External self-talk:Talking to yourself helps
If you are found talking to yourself people might think of you as an eccentric fellow – but should it matter to you?
Research has found that self-talk can influence behaviour and cognition.
Self-talk is fairly common – at least indoors if not in public.
‘Language provides us with this tool to gain distance from our own experiences when we’re reflecting on our lives. And that’s really why it’s useful,’ said Ethan Kross, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, US.
We see things more objectively when we talk to ourselves, Kross said.
So does it matters how you talk to yourself? Yes!
The two types of self-talk you’re likely most familiar with are instructional self-talk, like talking yourself through a task, and motivational self-talk, like telling yourself, ‘I can do this’.
It might sound awkward, but motivating yourself out loud can work.
One study published in ‘Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences’ researched the effects of both motivational and instructional self-talk on subjects playing basketball. It found that players passed the basketball faster when they motivated themselves loud while playing the game.
Even how you refer to yourself when talking to yourself can make a difference. Kross and his colleagues studied the impact of internal self-talk – talking to yourself in your head – to see how it can affect attitudes and feelings.
They found that when their subjects talked about themselves in the second or third person – for example, ‘You can do this’, or ‘Jane can do this’ instead of ‘I can do this’ – not only did they feel less anxiety while performing, but their peers also rated their performances better.
Kross said this was because of self-distancing: focusing on the self from the distanced perspective of a third person, even though that person is you.
‘In terms of why psychological distance helps, the example I like to give is to think about a time with a friend or loved one ruminating about a problem,’ Kross said.
‘As an outsider, it’s relatively easy for you to advise them through that problem. One of the key reasons why we’re so able to advise others on a problem is because we’re not sucked into those problems. We can think more clearly because we have distance from the experience.’
Beyond motivational selftalk, talking to yourself out loud in an instructional way can speed up cognitive abilities in relation to problem-solving and task performance.
The aforementioned basketball study also found that players passed and shot the basketball more accurately when they instructed themselves through the task out loud, suggesting that talking to yourself about what you’re doing can keep you focused.
The study concluded that motivational self-talk worked best on tasks based on speed, strength and power, while instructional self-talk worked best with tasks that involved focus, strategy and technique.
