Self-talk, or verbalized cognition, has been a focal construct of empirical studies in sports and clinical psychology for decades, but has only recently become of interest to organizational researchers. In the current study, we investigated the relationships between two types of self-talk, constructive and dysfunctional, and outcomes relevant to organizations and society in general, namely satisfaction, self-efficacy, and performance. We also tested whether self-talk explained incremental variance in these outcomes beyond that of established psychological predictors (i.e., self-leadership, conscientiousness, and neuroticism). In a sample of 177 undergraduates, we found that constructive self-talk positively related to satisfaction, self-efficacy, and academic performance, while dysfunctional self-talk negatively related to satisfaction and self-efficacy, but was not significantly related to performance. Further, constructive self-talk explained incremental variance in self-efficacy and performance beyond that explained by established psychological predictors. Dysfunctional self-talk only explained incremental variance in self-efficacy. This study shows that self-talk is a unique and influential construct that should be of interest to both organizational researchers and practitioners. Future research and the practical implications of self-talk are discussed.
