Mental toughness: an integrative perspective

Abstract

Literature on sport psychology has consistently referred to mental toughness as one of the most important psychological characteristics related to outcomes in sport, although researchers have, until recently, devoted little time to studying this concept. This review considers major definitions and conceptualizations, relating this construct to other similar or concurrent ones and trying to integrate several perspectives from diverse research communities into the study of mental toughness. we propose that mental toughness should be conceived as a dynamic ecological resource management system, in a conception that extends the concept of robustness to a meta-skill involving the dynamic integration of a wide variety of psychological resources, mobilized differently depending on the characteristics of each individual, the nature of specific problems, situations and contexts, and ways of facing up to tasks and the challenges of life.