The Effect of Organic and Strategic Self-Talk on Emotion Regulation during Sports Competition

The aim of the present study was to study the effect of Organic and strategic self-talk on emotion regulation during competition in basketball players. The present research method was conducted in terms of experimental content and as a pre-test-post-test with a control group. For this purpose, 60 skilled basketball players were voluntarily selected and randomly divided into three groups of 20 including the organic self-talk and strategic self-talk groups and control. In the pre-test phase, a 3-minute basketball shooting competition was held and the first three winners were given prizes; then, emotion regulation was measured using the Gross and John Emotion Regulation Questionnaire with 10 items; then, in the post-test phase, the three-minute shooting competition was held again in a competitive manner; but in this phase, the strategic self-talk group uses self-talk phrases that are determined in advance by the coach before each shot; The organic self-talk group uses self-talk phrases purposefully, voluntarily and voluntarily, and the control group does not use any self-talk phrases. They were measured again after the event with the emotion regulation questionnaire. The results of the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that organic self-talk and strategic self-talk led to improved emotion regulation in athletes. Also, organic self-talk led to greater improvement in emotion regulation in athletes during the competition than strategic self-talk. It is suggested that researchers, psychologists, and counselors consider this type of self-talk, which has received less attention.