The Content of Goal-Directed Self-Talk in Volitional Processes
Abstract
Abstract. The purpose of this study was to examine the content of goal-directed self-talk in volitional processes. To this end, 96 athletes completed a computerized booklet on goal-directed self-talk that they used when they were in a state of demotivation. Using qualitative analyses, we classified the text units firstly deductively in seven primary categories of goal-directed self-talk and secondly inductively into secondary categories for the primary category “creating positive attitudes for the future.” Overall, athletes in a state of demotivation use mainly goal-directed self-talk to create positive attitudes for the future, to control cognitions and behavior, and to create activated states. Furthermore, self-talk to create positive attitudes for the future includes self-talk statements aimed at upregulating confidence, motivational regulation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, and goal orientation, both task- and ego-oriented. The results may contribute to a better theoretical understanding of how goal-directed self-talk is related to athletes’ volitional processes.
Zusammenfassung. Das Ziel dieser Studie war es den Inhalt von zielgerichtetem Self-talk in volitionalen Prozessen zu untersuchen. Dafür haben 96 Athlet_innen auf einem Tablet ihren Self-talk wiedergegeben, den sie in einem Zustand der Demotivation hatten. Die Self-talk Statements wurden mit qualitativen Methoden deduktiv in die sieben Kategorien des zielgerichteten Self-talks eingeteilt. Zudem wurden die Statements der Kategorie „Erzeugung einer positiven Einstellung für die Zukunft“ induktiv klassifiziert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Athlet_innen in einem Zustand der Demotivation Self-talk hauptsächlich verwenden, um eine positive Einstellung für die Zukunft zu erzeugen, Kognitionen und Verhalten zu kontrollieren, und aktivierte Zustände zu kreieren. Weiterhin beinhaltet der Self-talk zur Erzeugung einer positiven Einstellung für die Zukunft Statements zur Erhöhung des Selbstbewusstseins, zur Regulation der intrinsischen sowie extrinsischen Motivation und zur Regulation der ego-orientierten sowie aufgabenorientierten Zielorientierung. Die Ergebnisse können zu einem besseren theoretischen Verständnis des Zusammenhanges zwischen zielgerichtetem Self-talk und volitionalen Prozessen von Athlet_innen beitragen.
Volitional processes are important for initiating as well as maintaining goal-directed behavior (Baumeister et al., 2007; Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994). While motivational processes are usually defined to focus on how intentions of goal-directed behavior are formed (Ajzen, 1991), volitional processes are relevant in the execution of goal-oriented behavior (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994). This distinction is important because internal (e. g., dissatisfaction with one’s own performance) and external (e. g., poor performance of team members) reasons can endanger the realization of one’s intention, which underlines the importance of self-regulation in such situations (Englert & Bertrams, 2020).
Since athletes pursue goal-directed behavior in sports, it is not surprising that volitional processes are associated with successful sports performance (Englert, 2016). In particular, studies have shown that volitional processes are important for regulating attention (Gröpel, 2016), controlling emotions (Wagstaff, 2014), or coping with exhaustion (Englert & Wolff, 2015). Based on action control theory (Kuhl, 1983), research on volitional processes within the sport context has typically distinguished between an action orientation, in which athletes try to focus on the actions necessary to achieve their goals, and a state orientation, in which athletes linger on the reasons for not achieving their goals. Although in general an action orientation seems to be beneficial for sports performance, it has been emphasized that the influence of the type of orientation depends on the demands of the sport (Beckmann & Elbe, 2006).
The focus of this study is on self-talk, which is a construct that has gained attention in sport psychology in recent years and seems to have a close link with volitional processes (Thelwell & Greenlees, 2003). The growing literature on self-talk – referring to what athletes say to themselves – has led to the identification of organic and strategic self-talk as two different self-talk entities (Latinjak, Hatzigeorgiadis, et al., 2019). Strategic self-talk involves the use of predetermined self-talk statements to enhance sports performance, with a meta-analysis showing a moderate positive effect (effect size = .48) of self-talk interventions on sports performance (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2011). In addition, a growing body of research has focused on the affective, attentional, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms that may explain this relationship (Galanis et al., 2016; Hardy et al., 2009), which bear a resemblance to the volitional strategies postulated by action control theory (Kuhl, 1983).
The term “organic self-talk” refers to the inherent self-directed verbal thoughts that athletes have before, during, and after their sports involvement (Latinjak, Hatzigeorgiadis, et al., 2019). By typically focusing on the valence of self-talk, research has tried to reveal antecedents (e. g., Hatzigeorgiadis & Biddle, 2008), content (e. g., Zourbanos et al., 2009), and consequences (e. g., Van Raalte et al., 1994) of positive and negative self-talk. In line with dual-processing theory (e. g., Furley et al., 2015), recent more theory-based approaches have distinguished between types of self-talk that differ in their controllability (Latinjak et al., 2014; Van Raalte et al., 2016). Specifically, it can be distinguished between spontaneous self-talk as a relatively uncontrolled type of self-talk and goal-directed self-talk as a relatively controlled type of self-talk (Latinjak et al., 2014). Similarly, on the basis of the terminology of Kahnemann (2011), Van Raalte et al. (2016) distinguished between System 1 self-talk as reflecting automatic and unconscious psychological processes and System 2 self-talk characterized by deliberate mental effort. Because the framework of Latinjak et al. (2014) further distinguishes between different forms of goal-directed self-talk statements, this framework is used in the current study to focus on the content of athletes’ goal-directed self-talk related to volitional processes.
Goal-directed self-talk is deliberately used by athletes to make progress on a task or solve a problem, which indicates an inherent relationship to volitional processes supporting goal-directed behavior (Latinjak et al., 2014). In their first attempt to describe spontaneous and goal-directed self-talk separately, Latinjak et al. (2014) developed a model of seven goal-directed self-talk functions, which has since been successfully used as a basis for categorizing such self-talk statements in research (e. g., Latinjak, Torregrossa et al., 2019) and practice (e. g., Latinjak et al., 2016). To illustrate, goal-directed self-talk can reconstruct cognitions (e. g., “You cannot win every point”), regulate cognitions and behavior (e. g., “Focus on the task”), control activated states (e. g., “No need to be angry”), control deactivated states (e. g., “Don’t relax”), create activated states (e. g., “Come on”), create deactivated states (e. g., “Calm down”), or create positive attitudes for the future (e. g., “You can still win”). Importantly, it was shown that the category “create positive attitudes for the future” could be further broken down into up-regulating self-confidence, promoting mastery goals, or promoting intrinsic motivation (Latinjak, Torregrossa et al., 2019).
In light of the importance of volitional processes for sports performance (Englert, 2016), and the close link between self-talk and volitional processes (Thelwell & Greenlees, 2003), research focusing on the self-talk athletes may use in volitional processes seems promising from both a theoretical and an applied perspective. In particular, acknowledging the theoretical developments in the self-talk literature (Latinjak et al., 2014), the aim of the current study was to examine the content of goal-directed self-talk used by athletes in situations requiring volitional processes. The results may contribute to a better understanding of the identified functions of goal-directed self-talk in volitional processes by helping, among others, to develop evidence-based hypotheses on how self-talk may be used to deal with psychologically challenging situations in sports competitions.
Method
Participants
The goal was to recruit both male and female athletes from various sports. Because in competitive sports athletes pursue goal-directed behavior that requires volitional processes (Englert, 2016), it was an inclusion criterion that athletes were engaged in such at the time of the data collection. A total of 96 Spanish athletes (82 males; Mage = 21.83; SD = 2.37) agreed to participate in the study. Unfortunately, we did not succeed in reaching a similar number of male and female athletes. Nevertheless, since we assumed that the primary goal of investigating the content of goal-directed self-talk in relation to volitional processes would not be endangered by this, we decided to keep the female athletes in the study. The athletes were actively engaged in sports such as soccer (n = 36), basketball (n = 18), tennis (n = 8), athletics (n = 5), hockey (n = 4), and others (n = 25; with n ≤ 2), at local (n = 10), regional (n = 67), and national/international level (n = 19). Overall, 15 athletes practiced less than 6 hours, 22 athletes practiced between 6 and 10 hours, and 59 athletes practiced more than 10 hours per week.
Procedure
Contact with the athletes was established in their sports clubs. A researcher organized a face-to-face meeting with small groups of up to four athletes interested in participating. The meetings took place within 30 minutes after the practice in the sports facilities of the participants. In these meetings, the athletes were presented a computerized booklet via a tablet provided by the researcher. Each athlete signed the informed consent form and then filled out a short questionnaire regarding descriptive data. Afterwards, the athletes completed the research task, which lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. A researcher was present at all times to assist the athletes when needed.
Research Task
The athletes completed the task in two consecutive steps. First, they were asked to “describe a sports situation today or any other day in the past week in which you felt demotivated or disengaged and in which it was difficult for you to keep making the efforts you should be making.” Because volitional processes may involve the control of motivation, emotion, or attention (Kuhl, 1983), the focus on such situations was assumed to be potentially related to any of these psychological processes. In addition, the open-ended format of this question allowed athletes to describe personally relevant situations. The athletes were asked to use at least 200 characters to describe the situation and to be specific enough for the researchers to imagine the situation. The athletes also had the opportunity to indicate that they had not experienced such a situation in the past week. In this case their participation in the study was terminated. Second, all athletes who were able to describe a situation were asked to “write up to four self-instructions that you used or would normally use in that particular situation to cope with the situation.” Athletes were asked to formulate statements (e. g., “Try to have fun”) rather than describing their self-talk in general terms (e. g., “I thought about the reasons to participate”). The athletes were given the opportunity to indicate that they did not use self-talk in this situation or that they do not remember their self-talk.
Data Analysis
The self-talk classifications were based on Spanish self-talk statements. The translations of the self-talk statements in Table 1 were checked by a speaker who is fluent in English and Spanish and had experience adapting Spanish self-talk statements into English and vice versa. As a first step, different text units were identified in each answer. According to Lyons (1981), a text unit is an independent statement with its own significance, which cannot be further divided without altering its significance. The subsequent classification of self-talk statements was based on the process described by Boyatzis (1998). Initially, each text unit was categorized as either goal-directed or spontaneous, following definitions used by Latinjak et al. (2014). According to these definitions, spontaneous self-talk refers to statements triggered by stimuli in the current context, while goal-directed self-talk is used to make progress on a task or solve a problem. Since this study focused on goal-directed self-talk, spontaneous self-talk text units would have been removed from further analysis.
Subsequently, all goal-directed text units were deductively assigned to one of seven primary categories of goal-directed self-talk based on the definitions of Latinjak et al. (2014): (a) statements aiming to reappraise a situation were classified as reconstructing cognitions; (b) statements giving task-specific instructions were classified as regulating cognitions and behavior; (c) statements trying to deal with high-intensity emotional states were classified as controlling activated states; (d) statements trying to deal with low-intensity emotional states were classified as controlling deactivated states; (e) statements trying to evoke high-intensity emotional states were classified as creating activated states; (f) statements trying to evoke low-intensity emotional states were classified as creating deactivated states; and (g) statements referring to positive future events and finding reasons to keep going were classified as creating positive attitudes for the future.
Since the category “creating positive attitudes for the future” contained a large number of text units, the text units in this category were further explored. Because the goal was to create new ideas about the theoretical development of goal-directed self-talk rather than to test existing categorizations (e. g., Latinjak, Torregrossa et al., 2019), this additional analysis was conducted inductively (Thomas, 2006). One of the researchers read all answers multiple times and then suggested subcategories. These suggestions were discussed with other researchers in the team. This process was meant to encourage the researchers to reflect on alternative categorizations of the text units and to improve the comprehensibility of the results (Martinent & Ferrand, 2009). Thereafter, all text units that were previously classified as self-talk trying to create positive attitudes for the future were placed into the newly created subcategories by two researchers.
Trustworthiness
With regard to the trustworthiness of the research process, some aspects based on the criteria of Tracy (2010) should be highlighted. First, the study addressed the role of goal-directed self-talk in volitional processes, which are central for sports performance (Englert, 2016), making it a worthy topic. Second, the research question and data analysis are based on a theory-based self-talk classification (Latinjak et al., 2014), ensuring a rich rigor. Third, the methods and results of the study fit the research aims, allowing a meaningful coherence. Finally, the involvement of multiple voices in the research process increases the credibility and sincerity of the findings. Specifically, all coding steps were performed by two coders, a member of the research team and another researcher and lecturer in sport psychology. Due to the difficulty of separating the coding process from researchers’ subjectivities (Smith & McGannon, 2018), we chose not to calculate an interrater agreement. Instead, the frequent critical dialogues between the researchers helped to critically reflect on the decisions in the coding process (Cowan & Taylor, 2016). Thus, differences in their answers were discussed in meetings between the researchers and, if necessary, modifications were made in the coding scheme.
Results
Description of Situations
With regard to the situations in which the athletes perceived a state of demotivation, they referred to situations characterized by their own poor performance (“…I couldn’t perform the way I can…”), perceived lack of motivation in others (“…I tried really hard but it was of no use since the others just didn’t care…”), a feeling of disregard by others (“…I’m just not important for her, she never makes me play in these important moments…”), clearly losing (“…and after ten minutes we were already 16 points down…”), or disliked coach behavior (“…as soon as you make just one tiny thing different, he’s all over you…”).
Coding of Statements
Four athletes did not experience a state of demotivation in their sport during the week before the data collection. The other 92 athletes gave a total of 262 responses (M = 2.85; SD = 0.39) regarding goal-directed self-talk used in situations in which they perceived a state of demotivation. From those 262 responses, 15 answers contained two text units, so that a total of 277 text units were analyzed in the subsequent analysis. All text units were classified as goal-directed self-talk and none as spontaneous self-talk (see Table 1 for frequencies and examples of all categories).
The largest part of goal-directed self-talk athletes used to deal with demotivation refers to “creating positive attitudes for the future” (43 %). The inductive analysis of this category led to the emergence of five new subcategories. The goal-directed self-talk in “upregulating self-confidence” (19 %) refers to attempts to enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy. While goal-directed self-talk in “promoting task-oriented goals” (10 %) focuses on goals related to the task and one’s own improvement, goal-directed self-talk in “promoting ego-oriented goals” (5 %) focuses on goals related to outperforming someone or proving one’s value in social comparisons. In addition, goal-directed self-talk in “promoting intrinsic motivation” (6 %) targets autonomous regulation and enjoyment, whereas goal-directed self-talk in “promoting extrinsic motivation” (3 %) is linked to some external agent.
In relation to the category “controlling cognition and behavior” (19 %), athletes used goal-directed self-talk to increase cognitive control by directing attention to the task at hand and providing instructions. Regarding the category “creating activated states” (19 %), athletes used goal-directed self-talk to encourage effort and overcome adversity. Moreover, for the less frequently observed categories, athletes used goal-directed self-talk to “control cognitive reactions” (9 %) to attenuate the significance of past mistakes, or to reduce the perceived importance of the situation itself. Goal-directed self-talk to “create deactivated states” (6 %) was used to overcome negative high-intensity emotional states related to demotivation; goal-directed self-talk to “control deactivated states” (3 %) was used to reduce negative emotions with low intensity; and goal-directed self-talk to “control activated states” (1 %) was used to reduce negative emotions with high intensity.
Discussion
The aim of the present study was to investigate the content of goal-directed self-talk in volitional processes, which are crucial for the execution of goal-directed behavior (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994) and thus also for sports performance (Englert, 2016). To overcome a state of demotivation, the athletes remembered to use mainly such goal-directed self-talk that tries to create positive attitudes for the future, to increase the level of activation, or to draw the attention to the task. The results also indicate that goal-directed self-talk to create positive attitudes for the future was aimed at building confidence, setting goals, and finding reasons to keep trying.
The high number of goal-directed self-talk statements to create positive attitudes for the future shows how, in a state of demotivation, goal-directed self-talk focuses on positive aspects in relation to one’s own goals (Englert & Bertrams, 2020). This is in line with studies that emphasize a positive mindset as a powerful resource for coping with challenging situations during a sports competition (e. g., Gucciardi et al., 2009). Based on self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1997), self-delivered verbal persuasions are suggested to enhance effort and persistence during performance (Hardy et al., 2009). This may explain why the inductive analysis of the category “creating positive attitudes for the future” revealed that many goal-directed self-talk statements were aimed at upregulating self-confidence. In light of the relevance of self-confidence to sports performance (Woodman & Hardy, 2003), it is interesting to note that a study showed that self-talk may indeed strengthen one’s self-confidence (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2009).
The inductive analysis of the category “creating positive attitudes for the future” also suggests that goal-directed self-talk aims at promoting different types of motivational regulations (i. e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation). These regulations point to the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) as a theory of motivation that has received much attention in sport psychology (Bhavsar et al., 2020). The self-determination theory distinguishes between intrinsic motivation, when individuals engage in an activity because they enjoy it, and extrinsic motivation, when individuals perform an activity because of the associated outcomes (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Much research within the sports context has focused on how the environment affects athletes’ self-determined motivation, with social agents (e. g., coaches) who engage in autonomy-supportive behaviors increasing athletes’ intrinsic motivation (e. g., Edmunds et al., 2008). In turn, athletes’ intrinsic motivation is typically related to more adaptive outcomes such as better sport performance, enhanced self-esteem, or higher adherence to physical activity (for an overview, see Bhavsar et al., 2020). Complementing this line of research, the findings from the current study point to goal-directed self-talk as a strategy with which athletes themselves try to influence their state of motivation emphasizing the role of the coach within (Latinjak et al., 2016).
The two other subcategories “promoting task-oriented goals” and “promoting ego-oriented goals” identified in the inductive analysis can be related to the achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984), another theory of motivation that has received much attention in sport psychology (Roberts & Papaioannou, 2014). While a main aim of volitional processes is to support the pursuit of one’s goals (Englert & Bertrams, 2020), these two categories show how goal-directed self-talk may direct athletes’ attention to different types of goals. Athletes who focus on task-oriented goals are motivated to develop learning and self-improvement, whereas athletes who focus on ego-oriented goals are motivated to outperform others (Nicholls, 1984). Generally, research suggests that task-oriented goals are more adaptive, since athletes setting such goals, with relevance for volitional processes, are more likely to cope with setbacks (Roberts & Papaioannou, 2014). By contrast, the pursuit of ego-oriented goals is associated with maladaptive outcomes such as anxiety (e. g., Hall & Kerr, 1997), particularly when the athletes have low perceived competence (Hatzigeorgiadis & Biddle, 1999). Consistent with studies from educational psychology (Schwinger et al., 2012; Smit et al., 2017), the results of the current study suggest that goal-directed self-talk could be considered a mechanism through which the engagement of goals is negotiated.
The results also suggest that athletes often use goal-directed self-talk to control cognitions and behaviors as well as goal-directed self-talk to create activated states when trying to overcome a state of demotivation. Given that self-talk can help to regulate one’s attention (Hatzigeorgiadis & Galanis, 2017), this kind of goal-directed self-talk may aim to direct the attention away from the source of demotivation to the task at hand (Weinberg, 1988). In addition, the relatively high frequency of goal-directed self-talk statements to create activated states indicates how athletes try to use arousing self-talk statements (e. g., “come on”) for psyching up purposes (Zourbanos et al., 2009). Because such self-talk statements can be used for performance enhancement (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2014), this illustrates the potential of goal-directed self-talk to deal with psychologically challenging situations during sports competitions.
Moreover, the results indicate that athletes are less likely to use goal-directed self-talk that reconstructs cognitions, controls activated states, creates deactivated states, or controls deactivated states when they are in a state of demotivation. Because a state of demotivation is associated with less activation (Acharya & Morris, 2014), the low frequency of goal-directed self-talk to control deactivated states is somewhat surprising. From a volitional perspective, however, considering the possible ironic effects of mental strategies for explicit suppression of a certain mental state (Wegner, 1994), athletes may be better advised to focus their attention on the desired mental state. The association between a state of demotivation and less activation may explain the low frequency of goal-directed self-talk statements aimed at creating deactivated states and controlling activated states, since such self-talk statements are more likely to be used to deal with high-intensity emotions (Latinjak et al., 2017). This explanation could also account for the slightly higher frequency of goal-directed self-talk to reconstruct cognitions because such self-talk appears to be useful for dealing with a wide range of emotions, including high- and low-intensity emotional states (Fritsch et al., 2020; Latinjak et al., 2014). In particular, goal-directed self-talk to reconstruct cognitions appears to be closely associated with cognitive change as a central emotion regulation strategy for sports performance (Beatty & Janelle, 2020).
Limitations
A main limitation of the current study is the retrospective design, which cannot guarantee the accuracy of the reported self-talk. Although the athletes were explicitly asked to write down only those self-talk statements that they could actually remember, their answers could be distorted by various factors (e. g., current mood). Nevertheless, it can be argued that the retrospective open-ended format in such a procedure allows for insights into what athletes who are in a state of demotivation generally say to themselves. Furthermore, our study design does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the actual effects of goal-directed self-talk on volitional processes. Nevertheless, the theoretical contribution can be used in future studies, which may employ more ecologically valid self-talk methods such as descriptive experience sampling (Dickens et al., 2018), thinking-aloud procedures (Samson et al., 2017), or video-assisted stimulated recall procedures (Fritsch et al., 2020) to answer such questions.
Because of the disproportionately higher percentage of male than female athletes in the sample, the results should be generalized with caution. In this regard, it should be emphasized that the self-talk literature in general would benefit from considering interpersonal differences more explicitly (Brinthaupt, 2019). For instance, a study showed that more experienced athletes used more self-talk strategically compared with less experienced ones (Thelwell et al., 2009). A final point of concern refers to the categorization procedure. Given the interpretative element of self-talk (Hardy, 2006), it is important to note that in previous studies the categorization of self-talk statements by researchers differed from the categorization by the athletes themselves (Latinjak et al., 2017; Van Raalte et al., 2014). However, since the primary aim of the current study was to gain a better insight of the content of goal-directed self-talk in volitional processes, it can be argued that the categorizations made by the researchers can contribute to a better understanding of this relationship from a theoretical perspective (Latinjak, Hardy et al., 2019).
Conclusion
To conclude, the results of the current study provide insights into the content of athletes’ goal-directed self-talk related to volitional processes. When athletes find themselves in a state of demotivation, they appear to use particularly goal-directed self-talk that creates positive attitudes for the future, regulates their cognitions and behavior, or upregulates their level of activation. In addition, the goal-directed self-talk statements that try to promote different types of motivational regulations and goals show how constructs from other theories of motivation relevant to sport psychology (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Nicholls, 1984) can help to understand the content of self-talk in volitional processes. This refinement of future-oriented, goal-directed self-talk functions is further an original contribution of the current study to the self-talk literature. In view of the importance of volitional processes in sport, both on a theoretical and an applied level, future studies continuing this line of research should be encouraged.
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