Speaking clearly … 10 years on: The case for an integrative perspective of self-talk in sport

Over a decade ago, Hardy (2006) published his literature review that contained a working definition that has shaped subsequent studies about self-talk, contributing to the noticeable expansion of this research area. The rapid development of the self-talk literature in sport since then has bred the need to rethink how self-talk is conceptualized. The purpose of the present article was twofold: (a) to review how conceptualizations of self-talk and the associated research perspectives have changed during the past decade and (b) to introduce a new integrative conceptualization of sport self-talk. We identify two main developments that alter our view of what self-talk is, reinforcing the need for a new conceptualization: The identification of two distinct self-talk entities (organic self-talk and strategic self-talk); and the distinctions between spontaneous and goal-directed self-talk, as these emerged within organic self-talk. Consequently, we propose a new integrative conceptualization of self-talk. We believe that for such a conceptualization to be sufficient so as to guide future research, several attributes of self-talk ought to be recognized: the necessary and sufficient attributes that define self-talk, and important descriptive attributes, including overtness, interpretation, origins, and functions, which facilitate the understanding and the study of the self-talk phenomena.