Motivation, Performance and Wellbeing (MPaW) Research

The group includes a mix of academic members of staff and research students in the area of psychology and sport and exercise psychology.

We are interested in factors that promote or undermine healthy participation in achievement contexts. Our main area of interest is the influence of perfectionism and whether it is better or worse for people to be more perfectionistic. We also have complementary research strands led by members of the group that focus on predictors, consequences, and prevention of burnout and how we can increase engagement in different contexts as an alternative.

The group has produced a large number of influential peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals on these topics. Members of the group hold editor, associate editor, and editorial board member positions at Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, Canadian Psychology, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Performance Enhancement & Health, and Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport. 

Our research has also been funded by various organisations including the Wellcome Trust, the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research, the British Association for Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, the Word Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the National Association of Able Children in Education (NACE), the Swedish Research Council for Sport Science, and the National Health Service (NHS).

We have had a number of excellent graduates from the group who are currently employed at various academic institutes in the UK (for example, London School of Economics and Political Science, Newcastle University, and University of Essex), some of whom received "research excellence" awards for their doctoral work and awards from various external organisations (for example, British Society of Personality and Individual Differences and BASES). One graduate was also awarded the American Psychological Association's Division 47 Dissertation of the Year.

Get in touch

We invite enquiries regarding group activities, research opportunities and anyone who wishes to join to contact the Group Lead, Professor Andy Hill: a.hill@yorksj.ac.uk