Towards an Understanding of Mental Toughness in Australian Football

Leadership preferences of mentally tough athletes

“…skill development aimed at improving performance). This finding appears to be consistent with conceptualisations of mental toughness that emphasise an internal locus of control and a task oriented focus (Gucciardi, Gordon & Dimmock, 2008;Jones, Hanton & Connaughton, 2007). However, results from the regression analyses found that only the MTQ48 subscales of commitment and challenge were significant predictors of a preference for training and instructive behaviours.…”

“…Overall, the results of this study indicate that mentally tough athletes show preferences for leadership behaviours that are aimed at improving performance and skill development. This appears consistent with conceptualisations of mentally tough athletes as internally motivated, determined to succeed, focused on the task at hand with a high work ethic (Gucciardi et al, 2008;Jones et al, 2007). Other researchers have found mentally tough athletes to plan and prepare for competition meticulously (Bull et al, 2005: Jones et al, 2007 and such athletes would likely be seeking information to refine their performances.…”

The relationship between mental toughness and affect intensity

“…Mental toughness has been described as one of the 4 most overused, but least understood terms in applied sport psychology (Jones et al, 2002). 5 However, a recent surge of interest, and more rigorous scientific investigations into what is 6 potentially one of the most important psychological attributes in sport, has led to somewhat 7 greater clarity (Crust, 2007). Emerging research suggests that mental toughness is multi- control (emotional and life), which concerns a tendency to feel and act as if one is 17 influential, (2) commitment, which reflects deep involvement with whatever one is doing,…”

“…One of the most important attributes of mentally tough athletes appears to be the 6 avoidance of performance decrement due to damaging negative emotions and subsequent scores were largely unrelated and that affect intensity is best conceptualized as a disposition 7 to react strongly to emotion-eliciting events. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between mental independent t-tests were used to test for possible gender differences, and differences 15 relating to performance levels of the participants in mental toughness and affect intensity.…”

“…Finally, a series of independent t-tests were used to test for differences in 5 mental toughness and affect intensity between recreational athletes (n = 49), and athletes 6 who had competed at club level or higher (n = 63). Bonferroni corrections were used to 7 adjust p values because of using multiple comparisons and no significant differences were 8 found between recreational or club level athletes. It is interesting to note that no significant differences were found between men and 6 women in regards to overall levels of mental toughness or affect intensity.…”