Sunday 30 November 2014

Let's talk about self-talk

Welcome to a new style of blog post from me, I'm going to be experimenting with microblogging and microposts.  As I progress through my MSc I often find snippits of research or information that I'd love to share. Rather than weave them together into a longer blog post I'm going to start sharing them as I go along to make short, quick reads.  Here's the first one.


A recent study explored the grammar of self talk for the purposes of motivation. They found that second person self talk is more effective that first person self talk.  

That is "You can do it" is more effective than "I can do it."

The researchers speculated that this type of talk could cue memories of encouragement from others - particularly from childhood.  There are limitations to the study (e.g. the subjects were all psychology students) but it provides an interesting base for future research and in the meantime - I'm certainly going to give it a go.


Cheers

Ross

You can read a digest of the research from the British Psychological Society here and the reference for the paper is below:

Dolcos, S., & Albarracin, D. (2014). The inner speech of behavioral regulation: Intentions and task performance strengthen when you talk to yourself as a You European Journal of Social PsychologyDOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2048  
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Tuesday 11 November 2014

A Tour of Cantón's Giraffe

In my coaching research I came across this model of motivation, developed by Enrique Cantón at the University of Valencia.  Anyone who uses an animal as the basis for a model is a winner in my book.

It's an interesting way to explore motivation in relation to a goal and it is all based on the science of motivation theory.  I like it as it represents an overall view and shows the connection between the different elements.  Here's how it works.

Start by considering the head of your giraffe as your goal.




Turning to the feet - there are four channel which influence the body of the giraffe.  These are:
  • "I see" - this is your indirect experience and the parts of yourself you see reflected in others.
  • "I hear" - this is what your hear from others and also your self talk.
  • "I feel" - how you interpret your psychophysiological symptoms in a physical and emotional sense, and,
  • "I do" - your own direct experience.
These all feed into the body of your giraffe which represents self-confidence and self-esteem. This is one of the attractions of the model for me - if something is not quite right with a level - you can divert your focus to the previous level to see if anything needs attention or strengthening.

Your self-confidence and self-esteem are built up gradually and they also concentrate your motivation towards your goal.

We then move on to the neck. This represents your belief and value:
  • What do you believe you are capable of?
  • What do you like or value about what you would like to achieve?
Why not try this out on one of your goals and see how it works?

Cheers


Ross

Cantón, E. (2014). Cantón’s Giraffe’: A motivational strategy model applied from the perspective of coaching. The Coaching Psychologist (10) 1 pp26-34







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