Locating Self-talk in the Knowledge Map of Sport and Exercise Psychology

The aim of this chapter was to position the concept of self-talk in the broader literature of sport psychology. To this end, a framework of psychological concepts is presented: the Knowledge Map of Sport and Exercise Psychology. This framework consists of four clusters of popular concepts in sport psychology: environmental factors, psychological processes, psychological skills, and psychological interventions. By positioning self-talk in the map, it becomes clear that the concept of self-talk stands for different psychological experiences. Spontaneous self-talk would be a psychological process and goal-directed self-talk would be a psychological skill. Furthermore, two different self-talk interventions are described in the literature. Strategic self-talk interventions primarily aim at changing psychological processes and reflexive self-talk interventions aim at strengthening goal-directed self-talk and other psychological skills.