The Mental Toughness Research Group (MTOUGH) includes British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited Sport and Exercise Psychologists and is primarily focused upon research that aims to facilitate more effective applied practice and theoretical understanding of mental toughness across sport settings and beyond.

The group, based in the School of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Lincoln, comprises of a small number of committed researchers who specialise in qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method research designs. Members of the group regularly publish their work in peer-reviewed journals and present work at national and international conferences.

Our current research is focused in the following areas:

• Brain regions associated with mental toughness using fMRI
• Cognitive mechanisms that underpin mental toughness
• The relationships between mental toughness, achievement and dropout in University students
• The relationship between mental toughness and flow in sports participants
• The role of mental toughness in exercise adherence
• The development of mental toughness in professional sports people.

We are also developing interventions aimed at enhancing mental toughness.

Members of MTOUGH are proficient with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches to research projects. The philosophy of the group is generally not to be limited to one research approach, rather to fit the method and research design to best answer the specific question.