Wildan Haru Pradani, Anindra Guspa, Izzanil Hidayati, Wirza Feny Rahayu, Fidia Oktarisa
Self-talk conducted by athletes has become an important focus in sport psychology, especially in the context of performance enhancement, emotion regulation, and motivation. This study aims to analyze the development of research on self-talk in sport over the past 30 years. This study explores research related to self talk from 1996-2025. Using information from the Scopus database, this study attempts to map research self-talk using bibliometric analysis. To investigate publishing trends, author partnerships, prominent keywords, and developing research subjects, analysis was done using VOSviewer and R software (Bibliometrix). The results of this study show that there has been significant growth in publications related to self-talk since 2011, with peak productivity in 2018 and 2022. Researchers such as Hatzigeorgiadis A and Latinjak AT stand out as major contributors. The University of Thessaly and Greece were the most productive institutions and countries. Thematic analysis revealed a shift in research focus from general topics such as physiology and verbal behavior to more specific topics such as anxiety, emotion regulation, and athletic performance. These findings indicated the importance of self-talk in improving athlete performance. Further research involving more diverse populations, such as female athletes and younger age groups, as well as team sport contexts, is needed. Overall, this study offers an in-depth overview of developments in the topic of self-talk in sports and its implications for sports psychology practice. © 2025 by authors, all rights reserved.
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia; Faculty of Psychology and Health, Universitas Negeri Padang, Indonesia
