the intended received. Keywords: self-talk,competition,elite athletes Finally, if Vygotsky’s theories about the internalization of culture as inner speech are taken into account, gaining insight into how context influences the structure, use, and meaning of self-talk are importantly linked with both team climate and culture more broadly defined. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Effective use of self-talk can improve your performance by helping you regulate your feelings, thoughts, and energy about those events. View. Positive self-talk has shown to improve performance not only during and after activity, but also has shown to be a positive predictor of future performance satisfaction. Questionnaires have allowed researchers to measure typical or “trait” self-talk. Positive Self-Talk in Sports Psychology We Can Use In Everyday Life. With regard to pronouns, the use of the collective pronoun “we” as in “we can do it,” relative to the use of the pronoun “I,” has been shown to enhance self-efficacy and performance on a sport task (Son et al., 2011). In his review of self-talk definitions, Hardy (2006) pointed to definitions like “self-talk can be manifested as a word, a thought, a smile, or a frown” (Chroni, 1997) and “anytime you think about something you are in a sense talking to yourself” (Bunker, Williams, & Zinsser, 1993) as being too broad to provide clarity for researchers and practitioners. Positive self-talk can help in supporting the cognitive abilities within our minds and a mind with a positive attitude will be more stable, balanced, and will provide you with a better chance of succeeding in the event. Finally, interventions including self-talk training were more effective than those not including self-talk training. Given the important place held by self-talk in the practice of applied sport psychology, it is not surprising that self-talk is a well-studied phenomenon. Thus, it is difficult to determine if the self-report measured by questionnaires is a valid reflection of athletes’ actual experiences as some self-talk scales are uncorrelated with open-ended self-reports of inner speech and there are only weak correlations among various self-talk measures and their subscales (Uttl, Morin, & Hamper, 2011). Whereas using the word ‘could’ is the first step in casting doubt which, in turn, may produce lower performance. Some researchers have used fMRI and other brain assessment tools to examine brain function and self-talk, but current brain imaging technology does not lend itself to use in sport settings. Self-talk continues to be an important element of applied sport psychology included in psychology skills training (PST) programs and as part of the sport psychology canon (Andersen, 2009; Theodorakis, Hatzigeorgiadis, & Zourbanos, 2012). He suggested that inner speech develops and becomes the medium of consciousness as children internalize culture and meaning in the form of language. This has been backed by both athletes themselves and more recently, sport scientific research. Negative Statement – “I’m afraid.” Positive Statement – “I’m courageous and … That is, although self-talk by definition is directed toward the self, when overheard by a competitor, fan, or other person, self-talk may influence perceptions and future interactions (Van Raalte, Brewer, Cornelius, & Petitpas, 2006). The stronger you get performance tasks typical or “ trait ” self-talk effects of self-talk of various grammatical in. 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