Matthew Slater

University of Staffordshire | SU · Sport and Exercise; School of Life Sciences and Education

The social identity approach to leadership contends that the most effective leaders represent, advance, create, and embed a shared social identity (i.e., a sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’) within the groups they lead. Building on previous research, our study examines whether the perceived identity leadership of coaches and athlete leaders is associated with...

While physical activity generally declines in middle‐aged adults, group exercise participation among 40‐64‐year‐old is increasing. This rise may be due to the accessibility of online group exercise formats and their ability to reflect members' identities. This research explores how social identification processes facilitate participation in Zwift,...

Individualistic appraisals have dominated contemporary stress theory and have too often overlooked socially derived perceptions of group resources. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of social support and social identification on individuals’ challenge and threat appraisal, perceived stress, and life satisfaction across a range of grou...

Recent research has highlighted leaders as a source of inspiration for followers in sport, providing leaders embed, embody, and represent the group’s values (i.e., the leader demonstrates identity leadership and creates a shared identity). Consequently, two studies (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal) aimed to examine the relationship between...

Researchers have intimated that cognitions and emotions can change in the lead up to important events. However, previous research has adopted atemporal cross‐sectional designs, making it challenging to understand how cognitions and emotions unfold in the lead up to a competition. In the current study, we extended previous research by examining the...

Much of our knowledge about the relationship between psychological variables related to sport and adolescent mental health is based on research from elite athletes. However, the vast majority of adolescents who engage in sports do so at the grassroots level. We therefore sought to understand how self‐reported psychological variables and sleep may b...

Purpose Despite evidence suggesting a decline in the physical activity of middle-aged adults, 40–64-year-olds participation in group exercise is actually increasing. One potential reason for this increase in activity is the increase in a range of different online group exercise formats and contexts. Recent research suggests that people join, partic...

There is an emergent literature highlighting the positive role of social support and social identification in buffering against the deleterious effects of psychological stressors. Yet, we have limited understanding of how exactly these social factors fit within contemporary stress and coping theory. To advance and gain a greater understanding of th...

The present study examined the influence of an online relationship-oriented personal-disclosure mutual-sharing (ROPDMS) intervention upon diverse measures of group functioning during a national lockdown. Twelve soccer coaches and one senior member of staff from a professional female soccer academy participated by openly disclosing and sharing unkno...

Once upon a time, it was believed that the sport team with the best individual star players would be most likely to win all the trophies. Then one day, athletes, coaches, and sport fans, together with scientists (including sport psychologists), noticed that this did not always happen—so people began to doubt the idea. This was a concern because, fo...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a novel identity leadership-framed reflective practice intervention for developing sport coach leadership skills. We adopted an eight-week randomized control intervention design, including five experimental group coaches and their associated athletes (n = 47) and four control group c...

This study extends the doctoral education literature by examining how social support and social identification, as they apply to peers, supervisors, and the academic community, are related to mental wellbeing and psychological distress in doctoral students by using person-centred analysis to create social profiles. Doctoral students (N = 200) compl...

Team identification and collective efficacy are important determinants of team functioning. A team’s collective efficacy is borne from its shared social identity and improved through iterative, interpersonal exchanges between teammates during training sessions and matches. Our study employed social network analyses to examine the impact of intra-te...

Background: Using Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing (PDMS) with students transitioning to Higher Education (HE) has yet to be researched in education. Aims: In two studies, we aimed to explore the immediate effects of a Coping Oriented Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing (COPDMS) intervention on first-year undergraduate students' relational and...

A strong sense of shared identity can drive positive and effective behaviors within a team. The strength of athletes’ identification with their teams has been found to vary with their participation in intra-team relations. Through the use of social network analyses, attendees will learn to decipher the actual patterns of different intra-team relati...

According to Identity Leadership, effective leaders make the group matter by embedding social identities in material reality. Across two studies, we explored the potential importance of embedding social identities on group members' perceptions of leader trust, influence, conflict and intentional mobilization. In Study 1, 74 competitive varsity athl...

High-quality leadership has been established as a key factor driving a team's competitive advantage. Besides the role of the coach, recent research has emphasized the importance of leadership provided by athletes within a team (i.e., athlete leaders). To unlock the potential benefits of athlete leadership, the development of leaders is therefore es...

Objectives: Researchers have examined how leaders’ representation of shared identity content allows them to mobilize group members towards success in competitive tasks. However, research is yet to determine the psychological and physiological implications of shared identity content with a leader when approaching competitive tasks. The present resea...

It has been theorized that a follower can draw upon support from individuals they identify with when approaching competitive situations to improve psychophysiological challenge states, and performance potential. As such, we examine how perceptions of identity leadership influence resource appraisals, cardiovascular reactivity, and performance in a...

The present study sought to provide support for the roles of both the social identity approach (group identification and identity leadership) and relational identification in adherence to group exercise classes. One hundred and twenty U.K. based group exercise class attendees completed an online survey in a cross-sectional design. Group identificat...

In the current paper, we investigated the extent to which challenge and threat evaluations predicted the trials performance of youth netball players. This paper compared two theoretical frameworks, the Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA) and the BioPsychoSocial Model (BPSM) of Challenge and Threat, in their prediction of trial...

Presently, disability athletes remain under-represented in organisational stressor research. Our study sought to bring novel insights to this area by determining the organisational stressors experienced by international disability footballers. Twelve current international disability footballers (10 male, 2 female) from a range of UK impairment squa...

We used a novel meta regression analysis approach principles to examine the effectiveness of psychological skills training and behavioral interventions in sport assessed using single-case experimental designs (SCEDs). One hundred and twenty-one papers met the inclusion criteria applied to eight database searches and key sport psychology journals. S...

Background: There is growing evidence identifying the positive effects of sport and exercise leaders engaging in identity leadership. Yet we have limited knowledge of how identity leadership is associated with athletes’ resource appraisals (e.g., self-efficacy) and performance, the underpinning mechanisms that explain such relationships, and change...

In the current project, we examined how perceived group memberships (number, and characteristics, of), social and relational identification, and social identity leadership are associated with resilience in Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel. Based on social identity theorizing, we hypothesized positive associations between the number of groups, percep...

Objectives: The present study explored how challenge and threat responses to stress relate to performance, anxiety, confidence, team identity and team characteristics (time spent in training and postgraduate experience) in a medical simulation-based team competition. Methods: The study was conducted during a national simulation-based training ev...

On approach to competitive situations, affective states (emotions and anxiety) occur through the complex interaction of cognitive antecedents. Researchers have intimated that irrational beliefs might play an important role in the relationship between cognitive appraisals and affective states, but has ignored challenge and threat. In the current res...

The current study investigated psychological stress among parents of competitive British tennis players. Adopting a multipart concurrent mixed method design, 135 British tennis parents completed a cross sectional online questionnaire to examine their primary appraisals, emotions, and coping strategies associated with self-disclosed stressors. Hiera...

Togetherness is a powerful state of connection between individuals that can lead to amazing triumphs. In sport, teams win matches, but teams with togetherness win championships and make history. If you want the individuals on your team to develop their skills and reach their potential, get them ‘together’. The key to this, is to understand your pl...

Objectives There is growing research interest in the social identity approach to leadership in sport. Researchers have examined how leaders’ representation of a shared social identity allows them to motivate group members but has neglected the role that identity content plays in this process. The present research addresses this issue in two experim...

The present research examined the link between passion displayed by team members during the singing of national anthems at UEFA Euro 2016 and team performance in the tournaments’ 51 games. Drawing on social identity theorising, we hypothesised a positive relationship between passion and performance. Consistent with this hypothesis, results showed t...

The irrational performance beliefs inventory (iPBI) was developed to measure irrational beliefs within performance domains such as sport, academia, business, and the military. Past research indicates that the iPBI has good construct, concurrent, and predictive validity, but the test-retest reliability of the iPBI has not yet been examined. Therefor...

Based on social identity principles we explore the efficacy of a leadership intervention in elite disability sport. A two-year longitudinal design involved an elite male disability soccer team that prepared for a World Championship in Year 1 and then reformed for Paralympic competition in Year 2. Athlete data indicated marginal to significant incre...

The influence of relational identification (RI) on leadership processes and the effects of social identity leadership on followers' responses to stress have received scant theoretical and research attention. The present research advances theoretical understanding by testing the assertion that high RI with the leader drives follower mobilization of...

The growing use of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in performance contexts (e.g., business, sport) has highlighted the absence of a contextually valid and reliable measure of irrational beliefs. This paper reports the development and initial validation of the Irrational Performance Beliefs Inventory (iPBI). The iPBI was developed to provid...

The social identity perspective asserts that it is the shared connection within a unified group that forms the foundation of successful group functioning. This is particularly salient during change. This review outlines the value and applicability of social identity principles in understanding change management. The first part of the article explai...

There are inextricable links between the psychology of leadership in sport, and the psychology of leadership in business. This commentary draws on two emerging theories within sport psychology, the Theory of Challenge and Threat States in Athletes (TCTSA), and Social Identity Theory (SIT), to uncover how leaders can best manage teams through pressu...

Cricket is a sport that brings with it many psychological challenges and demands that players must deal with to be successful. As the 2015 Ashes series is almost with us, what are the main psychological factors that players are likely to encounter? And what psychological techniques are there available to sport and exercise psychologists to promote...

This paper adopted a social identity approach to explore the media data of leadership figures at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Media data in the form of interviews, speeches/team announcements, and blog posts from leaders integral to the London 2012 Olympic Games were analysed from one-hundred days prior to, during, and for thirty days following,...

The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the applicability of a social identity approach to leadership in sporting contexts. A social identity approach to leadership contends that leaders and group members are connected through feeling a sense of belonging and emotional attachment to their group. The present review (1) outlines the theoretical...

The extant literature reveals an increasing use of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) with athletes. Recently, a single REBT education workshop was shown to reduce the irrational beliefs of athletes in the short-term. This paper reports the effects of multiple REBT education workshops (REBT program) on season-long irrational beliefs in elite...

Research on the effect of athlete leadership on pre-cursors of team performance such as team confidence is sparse. To explore the underlying mechanisms of how athlete leaders impact their team’s confidence, an online survey was completed by 2,867 players and coaches from nine different team sports in Flanders (Belgium). We distinguished between two...

In a one group pretest-posttest design, 15 elite academy cricketers were exposed to two personal-disclosure mutual-sharing (PDMS) sessions during a preseason tour. Within PDMS1, athletes disclosed (via prepared speeches) relationship-oriented information and within PDMS2, mastery oriented information. Social identity, social identity content, and c...

Research applying rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) with athletes is sparse and findings are equivocal. REBT can be applied using education workshops, but previous studies in sport have not assessed changes in irrational beliefs following REBT. This paper reports the effects of a single REBT education workshop on irrational beliefs in elite...

The purpose of the present paper is to illustrate how leaders can create high performance environments. Using Team Great Britain (TeamGB) cycling’s performance director as a case example, we discuss how leaders can develop social identities (i.e. an emotional attachment and sense of belonging) and shape group meanings as mechanisms through which pe...

The present study examined the effects of personal-disclosure mutual-sharing (PDMS) on a diverse set of group factors in a previously unexplored context. During a single bout of PDMS, 14 soccer-academy athletes voluntarily disclosed unknown personal stories to fellow teammates. Social identity, friendships identity content, results identity content...

This study assessed whether cardiovascular (CV) reactivity patterns indexing challenge and threat states predicted batting performance in elite male county (N = 12) and national (N = 30) academy cricketers. Participants completed a batting test under pressure, before which CV reactivity was recorded in response to ego-threatening audio instructions...

This study extends athlete training adherence research by focusing on motivation and social support in athletes who successfully attend strength and conditioning sessions. Six male elite school-age athletes with high training attendance participated in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of strength and conditioning training. Th...

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the antecedents, specificity, and ceiling effects of golfers’ implicit theories of sport ability.DesignThe present study employs a qualitative research design. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was adopted.Method Participants (N = 8) were asked to describe their conceptions of golf abil...