Mental toughness

Mental toughness is a measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education, and the workplace. The concept emerged in the context of sports training, as one of a set of attributes that allow a person to become a better athlete and able to cope with difficult training and difficult competitive situations and emerge without losing confidence. The term has been used by coaches, sport psychologists, sports commentators, and business leaders.
Mental toughness and positivity are essential for someone to be successful. Whether in sports or in the workplace, an individual cannot fold under pressure if they want to thrive. When times get hard they have to stay positive and believe that, if they work hard enough, the outcome they desire will occur. This especially applies to athletes; when times get tough they have to keep grinding and do everything in their power to come back and win. An elite athlete must be able to handle pressure, have self-confidence, and avoid lifestyle distractions. Mental toughness is easiest to learn as a child or during adolescence. The sooner one learns how to be mentally tough, the easier sports and life will become. Mental toughness is widely useful.
Samples of attributes were taken by Graham Jones to examine differences of success between athletes and which ones possess Thirty attributes suggested mental toughness in super elite athletes but only an average of twelve in elite athletes, suggesting a mental difference in super elite performers. This illustrates how important a positive mentality is for athletes to be successful.
Definition
"Mental toughness" is frequently used colloquially to refer to any set of positive mental attributes that helps a person to cope with difficult situations. Coaches and sport commentators freely use the term mental toughness to describe the mental state of athletes who persevere through difficult sport circumstances to succeed. In support of this, a number of studies have linked mental toughness to sporting success or achievement. However, the phrase is often simply applied as a default explanation for any victory. Criticisms about this imprecise use abound.
Scientific research has attempted a formal definition of mental toughness as a psychological construct with clear measurement criteria, which would allow robust analyses and comparisons to be made.
In particular, three research teams produced both a definition and a construct definition for mental toughness: being able to push past failures or blockades by remaining positive and competitive. This involves training the mind to be ready for challenges.
Jones, Hanton, and Connaughton
Graham Jones, Sheldon Hanton, and Declan Connaughton of the United States used personal construct psychology in interviews with elite athletes, as well as elite-level coaches and sport psychologists, to arrive at the following definition of mental toughness:
These same researchers published a second paper which provided four dimensions (categories) for mental toughness attributes: a general dimension of a performer's attitude or mindset (specifically, the performer's focus and self-belief), and three time-specific dimensions: training, competition, and post-competition. These time-specific dimensions contain attributes of mental toughness (such as handling pressure, handling failure, and pushing yourself to your physical limit in training) that pertain to their use at those times.
Clough and Earle
Peter Clough et al. proposed a model of mental toughness that conceptualizes it as a personality trait. Their model has four components: confidence, challenge, control, and commitment. They developed a questionnaire by which to measure mental toughness. They combined existing psychological theory and applied sport psychology in an attempt to bridge the gap between research and practice. They saw comparisons between their emerging mental toughness data and the concept of hardiness, a key individual difference and resistance resource that helps buffer stress and has become an accepted concept in health psychology within the study of the stress-illness relationship. They believe mental toughness has broad application and should not be limited to the sports domain. They feel that sports-specific measures are unlikely to move the field forward in any meaningful ways. The development work relating to their model is fully described and discussed in their book on mental toughness.
Gucciardi, Gordon, and Dimmock
Daniel Gucciardi, Sandy Gordon, and James Dimmock of Australia have proposed a different definition and framework of mental toughness, based primarily on their work with Australian footballers. Using personal construct psychology, these authors proposed the following definition of mental toughness:
Although this definition was produced through work with Australian footballers, it has been generalized to other sports, including cricket and soccer. This definition conceives mental toughness as having reactive and proactive qualities; players can use mental toughness attributes to help endure and perform well during adverse situations, but can also employ other attributes of mental toughness when the game is going well, to keep them playing at their best.
Studies
Some psychologists argued that a separate, sport-specific definition of mental toughness should be developed. The attributes of a mentally tough athlete in one sport may differ greatly from the attributes of a mentally tough athlete in a different sport. Differences have also been hypothesized between male and female athletes, and between "team sport" and "individual sport" athletes, but , little empirical evidence has shown what these differences are.
Sport-specific studies of mental toughness have been conducted in cricket, soccer, gymnastics, and Australian football.
These studies have not employed a common framework, although many have used the definition of mental toughness provided by either the Jones et al. study or the Gucciardi et al. study.
Many sports-focused studies employed the Clough model of mental toughness. They use samples of athletes to investigate a possible link between toughness, coping, emotional reactivity, psychological skills, and performance.
One of the few published studies that takes mental toughness out of the sporting domain is based on the 4 'C's model. This study showed that senior managers are tougher than their junior colleagues. Clough and his team are working in a number of areas outside of sport—education, health, social, and occupational—to explore the relevance of mental toughness in these areas.
In 2019, a study using a personality assessment identified six personality traits of top NCAA Division 1 and professional athletes that define mental toughness. This study also highlighted that the traits that make up mental toughness and that predict athletic success are some of the same traits seen in the most successful sales professionals.
In April 2020, researchers found that top gamers shared as olympian athletes.
Developmental studies
There is debate about whether mental toughness is primarily a developed characteristic, or has a genetic basis. Two studies suggest that foundational processes occur during development that allow a person to build mental toughness throughout life. For instance, a study of American soccer players, parents, and coaches found that parents provide a "generalized form" of mental toughness upon which coaches can build a sport-specific form of mental toughness. A similar study suggested that mental toughness development proceeds first through the development of a tough attitude (strong focus and strong self-belief); upon a tough attitude, an athlete learns how to develop mental toughness attributes needed for training, then for competition. Another study examined the developmental experiences of ten super-elite athletes and found that coaches and significant adults played an important role in mental toughness development through all stages of talent development.
Horsburgh et al. demonstrated that genetic and non-shared environmental factors contribute to the development of mental toughness (as measured by questionnaire), and that mental toughness behaves "in the same manner as virtually every personality trait that has ever been investigated in behavioural genetic study". In establishing significant relationships with the big five personality factors of Costa and McCrae (1992), these researchers have also provided evidence to support Clough et al.’s conceptualisation of mental toughness. While embracing the importance of genetics, Clough acknowledges that mental toughness can be developed.
Studies with Sports
A research study analyzed how kids with mental toughness performed compared to those . Of randomly-selected people the researchers found that the mentally tough athletes were better in their sport. There were five reoccurring themes with the athletes that possessed mental toughness.
The athletes proved and showed their mental toughness by overcoming obstacles and not getting down on themselves when things did not go their way.
The athletes who were mentally tough were much more self driven to do well in their given sport and were self determined.
The mentally tough were able to control their emotions while playing the sport.
The mentally tough focus on ways to become better at their sport in ways where they do not get all the glory. They will do things that help their team win that most people may not notice such as giving an assist in basketball.
Mentally tough athletes are good teammates, they are not selfish. They will do whatever it takes to win. They do not care about the glory, they just do whatever it takes for their team to succeed.
Similar constructs
Mental toughness has been equated with better-understood constructs from psychology such as resilience and hardiness.
The term resilience is often incorrectly used interchangeably with mental toughness, though researchers have found the two constructs are positively associated with one another. However, psychologists define resilience as a positive adaptive process of coping with stress and adversity, as opposed to a collection of psychological attributes or personality traits.
Hardiness has been suggested as a similar construct to mental toughness. Hardiness has typically been constructed as a stable personality trait. This differs from the conceptions of mental toughness offered by both Jones et al. and Gucciardi et al. Those authors conceive of mental toughness as unstable, arising in development, fluctuating over time, and varying for an individual performer between different sport and life scenarios.
This definitional dilemma plagues the use of the term mental toughness. In addition, if mental toughness exists as a valid construct it may on occasion be maladaptive. Evidence to support this contention is derived from a study of overtraining behaviors and mental toughness. The author reported: "The results suggest that some attributes of MT may relate to increased ability to recover whereas other attributes are associated with lower recovery... Arguably mental toughness is more closely linked with goal fixedness rather than adaptability and a flexible mindset, attributes which are central to resilience."
Measurement
Two instruments have been developed and validated . Gucciardi et al. validated the American Football Mental Toughness Inventory (AFMTI), while Sheard and Golby validated the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ). The MTQ48 predates these by seven years. The factor structure of the MTQ48 has been supported by an independent research group. Dr Lee Crust, University of Lincoln, compared the SMTQ with the MTQ48 and concluded "Both instruments appear to tap the core components of MT but the MTQ48 seemingly provides a more comprehensive measure".
The MTQ48 questionnaire has demonstrable criterion-related, construct, and content validity. Reliability has been assessed by numerous independent researchers and it has demonstrable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. All component scales exceed 0.70 and the overall measure has a reliability in excess of 0.90. Nevertheless, both the construct validity and the psychometric properties of this test have been questioned.
Several other instruments purport to measure mental toughness, but research has called their validity into question. For example, the Performance Profile Inventory (PPI) developed by Jim Loehr used seven subscales to compute a mental toughness score. The Mental Toughness Inventory (MTI) developed by Middleton et al. measures mental toughness using twelve subscales and appears to show strong theoretical evidence for its formation. However, construct validation has only been performed with a narrow sample of athletes, leaving its psychometric properties up for debate.
Sports and Mental Toughness
Mental toughness is an attribute that all athletes must have if they want to succeed in their given sport. Learning mental toughness at a young age (preferably during adolescence) can be vital to the success of one later in their sports career. Without mental toughness, one cannot be successful in the sports world. Professional athletes such as Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan have had some of the best mental toughness there is. This allows them to get through the tough times and keep going when they face challenges. Learning how to be mentally tough at a young age gives one an advantage over all of their opponents. Mental toughness helps athletes cope with the ups and downs of sports.
Researchers have found that mental toughness can correlate directly with performance-based outcomes such as levels of effort, nervousness, and performing at the highest ability.
Mental toughness is being recognized more and more for how important it is due to the benefits an athlete gains by being mentally tough. It is likely that children and adolescents with a high degree of mental toughness achieve better competitive outcomes, have more positive experiences in sports, and are much more set for the rest of their lives by obtaining this skill. Mental toughness can directly lead to thriving and being in a good mental health scenario.
See also
Resourcefulness – definition on Wiktionary
References
Sports terminology
Personality theories
Positive psychology