Explanatory style among elite ice hockey athletes

'Mentally tough' athletes show resilience and an ability to compete during adverse conditions. The present study investigated mental toughness and ass essed causal explanations for positive and negative reactions to imagined e vents using Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire. Pessimistic Expla natory style on this scale is a risk factor for negative affect and behavio r following negative events. 38 elite athletes in ice hockey were rated for mental roughness by the National Hockey League's scouts on consensually de rived criteria. The comparison of players above and below the median split on mental toughness showed composite explanations for negative events that were more internal, stable and global for players above the median. Contrar y to predictions, these results suggest that a Pessimistic Explanatory styl e may benefit hockey performance.