Q.Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Meera, a state-level shooter, performs well in practice but scores poorly in competitions. Before every final she tells herself, 'I always mess up in finals,' and after a loss she feels worthless for weeks. A sports psychologist gives her a three-part plan:
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Meera’s case illustrates how low self-efficacy, negative self-talk, and poor goal-setting can sabotage performance — and how a psychologist can fix each with targeted techniques.
(i) Meera’s self-worth collapses after every loss. Name the psychological attribute involved and the specific problem she is showing.
The psychological attribute here is self-esteem — the overall evaluation a person makes of their own worth. Meera’s specific problem is low self-esteem, because she ties her entire sense of value to a single competition outcome. After a loss she feels “worthless for weeks,” which is a classic sign that her self-worth is fragile and contingent on success rather than being stable and internal.
Self-esteem is different from self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is about believing you can do a task; self-esteem is about believing you are valuable as a person. Meera has both problems, but the collapse of worth after loss is a self-esteem issue.
(ii) Name the technique used in part (1) of the plan and identify the imagery perspective involved.
Part (1) — imagining a perfect shot from her own point of view, feeling the grip and trigger squeeze — is imagery (also called mental rehearsal or visualization). The perspective is internal imagery (also called first-person or kinesthetic imagery), because she is seeing the action through her own eyes and feeling the physical sensations, not watching herself from outside.
Internal imagery is more effective for skill execution because it activates the same brain regions as actual performance. External imagery (watching yourself like a video) is better for learning form or strategy.
(iii) Name the technique used in part (2). What type of self-talk is ‘Slow breath, steady aim’?
Part (2) — replacing the negative sentence with a positive cue — is cognitive restructuring (or thought-stopping combined with reframing). The phrase “Slow breath, steady aim” is instructional self-talk (also called task-oriented self-talk), because it tells her what to do physically, rather than just pumping her up (motivational self-talk) or putting herself down (negative self-talk).
| Type of self-talk | Example | Purpose |
|-------------------|---------|---------|
| Negative | “I always mess up” | Harmful, lowers confidence |
| Motivational | “I can do this!” | Boosts arousal and effort |
| Instructional | “Slow breath, steady aim” | Directs attention to technique |
(iv) Show how the goal in part (3) satisfies any two letters of the SMART framework.
The goal is: “Raise my average qualification score from 610 to 615 within three months.” …
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