Question: Scholarly research must be "aligned." What does it mean that research is aligned? Use the GCU Library to locate an empirical study on the topic you are interested in researching. Give the APA-formatted citation for the article along with the Permalink. Is the study you selected aligned? Why or why not?
I have copied and pasted aempirical studyabstract that I would like to use in responding to this question.
EFFECTS OF THE SELF-TALK STRATEGY IN THE MENTAL TRAINING OF ATHLETES.
Before major sporting events, athletes are usually very tense, which has a negative effect on their success. Even though they are 'well prepared', they do not achieve the desired results in sports. It often happens that talented athletes do not succeed in their sports career despite good conditions for work, talent, hard work and the professional work of their coaches. Having a conversation with oneself (self-talk) is defined differently by different researchers, and therefore there is no single unified definition that would be available to us. It is defined as something 'that people say to themselves out loud, or it can be defined as a small voice in their own heads'. Research on this topic shows that successful athletes use positive self-talk more often in comparison to less successful athletes. Based on previous research, it can be concluded that self-talk is usually treated as an integral part of a comprehensive mental training, i.e. that in practice it was very often used in combination with other psychological strategies (e.g., using imagery, relaxation, goal setting). In contrast, today we have a large number of empirical studies which have provided evidence of the effectiveness of the independent self-talk technique in various sports disciplines. Thus, there are a sufficient number of studies that confirm the positive effects of self-talk, and relate to improving athletic performance, improvement of self-confidence, as well as a reduction in anxiety in different kinds of sports, including tennis, soccer, golf, swimming, basketball, ice hockey and athletics. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR.