Matthew Mcdonald
Biographic Data
| ID | 3593844 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Mcdonald |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcdonald |
| SIGNATURE | MCDONALD M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Assumption University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7460-4013 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 113 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 30 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Reconceptualizing ethical leadership for the global south
“You should care about marriage”
Anecdotal evidence, commentary in the media, and research conducted by intergovernmental organizations in Vietnam indicate that sexism is commonly experienced by women in the Vietnamese workplace. However, few systematic studies to date have been conducted on the prevalence and types of sexism that Vietnamese women experience. This cross-sectional exploratory study seeks to inquire into women's experiences of sexism in the STEM field and its pote…
The story of this special issue on critical perspectives in work and organizational psychology
In this editorial, we tell the story of how the Special Issue on Critical Perspectives in Work and Organizational Psychology (CWOP) came about, how it fits within the broader agenda of building a critical community within Work and Organizational Psychology, and how future research and thought may be inspired by the collection of critical papers related to work and organizational psychology. We introduce the term “criticalizing” as a key concept i…
A Different Ball Game’
Rural areas were described as 'a different ball game' due to limited local services and resources in comparison to metropolitan areas. Study findings have synergies with previous studies undertaken in rural contexts including in relation to the power of word of mouth, the importance of trust, and local partner organisations. Findings have implications for engaging rural men in health interventions in rural contexts where professional sporting con…
Extracurricular activities, graduate attributes and serious leisure
Research indicates that students’ participation in university-based extracurricular activities contributes to their graduate attributes such as leadership, teamwork, communication and resilience. However, it has yet to be determined which types of extracurricular activities are more impactful. This study inquired if participation in competitive sporting activities compared to social-cultural clubs have a greater impact on graduate attributes. Stu…
The Aussie-FIT process evaluation
OBJECTIVE: This process evaluation aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Aussie-FIT, a group-based weight loss intervention for men with overweight and obesity in Australia. DESIGN: = 93) were analysed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We explored the feasibility and acceptability of program setting and context, recruitment strategies, factors impacting implementation and mechanisms of impact. RESULTS: Recruitment via Australian Football L…
Understanding the experiences of Vietnamese women leaders
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the value(s) of existential philosophy and psychology for understanding women’s lives in a cross-cultural context. It focuses on Vietnamese women and the formation of their self-identity in the process of becoming a leader. Theoretically, we draw on the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger’s fundamental ontology that emphasizes being, temporality and context (thrownness), Simone de Beauvoir’s ac…
Exploring adolescent computer gaming as leisure experience and consumption
The popular media and some aspects of social science research view computer gaming either in disruptive pathological terms or through one-dimensional notions, such as violence inducing or as simple escapism. These singular perspectives create gaps in the research and skew our understanding of computer games as a social phenomenon. To address this, we examine computer gaming as a leisure experience in the context of contemporary western consumer c…
"Selling Their Jobs?" Thatcherism, Voluntary Redundancy and Worker Resocialisation
The election of Margaret Thatcher's government in 1979 is widely regarded as a watershed in British history, credited with transforming the country's socioeconomic traditions, as well as helping to inspire a global turn towards neoliberal political economy. Thatcher's project sought not only to promote free market economics, but also propel its accompanying underpinning ideological tenets, such as individualism, competition, enterprise, and consu…
Positive Psychology Applied to the Workplace
An ever-expanding literature now exists critiquing the theory and philosophy of positive psychology, however, research has yet to provide a critical analysis of its practical application . The current study extends on these critiques by exploring how positive psychology is applied to the workplace by investigating practitioner-based sources including interviews with workplace coaches who use positive psychological interventions and applied publis…
Digital gaming culture in Vietnam
New information and communication technologies continue to spread rapidly into the Asian marketplace, which has led to new patterns of leisure consumption, one of the most popular being digital gaming. However, in Vietnam there is limited research on gaming as a leisure activity. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of digital gaming in Vietnam to better understand how it is practiced in this culture. Semi-structured interviews …
Gender relations and social media
Since the introduction of Đổi Mới (market economic reforms) in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid social, cultural, economic and technological changes. The purpose of this study is to explore the nexus between gender relations and social media with a focus on how young urban Vietnamese women present themselves on Facebook. Grounded theory was employed to inquire into this phenomenon, revealing that the participants use various self-presentation …
Tourist Behaviour
This chapter examines tourists' behaviour and experiences in the lodging sector, particularly for luxury accommodation. Guests' comments obtained from TripAdvisor.com were reviewed and analysed to investigate what tourists seek when staying in luxury hotels. Five luxury accommodation properties from the Traveller's Choice 2018 Winners were selected for the study. They are located in Maldives, Marrakech – Morocco, Cusco – Peru, Ubud, Bali – Indone…
Social psychology, consumer culture and neoliberalism
The following essay responds to three main issues raised by Phelps and White (2018) in their critical commentary on our article (McDonald, Gough, Wearing & Deville, 2017). The first concerns the lack of precision in the conceptualisation of neoliberalism and the recent threats to it as we enter a potentially new phase of capitalism. While we share Phelps and White's concern, we argue that there is value in continuing to use neoliberalism as a con…
Poor children on Tinder’ and their Barbie Saviours
Barbie Saviours is a satirical Instagram account and linked Facebook page that depict white western Barbies volunteering in Africa with the bio, ‘Jesus. Adventures. Africa. Two worlds. One love. Babies. Beauty. Not qualified. Called. 20 years old. It’s not about me... but it kind of is’. Drawing on emerging theories of feminist political economy, we address the growing backlash against volunteer tourism in the popular media and argue that critiqu…
Social Psychology, Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy
Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self-identity and their relate…
Journeys of creation
The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis of the tourist experience through a focus on ‘epiphany’, which is conceptualized as an interactional moment that creates change and transformation in self-identity. We suggest that an epiphany in tourism can be understood by analysing its links with the philosophical concepts of existential authenticity, the Other and the unknown. In the experience of the unknown, the traveller becomes more consci…
Leisure in a world of ‘com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games’
This article is a conversation between an academic and his 14-year-old son and investigates the links between leisure and computer games. It focuses specifically on the son as an adolescent in the context of Western consumer society. It is interested in how he explores his leisure in relation to the computer game ‘League of Legends’ and how this indicates his adolescent self, which is a self that is increasingly targeted, marketed, packaged and p…
A Reconceptualisation of the Self in Humanistic Psychology
Since the early 1970s humanistic psychology has struggled to remain a relevant force in the social and psychological sciences, we attribute this in part to a conceptualisation of the self rooted in theoretically outmoded thinking. In response to the issue of relevancy a sociocultural turn has been called for within humanistic psychology, which draws directly and indirectly on the conceptual insights of Michel Foucault. However, this growing body …
Recurrence and Progression of Meningioma in Male-to-Female Transgender Individuals During Exogenous Hormone Use
The role of sex hormones in the pathogenesis of meningioma is an area of ongoing investigation. Here we describe the third published case of a de novo World Health Organization Grade I meningioma occurring in a male-to-female transgender individual using exogenous hormones. Uniquely, this progressed to an atypical meningioma within 2 years of initial diagnosis. The epidemiological link between hormone use and development of meningioma remains inc…
Consumer culture, the mobilisation of the narcissistic self and adolescent deviant leisure
The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the consumer packaging of adolescent deviance through commodified leisure. It argues that under conditions of neoliberalism, deviant leisure is commodified by industry, emptying deviance of its political potential, selling it back to adolescents in the form of narcissistic self-identities. These self-identities appear to challenge authority, albeit produced within youth culture and marketing, purchas…
Performance, Agency and Change in Surfing Tourist Space
Slow’n Down the Town to Let Nature Grow
This book examines the emerging phenomenon of slow tourism, addressing growing consumer concerns with quality leisure time, environmental and cultural sustainability, as well as the embodied experience of place. Drawing on a range of international case studies, the book explores how slow tourism encapsulates a range of lifestyle practices, mobilities and ethics
Positive psychology
This article analyzes and critiques some of the 'truth claims' of positive psychology by applying Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge, discipline, and governmentality. It illustrates how positive psychology deploys mechanisms to devalue, subjugate, and discredit humanistic psychology. It also illustrates how positive psychology privileges particular modes of functioning by classifying and categorizing character strengths and virtues, supportin…
Narcissism and Neo-Liberalism
The purpose of this paper is to trace some of the links between neo-liberalism, narcissism and the influence of work, leisure and consumer culture on self-identity. By examining narcissism as an instrument of personality and social psychological analysis, we investigate the ways in which self-identity in neo-liberal societies is constructed and fulfilled through interactions with the marketplace, promoting self-interest and success in the form of…
Performance, Agency and Change in Surfing Tourist Space
De-Constructing Wonderland
The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct surfing tourist space (Wonderland) in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, and to show the distribution of wealth generated through foreign tourists accessing local resources is inequitable and unsustainable. The discovery of world-class surf in this region in the early 1990’s spawned the rapid development of a foreign-controlled surfing tourism industry. This paper seeks to establish the notion of ‘tourist…
Social Psychology, Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy
Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self-identity and their relate…
The Nature of Epiphanic Experience
The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate positive change and transformation that is sudden and abrupt, as defined by the term epiphany. Due to the disparate nature of the epiphanic literature, a thorough and wide-ranging review was undertaken, producing a set of six core characteristics, which were tested and interpreted from a self-identity existential perspective. A narrative inquiry approach to methodology was employed to collect and anal…
Exploring adolescent computer gaming as leisure experience and consumption
The popular media and some aspects of social science research view computer gaming either in disruptive pathological terms or through one-dimensional notions, such as violence inducing or as simple escapism. These singular perspectives create gaps in the research and skew our understanding of computer games as a social phenomenon. To address this, we examine computer gaming as a leisure experience in the context of contemporary western consumer c…
Poor children on Tinder’ and their Barbie Saviours
Barbie Saviours is a satirical Instagram account and linked Facebook page that depict white western Barbies volunteering in Africa with the bio, ‘Jesus. Adventures. Africa. Two worlds. One love. Babies. Beauty. Not qualified. Called. 20 years old. It’s not about me... but it kind of is’. Drawing on emerging theories of feminist political economy, we address the growing backlash against volunteer tourism in the popular media and argue that critiqu…
Digital gaming culture in Vietnam
New information and communication technologies continue to spread rapidly into the Asian marketplace, which has led to new patterns of leisure consumption, one of the most popular being digital gaming. However, in Vietnam there is limited research on gaming as a leisure activity. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of digital gaming in Vietnam to better understand how it is practiced in this culture. Semi-structured interviews …
Narcissism and Neo-Liberalism
The purpose of this paper is to trace some of the links between neo-liberalism, narcissism and the influence of work, leisure and consumer culture on self-identity. By examining narcissism as an instrument of personality and social psychological analysis, we investigate the ways in which self-identity in neo-liberal societies is constructed and fulfilled through interactions with the marketplace, promoting self-interest and success in the form of…
Journeys of creation
The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis of the tourist experience through a focus on ‘epiphany’, which is conceptualized as an interactional moment that creates change and transformation in self-identity. We suggest that an epiphany in tourism can be understood by analysing its links with the philosophical concepts of existential authenticity, the Other and the unknown. In the experience of the unknown, the traveller becomes more consci…
Leisure in a world of ‘com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games’
This article is a conversation between an academic and his 14-year-old son and investigates the links between leisure and computer games. It focuses specifically on the son as an adolescent in the context of Western consumer society. It is interested in how he explores his leisure in relation to the computer game ‘League of Legends’ and how this indicates his adolescent self, which is a self that is increasingly targeted, marketed, packaged and p…
Consumer culture, the mobilisation of the narcissistic self and adolescent deviant leisure
The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the consumer packaging of adolescent deviance through commodified leisure. It argues that under conditions of neoliberalism, deviant leisure is commodified by industry, emptying deviance of its political potential, selling it back to adolescents in the form of narcissistic self-identities. These self-identities appear to challenge authority, albeit produced within youth culture and marketing, purchas…
Gender relations and social media
Since the introduction of Đổi Mới (market economic reforms) in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid social, cultural, economic and technological changes. The purpose of this study is to explore the nexus between gender relations and social media with a focus on how young urban Vietnamese women present themselves on Facebook. Grounded theory was employed to inquire into this phenomenon, revealing that the participants use various self-presentation …
Extracurricular activities, graduate attributes and serious leisure
Research indicates that students’ participation in university-based extracurricular activities contributes to their graduate attributes such as leadership, teamwork, communication and resilience. However, it has yet to be determined which types of extracurricular activities are more impactful. This study inquired if participation in competitive sporting activities compared to social-cultural clubs have a greater impact on graduate attributes. Stu…
Positive Psychology Applied to the Workplace
An ever-expanding literature now exists critiquing the theory and philosophy of positive psychology, however, research has yet to provide a critical analysis of its practical application . The current study extends on these critiques by exploring how positive psychology is applied to the workplace by investigating practitioner-based sources including interviews with workplace coaches who use positive psychological interventions and applied publis…
Social psychology, consumer culture and neoliberalism
The following essay responds to three main issues raised by Phelps and White (2018) in their critical commentary on our article (McDonald, Gough, Wearing & Deville, 2017). The first concerns the lack of precision in the conceptualisation of neoliberalism and the recent threats to it as we enter a potentially new phase of capitalism. While we share Phelps and White's concern, we argue that there is value in continuing to use neoliberalism as a con…
Interconnected Worlds
Interconnected Worlds
Global ecotourism policies and case studies perspectives and constraints
De-Constructing Wonderland
The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct surfing tourist space (Wonderland) in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, and to show the distribution of wealth generated through foreign tourists accessing local resources is inequitable and unsustainable. The discovery of world-class surf in this region in the early 1990’s spawned the rapid development of a foreign-controlled surfing tourism industry. This paper seeks to establish the notion of ‘tourist…
Narcissism and Neo-Liberalism
The purpose of this paper is to trace some of the links between neo-liberalism, narcissism and the influence of work, leisure and consumer culture on self-identity. By examining narcissism as an instrument of personality and social psychological analysis, we investigate the ways in which self-identity in neo-liberal societies is constructed and fulfilled through interactions with the marketplace, promoting self-interest and success in the form of…
D e ‐ composition ? S chenker ( and his C orpus ) T oday
The Nature of Epiphanic Experience
The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate positive change and transformation that is sudden and abrupt, as defined by the term epiphany. Due to the disparate nature of the epiphanic literature, a thorough and wide-ranging review was undertaken, producing a set of six core characteristics, which were tested and interpreted from a self-identity existential perspective. A narrative inquiry approach to methodology was employed to collect and anal…
Positive psychology
This article analyzes and critiques some of the 'truth claims' of positive psychology by applying Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge, discipline, and governmentality. It illustrates how positive psychology deploys mechanisms to devalue, subjugate, and discredit humanistic psychology. It also illustrates how positive psychology privileges particular modes of functioning by classifying and categorizing character strengths and virtues, supportin…
Slow’n Down the Town to Let Nature Grow
This book examines the emerging phenomenon of slow tourism, addressing growing consumer concerns with quality leisure time, environmental and cultural sustainability, as well as the embodied experience of place. Drawing on a range of international case studies, the book explores how slow tourism encapsulates a range of lifestyle practices, mobilities and ethics
A Reconceptualisation of the Self in Humanistic Psychology
Since the early 1970s humanistic psychology has struggled to remain a relevant force in the social and psychological sciences, we attribute this in part to a conceptualisation of the self rooted in theoretically outmoded thinking. In response to the issue of relevancy a sociocultural turn has been called for within humanistic psychology, which draws directly and indirectly on the conceptual insights of Michel Foucault. However, this growing body …
Recurrence and Progression of Meningioma in Male-to-Female Transgender Individuals During Exogenous Hormone Use
The role of sex hormones in the pathogenesis of meningioma is an area of ongoing investigation. Here we describe the third published case of a de novo World Health Organization Grade I meningioma occurring in a male-to-female transgender individual using exogenous hormones. Uniquely, this progressed to an atypical meningioma within 2 years of initial diagnosis. The epidemiological link between hormone use and development of meningioma remains inc…
Consumer culture, the mobilisation of the narcissistic self and adolescent deviant leisure
The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the consumer packaging of adolescent deviance through commodified leisure. It argues that under conditions of neoliberalism, deviant leisure is commodified by industry, emptying deviance of its political potential, selling it back to adolescents in the form of narcissistic self-identities. These self-identities appear to challenge authority, albeit produced within youth culture and marketing, purchas…
Performance, Agency and Change in Surfing Tourist Space
Leisure in a world of ‘com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games’
This article is a conversation between an academic and his 14-year-old son and investigates the links between leisure and computer games. It focuses specifically on the son as an adolescent in the context of Western consumer society. It is interested in how he explores his leisure in relation to the computer game ‘League of Legends’ and how this indicates his adolescent self, which is a self that is increasingly targeted, marketed, packaged and p…
Journeys of creation
The purpose of this study is to offer an analysis of the tourist experience through a focus on ‘epiphany’, which is conceptualized as an interactional moment that creates change and transformation in self-identity. We suggest that an epiphany in tourism can be understood by analysing its links with the philosophical concepts of existential authenticity, the Other and the unknown. In the experience of the unknown, the traveller becomes more consci…
Social Psychology, Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy
Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self-identity and their relate…
Poor children on Tinder’ and their Barbie Saviours
Barbie Saviours is a satirical Instagram account and linked Facebook page that depict white western Barbies volunteering in Africa with the bio, ‘Jesus. Adventures. Africa. Two worlds. One love. Babies. Beauty. Not qualified. Called. 20 years old. It’s not about me... but it kind of is’. Drawing on emerging theories of feminist political economy, we address the growing backlash against volunteer tourism in the popular media and argue that critiqu…
Tourist Behaviour
This chapter examines tourists' behaviour and experiences in the lodging sector, particularly for luxury accommodation. Guests' comments obtained from TripAdvisor.com were reviewed and analysed to investigate what tourists seek when staying in luxury hotels. Five luxury accommodation properties from the Traveller's Choice 2018 Winners were selected for the study. They are located in Maldives, Marrakech – Morocco, Cusco – Peru, Ubud, Bali – Indone…
Social psychology, consumer culture and neoliberalism
The following essay responds to three main issues raised by Phelps and White (2018) in their critical commentary on our article (McDonald, Gough, Wearing & Deville, 2017). The first concerns the lack of precision in the conceptualisation of neoliberalism and the recent threats to it as we enter a potentially new phase of capitalism. While we share Phelps and White's concern, we argue that there is value in continuing to use neoliberalism as a con…
Digital gaming culture in Vietnam
New information and communication technologies continue to spread rapidly into the Asian marketplace, which has led to new patterns of leisure consumption, one of the most popular being digital gaming. However, in Vietnam there is limited research on gaming as a leisure activity. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of digital gaming in Vietnam to better understand how it is practiced in this culture. Semi-structured interviews …
Gender relations and social media
Since the introduction of Đổi Mới (market economic reforms) in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid social, cultural, economic and technological changes. The purpose of this study is to explore the nexus between gender relations and social media with a focus on how young urban Vietnamese women present themselves on Facebook. Grounded theory was employed to inquire into this phenomenon, revealing that the participants use various self-presentation …
Positive Psychology Applied to the Workplace
An ever-expanding literature now exists critiquing the theory and philosophy of positive psychology, however, research has yet to provide a critical analysis of its practical application . The current study extends on these critiques by exploring how positive psychology is applied to the workplace by investigating practitioner-based sources including interviews with workplace coaches who use positive psychological interventions and applied publis…
The Aussie-FIT process evaluation
OBJECTIVE: This process evaluation aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Aussie-FIT, a group-based weight loss intervention for men with overweight and obesity in Australia. DESIGN: = 93) were analysed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We explored the feasibility and acceptability of program setting and context, recruitment strategies, factors impacting implementation and mechanisms of impact. RESULTS: Recruitment via Australian Football L…
Understanding the experiences of Vietnamese women leaders
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the value(s) of existential philosophy and psychology for understanding women’s lives in a cross-cultural context. It focuses on Vietnamese women and the formation of their self-identity in the process of becoming a leader. Theoretically, we draw on the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger’s fundamental ontology that emphasizes being, temporality and context (thrownness), Simone de Beauvoir’s ac…
Exploring adolescent computer gaming as leisure experience and consumption
The popular media and some aspects of social science research view computer gaming either in disruptive pathological terms or through one-dimensional notions, such as violence inducing or as simple escapism. These singular perspectives create gaps in the research and skew our understanding of computer games as a social phenomenon. To address this, we examine computer gaming as a leisure experience in the context of contemporary western consumer c…
"Selling Their Jobs?" Thatcherism, Voluntary Redundancy and Worker Resocialisation
The election of Margaret Thatcher's government in 1979 is widely regarded as a watershed in British history, credited with transforming the country's socioeconomic traditions, as well as helping to inspire a global turn towards neoliberal political economy. Thatcher's project sought not only to promote free market economics, but also propel its accompanying underpinning ideological tenets, such as individualism, competition, enterprise, and consu…
Sociology (20 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Political science (14 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Tourism (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Advertising (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works)