Mental Toughness Analysis

Coulter, Mallet and Singer examined the idea of different associations of mental toughness in a high-performance sport setting. Participants were chosen from an Australian Football League club that was known for its mental toughness from persevering through obstacles such as risk of disbandment. The Player Development Manager of the club chose 9 individuals from the club to participate in Coulter’s research. There were 4 coaches between the ages of 31 and 34 and 5 players between the ages of 24 and 26. To measure mental toughness, the researchers used photo elicitation of artifacts and qualitative interviews which included focus groups and individual interviews. Photos of artifacts regarded as important were used during the qualitative interviews to obtain a better insight on how those artifacts associated with their thoughts and emotions. A focus group with 6 individuals (4 coaches, 2 players) and 3 individual interviews were asked questions regarding aspects of mental toughness within the team to analyze the effects it has in a high-performance sport setting. Results showed that mental toughness appeared in visible and invisible forms such as physical displays of masculinity or mentally in team first ideals.
Photo elicitation and qualitative interviews were used to analyze mental toughness within the …show more content…
For example, an elementary school boys’ basketball coach can use the results about mental toughness to teach that too much mental toughness can be harmful. This is seen when boys are supposed to act masculine and can be shown through playing on an injury to show their mental toughness. This can cause great harm to the player but the idea of mental toughness could be more important than health to the player because of the associated values of mental toughness. Teaching about mental toughness can also be beneficial because it can promote values such as perseverance and