Dr. Michael Sheard, Ph.D.
The Achievement Mindset: Understanding Mental Toughness is a state-of-the-art textbook that takes the reader to the frontiers of mental toughness research. Dr. Sheard covers the historical conceptual arguments, the characteristics and development of mentally tough sports performers, the measurement of mental toughness, cultural and nationality perspectives, and the possibility of mental toughness heredity. It will prove an invaluable resource for sport and exercise psychology students and lecturers. It will also be a valuable reference for sports participants, coaches, and fans.
The Achievement Mindset: Understanding Mental Toughness is tremendously readable and will be the subject's definitive guide.
Dr. Michael Sheard is a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at York St John University, England, UK. His educational qualifications include a Ph.D. in sport and exercise psychology. Dr. Sheard has published widely on mental toughness, hardiness, and positive psychology. He has also presented his work at numerous conferences worldwide. He is a Chartered Sport & Exercise Psychologist registered with the British Psychological Society.
It has been suggested that: “a sporting contest is defined by the pursuit of a victor. Other benefits of a more altruistic and social nature may accrue from sport, but in essence the challenge is set down: to find a winner.”1 Nowhere is this struggle for supremacy more intense than at the very highest competitive levels, where sport is no longer a pastime, run and organised by amateurs. It has developed into a well-established global industry, operating in an increasingly competitive world.2 Sport is a multi-billion pound business that competes for scarce resources and uses, amongst other things, commercial and professional management techniques.3,4 These developments have moved sport organisations toward a more professional and bureaucratic structure.5-7 In this push toward efficiency, effectiveness, and value for money, it has become of even greater interest to players, coaches, administrators, spectators, and owners to identify qualities associated with superior sport performance as a first stage in facilitating their development. When it comes down to it, there are two qualities that are necessary for victory in any sport: ability and mental toughness.
I am concerned primarily with the latter, though, naturally, each affects the other. The two enjoy a symbiotic relationship. To place emphasis on the identification of ability and a personality style is to subscribe to the view that “sport is neither a moral nor a philosophical undertaking but an athletic and a psychological one.”8 Personality is known as a source of moderator variables, and is more likely to manifest in interaction effects, such as influencing the likelihood of actualising one’s ability into achievement.9 The field of sport psychology, in particular, has striven to understand and predict performance excellence primarily on the basis of personality.10 Considerable evidence exists within the extant sport psychology literature that desirable psychological attributes contribute significantly to superior sport performance.11-25 Moreover, it has been suggested that as sport performers move up toward elite levels, only those with adaptive personality characteristics advance.26
