University of Twente Student Theses
Self-talk in running athletes: an ecological momentary assessment approach
Veltman, L.J. (2012) Self-talk in running athletes: an ecological momentary assessment approach.
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Abstract: | A lot of research has been performed on the use of self-talk and the influence of self-talk on performance in sport. In this research the influence of fatigue and skill level on the use of self-talk remains unclear. A limitation of the self-talk research is the time-lag between the use and assessment of self-talk. Therefore the purpose of this study was to investigate how progressive fatigue affects the use of different types of self-talk (instructional, motivational, positive, negative) in recreational and competitive runners, by using a new EMA method to assess self-talk. Convergent validity of the EMA method was explored by comparing the results of self-talk assessed by EMA with self-talk assessed by questionnaires. 42 running athletes performed a strenuous interval exercise, which involved eight two-minute intervals with rest periods in which EMA was used to acquire participants’ self-talk data. Results revealed that under high fatigue running athletes made more use of positive and motivational self-talk and less use of instructional self-talk than under low fatigue, whereas their use of negative self-talk did not change. The use of self-talk was not influenced by skill level, although a noticeable trend was shown leaning towards competitive runners making more use of instructional and negative self-talk than recreational runners. Convergent validity of EMA and the questionnaires shows that EMA provides different results for assessing self-talk than using questionnaires. This suggests that retrospective questionnaires are not accurate reflections of instantaneous self-talk of running athletes. Research on self-talk should focus on creating a sound standard for assessing self-talk to further investigate the usability of EMA for gathering information about self-talk in the future. |
Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
Clients: | VU University Amsterdam |
Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
Subject: | 77 psychology |
Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62462 |
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