Defining and Understanding Mental Toughness within Soccer

Mental toughness, optimism, pessimism, and coping among athletes

“…For example, mental toughness characteristics have been investigated in athletes from a variety of sports (e.g., Fourie & Potgieter, 2001;Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2007;Jones et al, 2002) and specific sports like cricket (e.g., Bull, Shambrook, James, & Brooks, 2005), and soccer (e.g., Thellwell, Weston, & Greenlees, 2005). The mental toughness studies involving the cricketers and soccer players produced similar findings to those by Fourie and Potgieter, alongside Jones et al (2002) with a strong emphasis placed on coping effectiveness (Thellwell et al, 2005) and tough thinking (Bull et al, 2005).…”

“…Based on this widely accepted conceptualization of coping in sport (Nicholls & Polman, 2007), we believe that Jones et al (2002), Jones et al (2007) refer to mentally tough athletes as being able to cope effectively (Bull et al, 2005;Jones et al, 2002Jones et al, , 2007Thellwell et al, 2005). However, these studies do not state whether mentally tough athletes differ in the actual coping strategies employed, in comparison to athletes that are not mentally tough.…”

Lay perceptions of mental toughness: Understanding conceptual similarities and differences between lay and sporting contexts

“…The methodology in this study aligns with steps taken by previous researchers to organise attributes in order of their importance to mental toughness (e.g., Gucciardi et al, 2008;Jones et al, 2002;Jones et al, 2007;Thelwell et al, 2005). With comparison between previous and current centrality ratings, therefore, findings from this study will indicate A prototype analysis of mental toughness Sorensen, Jarden, & Schofield www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org 82 differences or similarities between sporting and lay perceptions of "typical" characteristics of mental toughness.…”

“…As such, we are unsure how demographics may have influenced the responses gained in the current research, and, although unlikely, we were not able to guarantee that participants were not involved in elite sports as well. Second, contrary to previous interview methods that enabled further probing of responses (e.g., Coulter et al, 2010;Gucciardi et al, 2008;Jones et al, 2002;Thelwell et al, 2005), the present method used open-response questionnaires to attain attributes of mental toughness. Although this approach was useful for obtaining a range of different opinions across a large sample size and aligned with previous prototype analyses, open-ended questionnaires prevented us from elaborating meaning in some responses.…”

“…Thelwell, Weston, & Greenlees (2005) Interviews with professional soccer players (n = 6) to generate attributes of mental toughness. Attributes were then rank-ordered for their importance to mental toughness by an additional sample of professional soccer players (n = 43).…”