Self-talk in Sport
About this ebook
There is a general need for concrete interventions in sport, exercise, and performance psychology. In addition, the autonomous functioning of people is a central aim of psychological interventions that align with positive psychology and focus on people’s strengths rather than weaknesses. In this volume, researchers and applied practitioners are shown how they can use self-talk interventions to strengthen people’s rational self-regulation in order to deal with a variety of situations that apply to both sport and other exercise and performance contexts.
Since self-talk is a tangible result of cognitive processes and inner experiences that researchers and applied practitioners can barely access, Self-talk in Sport is a tool for sports psychologists to understand and interact with hidden parts within athletes that have a major impact on sport and exercise experiences and performance. A book demonstrating the diverse – both rational and irrational identities – of self-talk, as well as specific interventions to change the inner dialogue of athletes, is a fundamental piece in the education of sport scientists.
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About the author
Alexander T. Latinjak is a senior lecturer and the course leader of the BSc (Hons) Sport and Performance Psychology at the University of Suffolk, and visiting researcher at the EUSES Schools of Health and Sports Sciences in Catalonia. Although Alexander wrote his dissertation on strategic self-talk interventions for tennis players, he has recently been more intensively involved in the study of spontaneous and goal-directed self-talk. His research led to the design of a reflexive self-talk intervention and the development of a conceptualisation of self-talk based on the distinction between organic and strategic self-talk.
Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis is a professor at the Department of Physical Education and Sport Science at the University of Thessaly, and director of the postgraduate programme Psychology of Physical Education and Sport. His main research interest has been self-talk, on which he has authored more than 35 articles and six book chapters. He is Associate Editor at Sport, Exercise and Sport Psychology, and has served as member of the managing council of the European Federation of Sport and Exercise Psychology for 12 years.
