Principles of Self-Talk in Sport Settings: Theory, Research, and Practice

By: Jordan Thibodeaux and Judy L. Van Raalte and Yani Dickens

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Synopsis: This book examines the theory and practice of self-talk in sports performance, with a special emphasis on approaches that move beyond linear, cognitively-focused understandings of self-talk. Self-talk generally begins when children are 2-3 years of age and continues into adulthood, as people talk to themselves both internally and out loud. Self-talk has drawn the interest of sport psychology professionals, researchers, athletes, and coaches who are eager to understand the origins and correlates of self-talk, how self-talk affects them, and how self-talk can be used to enhance sport performance. Starting from a strong theoretical foundation and addressing self-talk in sport myths, this volume moves on to one of the greatest challenges in sport self-talk literature, the crisis of validity of self-talk measurement tools, and provides direction and examples of valid and reliable tools for sport self-talk research. Chapters bring together authors from diverse theoretical backgrounds and fields, and offer tools for coaches and mental health providers to measure self-talk, and examine different approaches to self-talk, including ecological and embodied cognition, and draw important links between self-talk and other areas of cognitive functioning, such as emotion regulation.