Staff Profile

• Email: tracy.donachie@ncl.ac.uk
• Tel: 44 (0)191 208 7562
• Address: School of Psychology
• Newcastle University
• Room 4.17
• Dame Margaret Barbour Building
• Wallace Street
• Newcastle upon Tyne
• NE2 4DR

Tracy joined the School of Psychology in July 2020 as a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology. Tracy is a Chartered membership with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). 

Tracy has over 20 years’ experience of working in applied sport environments as a semi-professional footballer, a coach, and a deliverer of performance psychology to athletes, teams, and coaches. Tracy is Head of Psychosocial Development at York City Regional Talent Club and Technical Director of Berwick Rangers Football Club. She has previously provided performance psychology support to Scotland National Women's Football teams, Scottish Gymnastics, Hearts Football Academy, South Lanarkshire Leisure, Edinburgh University Football Club, Hamilton Academical Football Club, Mental Health Foundation, NHS Yorkshire, TransSoccer and many more. Tracy has also delivered strategies to manage exam stress to over 1200 students in schools, colleges, and universities across Yorkshire for Higher York, the National Collaborative Program, and University of York.  

Professional Memberships and Affiliations

Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS)

Full Member of the BPS Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP)

Sport and Exercise Psychologist in Training (SEPiT)

Professional Member of British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES)

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Member of Motivation, Performance, and Wellbeing (MPAW) research group

Member of Perfectionism Network Group 

Tracy completed her PhD at University of Leeds/York St John University in 2018. Her doctoral research examined perfectionism, overthinking, and emotions in youth football players. She specifically examined the role of perfectionistic cognitions in pre-competition emotions (e.g., anxiety, anger, and dejection). Furthermore, in her recent publication, she examined the effectiveness of a psychoeducational book on reducing perfectionism which found that self-help interventions may be effective in reducing socially prescribed perfectionism, perfectionistic cognitions, anxiety, anger, and dejection. This study was the first in sport to examine the effectiveness of an intervention specifically for perfectionism.  

Tracy’s continues her research in personality and is currently examining the role of perfectionism in mental health of professional footballers. Furthermore, she is also examining the role of the Dark Triad in experience of youth athletes. 

Degree Programme Director for MSc Sport and Exercise Psychology

Degree Programme Director for Joint Honours Psychology

• Module Lead: 
• PSY3039 Clinical Sport and Exercise Psychology
• PSY8077 Psychological Techniques in Sport and Exercise Psychology Practice 
• PSY8074 Clinical Sport and Exercise Psychology

• Lecturer: 
• PSY3046 Psychology for Sport Performance 
• PSY8034 Professional Issues in Clinical, Health and Forensic Psychology
• PSY8080 Applied Professional Psychology Skills

• Articles

  • Donachie TC, Hill AP. Helping soccer players help themselves: Effectiveness of a psychoeducational book in reducing perfectionism. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 2022, 34(3), 564-584.
  • Bryan W, Donachie TC, Vaughan RS, Madigan DJ. Don’t look back in anger: A cross-sectional and dyadic examination of the Dark Triad, anger, and aggression in athletes. Psychology of Sport & Exercise 2023, 64, 102305.
  • Grugan M, Hill AP, Madigan DJ, Donachie TC, Ollson L, Etherson M. Perfectionism in Academically Gifted Students: A Systematic Review. Educational Psychology Review 2021, 33, 1631-1673.
  • Grugan M, Hill AP, Mallinson-Howard SH, Donachie TC, Olsson LF, Madigan DJ, Vaughan R. Development and initial validation of the Perfectionistic Climate Questionnaire-Sport (PCQ-S). Psychology of Sport and Exercise 2021, 56, 101997.
  • Hill AP, Donachie TC. Not All Perfectionism Cognitions Are Multidimensional: Evidence for the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory–10. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 2020, 38(1), 15-25.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Madigan DJ. Perfectionism and precompetition emotions in youth footballers: A three-wave longitudinal test of the mediating role of perfectionistic cognitions. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 2019, 41(5), 309-319.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Hall HK. The relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and pre-competition emotions of youth footballers. Psychology of Sport and Exercise 2018, 37, 33-42.

• Book Chapters

  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Etherson ME. Perfectionism cognitions in sport, dance, and exercise. In: Hill, AP, ed. The Psychology of Perfectionism in Sport, Dance, and Exercise. Routledge, 2023.
  • Hill AP, Madigan DJ, Smith MM, Mallinson-Howard SH, Donachie TC. Perfectionism. In: Hackfort, D; Schinke, RJ, ed. The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Sport and Exercise Psychology: Volume 1: Theoretical and Methodological Concepts. London: Routledge, 2020.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Grugan M, Hill AP, Mallinson-Howard SH, Donachie TC, Olsson L, Madigan DJ, Vaughan R. Initial development of the Perfectionistic Climate Questionnaire-Sport (PCQ-S). In: European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC Congress). 2019, Münster, Germany: University of Münster.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP. Helping perfectionistic athletes help themselves: A randomized control trial of the effectiveness of a psychoeducational book. In: British Society for Personality and Individual Differences (BSPID). 2018, Edinburgh, UK: International Society for Intelligence Research.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Mallinson-Howard SH, Hall HK, Madigan D. Perfectionism and overthinking in athletes. In: National Undergraduate Sport and Exercise Medicine Conference. 2017, Edinburgh, UK: The University of Edinburgh.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Hall HK, Mallinson-Howard SH. A longitudinal study of perfectionism and pre-match emotions in youth footballers. In: The British Psychological Society's Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology's (DSEP) annual conference. 2017, Glasgow, UK.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Hall HK, Gabriel L. The relationship between perfectionism, perfectionistic cognitions, and pre-match emotions in adolescent footballers. In: British Society for Personality and Individual Differences (BSPID). 2016, Nottingham, UK.
  • Donachie TC, Hall HK, Hill AP. Perfectionism, perfectionistic cognitions and pre-match emotions of adolescent footballers. In: Perfectionism International Network. 2016, Kent, UK. Submitted.
  • Donachie TC, Hill AP, Hall HK, Gabriel L. Perfectionism and perfectionistic cognitions in footballers. In: 8th World Congress on Science and Football (WCSF 2015). 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Donachie TC, Martindale A. The effectiveness of a positive psychology intervention on optimism levels in female soccer players. In: The 16th International Conference of the Association of Psychology and Psychiatry for Adults and Children. 2011, Athens, Greece.