Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the motivational function of negative self-talk (ST). It is suggested that negative ST is motivational when interpreted as a challenge. For example, an athlete may say, "my legs are tired" and make it a challenge by adding "but I can push through it." This study examined the potential motivating functions of negative-challenging ST on a 20-minute cycling task. Participants (n = 93) completed one of four ST interventions: a) positive, b) negative, c) neutral, or d) negative-challenging and their subsequent cycling performance was analyzed. A significant group by time interaction effect was present, where the challenging group outperformed the negative group in the final stage of the task. The findings suggest that time within an endurance task has implications within the ST-performance relationship, and provide initial support for implementing challenging ST techniques.
