THE EFFECTS OF SELF-TALK ON THE LEVEL OF SUCCESS IN COLLEGE STUDENTSAnn Bernard

INTRODUCTION

Self-talk refers to statements people make to themselves (positive, negative, motivational, instructional)

Research in the sport psychology field has found that positive self-talk has positive effects on performance in sports.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of self-talk on the performance of college students.

HYPOTHESES

In this study, it is hypothesized that students who use positive self-talk will have higher performance in: Academics (GPA) Relationship satisfaction Goal achievement Job performance

SAMPLE

114 introductory psychology students (age range: 18-48)

67% (N=76) Females, 33% (N=37) Males, 61% (N=69) Caucasian, 19% (N=22) African

American, and 20% (N=23) other minorities 40% (N=46) Freshman, 27% (N=31)

Sophomore, 20% (N=23) Junior, 11% (N=12) Senior

MEASURES Self-Talk

5 items on 4 point ordinal scale (0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Always)

Items were summed to create an overall self-talk score, where higher scores equal more use of positive self-talk and lower scores equal less use of positive self-talk.

Relationship Satisfaction 3 items on 5 point ordinal scale (0=Very

Dissatisfied, 1=Dissatisfied, 2=Neutral, 3=Satisfied, 4=Very Satisfied)

Items were summed to create an overall Relationship Satisfaction score, where higher scores equal more relationship satisfaction and lower scores equal less relationship satisfaction.

MEASURES Goal Achievement

4 items on 4 point ordinal scale (0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Always)

Items were summed to create an overall Goal Accomplishment score, where higher scores equal more goal accomplishment and lower scores equal low goal accomplishment.

Performance in the Work Place 2 items on 4 point ordinal scale (0=Never,

1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Always) Items were summed to create an overall

Performance in the Work score, where higher scores equal higher Performance in the Work Place and lower scores equal lower Performance in the Work Place

PROCEDURE

Introductory Psychology class Questionnaire handed out anonymously 10-15 minutes to complete Participation was voluntary but students

received extra credit for participating

RESULTS

Self-talk N=114 Mean: 9.92 (SD = 3.06)

Academics (GPA) N=111 Mean: 2.94 (SD = .49)

Relationship Satisfaction N=62 Mean: 12.80 (SD = 2.27)

Goal Setting N=114 Mean: 8.20 (SD = 2.20)

Job Performance N=112 Mean: 4.01 (SD = 4.01)

RESULTS

Two groups were created for Self-Talk based on the median split of 10. 1) Group one: low positive self-talk to negative

self-talk (1-10) Percentage of people in Group 1 was 52.6% (N=60).

2) Group two: positive self-talk (11-15). Percentage of people in Group 2 was 47.4% (N=54).

RESULTS

Hypothesis 1: Students who use positive self-talk attain higher levels of performance in academics (GPA) than students who use low positive self-talk to negative self-talk. Independent-sample t-test was computed. There

were significant differences between Group 1 (Mean 2.85, SD .45) and Group 2 (Mean 3.04, SD .51) [Mean difference = -.20, S.E. of mean = .09; t(111) = t -2.16, p = .03]

Hypothesis was supported.

RESULTS

Hypothesis 2: Students who use positive self-talk have greater relationship satisfaction than students who use low positive self-talk to negative self-talk Independent-sample t-test was computed. There

were not significant differences between Group 1 (Mean 12.49, SD 2.55) and Group 2 (Mean 13.17, SD 1.89) [Mean difference = -69, S.E. of mean = .57; t(62) = t -1.21, p = .229]

The hypothesis was not supported Trend of the data indicates that the positive self-

talk group (Group 2) did have higher levels of relationship satisfaction than the low self-talk to negative self-talk group (Group 1).

RESULTS

Hypothesis 3: Students who use positive self-talk have greater goal achievement than students who use low positive self-talk to negative self-talk Independent-sample t-test was computed. There

were significant differences between Group 1 (Mean 7.45, SD 2.25) and Group 2 (Mean 9.03, SD 1.82) [Mean difference = -1.59, S.E. of mean = .39; t(114) = t -4.11, p = .00]

The hypothesis was supported

RESULTS

Hypothesis 4: Students who use positive self-talk have greater job performance than students who used more negative self-talk. Independent-sample t-test was computed. There

were not significant differences between Group 1 (Mean 3.81, SD 1.10) and Group 2 (Mean 4.25, SD 1.28) [Mean difference = -43, S.E. of mean = .23; t(112) = t -1.90, p = .06]

The hypothesis was not supported Trend of the data indicates that the positive self-

talk group did have higher levels of job performance (Group 2) than the low self-talk to negative self-talk group (Group 1).).

DISCUSSION

Overall, it was found that students with positive self-talk had higher levels of performance in all areas.

Limitations related to the restriction on the number of questions that could be included in the questionnaire and the scale used to measure the answers. This questionnaire did not clearly distinguish and isolate the use of negative self-talk or no use of self-talk.

Future studies should focus on the impact of negative self-talk on the performance of college students.