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

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.