Chapter 7.3 - Self-Talk

Question 1

What are the 3 types of self-talk?

Answer 1

• self-talk
• instructional self-talk
• motivational self-talk

Question 2

What is self-talk ?

Answer 2

• a multidimensional phenomenon concerned with athletes’ verbalizations that are addressed to themselves,
• serves both instructional & motivational

Question 3

What is instructional self-talk?

Answer 3

• speech that individuals use for skill/strategy development, skill execution, & general performance improvement
• i.e., varsity tennis players use the cue words split and turn to improve their volleying technique at the net.

Question 4

What is motivational self-talk?

Answer 4

• The overt (open) or covert (non-open) speech that individuals use for mastery, arousal control, & drive
• athletes need to change “I can’t” to “I can” and “It’s difficult for me” to “It’s a challenge for me” if they want to be more successful

Question 5

What are the 3 types of Verbalization?

Answer 5

• Inner speech
• private speech
• social speech

Question 6

What is inner speech?

Answer 6

• the subjective experience of language in the absence of overt (open) & audible articulation

Question 7

What is private speech?

Answer 7

• speech spoken to oneself for communication, self-guidance, and self-regulation of behaviour

Question 8

What is social speech?

Answer 8

• speech used with the intent to communicate

Question 9

What are the 6 dimensions of self-talk?

Answer 9

• self-determined
• Verbalization
• valance
• direction
• intensity
• frequency

Question 10

What is the self-determined dimension of self-talk?

Answer 10

• How self-talk occurs
• Assigned <————> natural; meaning it is assigned to you or you do it naturally

Question 11

What is the Verbalization dimension of self-talk?

Answer 11

• the way self-talk is verbalized by athletes
• can be internal (thinking of yourself) or external (thinking of many factors outside yourself)

Question 12

What is the valance dimension of self-talk?

Answer 12

• the content of the self-talk; is it positive or negative
• the talk you give yourself will affect the way you perform

Question 13

What is the direction dimension of self-talk?

Answer 13

• the interpretation of self-talk; interpreted as more motivating pre-competition vs pre-practice
• Positively correlated with valence dimension
• motivating or de-motivating

Question 14

What is the intensity dimension of self-talk?

Answer 14

• Self-talk’s impact on motivation
• how much effect self-talk has on athletes’ motivation regardless of direction
• influence on self-talk on motivation can be better or worse (previous dimension)
• not at all motivating or extremely motivating?

Question 15

What is the frequency dimension of self-talk?

Answer 15

• How often self-talk is used
• As self-talk frequency increases, performance & effort increases
• is it Never used or used all the time

Question 16

What is the “when” of self talk?

Answer 16

• How often do you use self-talk in relation to your sport before a practice

Question 17

What is the “what” of self-talk?

Answer 17

• What % of your self-talk is positive in nature
• What % of your self-talk is neutral in nature
• What % of your self-talk is negative in nature

Question 18

What is the “why” of self talk?

Answer 18

• How often do you say things to yourself in practice to refine an already learned skill

Question 19

What is the “how” of self talk?

Answer 19

• How often do you combine self-talk with mental imagery when using self-talk to help learn/fine-tune a skill

Question 20

What is self-talk: task instruction?

Answer 20

• Athletes use both specific & general task instructions

Question 21

What are 3 techniques to reduce harmful self-talk?

Answer 21

• Thought stopping
• Changing negative to positive thoughts
• Cognitive restructuring