ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what confidence is, how it affects performance and what can be done to increase levels of self-confidence. It explores optimism and pessimism and their associated impact on performance. Self-confidence has been operationalized in a range of different ways including perceived competence, self-efficacy, movement confidence, and outcome expectancies. Efficacy beliefs have been suggested to vary between individuals and across time in three specific ways. Mastery experiences are generally viewed to be the biggest influencing factor, and as such interventions that focus in this area have the potential to have a significant impact upon efficacy beliefs. Verbal persuasion can broadly be divided into two specific sources internal (self-talk) and external (from others). A factor often closely associated with confidence is that of performance anxiety. The degree of optimism or pessimism displayed by an individual has been linked to motivation.
