angela o'dea

Dr. Angela O’Dea is a research psychologist currently employed by NUI Galway as a post-doctoral researcher in Department of General Practice at the School of Medicine on a Health Research Board funded project examining screening, surveillance and lifestyle factors associated with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. She received her B.A. (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Glamorgan in Wales in 1996; M.Sc. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1997; and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2002. Dr. O’Dea’s research involved using statistical models to investigate the role of leaders in determining safety outcomes in the offshore oil and gas industry.

Dr. O’Dea moved to the United States in 2002 where she took a position as a Research Scientist with Klein Associates, a division, Applied Research Associates - in Dayton Ohio. During her time at Klein Associates Dr. O’Dea worked on large-scale research projects for the military, foreign and US government agencies and various high reliability organizations. Project experience includes: investigating individual and team decisionmaking (and situation awareness) in critical environments, investigating teamworking and collaboration in collocated and distributed teams, designing evaluating and delivering training and instructional materials, supporting the design and development decision support systems.

Research Interests

• Safety and error management
• Naturalistic decisionmaking
• Decision-centered research and decision-centered design
• Team working
• Leadership
• Training
• Research ethics
• Clinical research

Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

• Introduction to statistics and SPSS
• Cognitive psychology

Postgraduate Teaching:

• Research methods
• Research ethics
• Project management

Selected Publications

O’Connor, P., Buttrey, S, O’Dea, A., Kennedy, Q. (under review). An assessment of the relationship between safety climate and mishap risk in U.S. Naval aviation.

O’Connor, P., Buttrey, S, O’Dea, A., Kennedy, Q. (2011). Identifying and addressing the limitations of safety climate surveys. Journal of Safety Research, 42, 259-265.

O’Connor, P., O’Dea, A., Kennedy, Q.,  Butterey, S. (2011). Measuring safety climate in the aviation industry: A review and recommendations for the future. Safety Science, 49, 128-138.

O’Connor, P., O’Dea, A., Flin, R. (2008). Identifying the team skills required by nuclear operations personnel. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 38(11), 1028-1037.

O’Connor, P., O’Dea, A. (2007). The U.S. Navy’s aviation safety program: A critical review. International Journal of Applied Aviation Studies, 7(2), 312-329.

O’Connor, P., O’Dea, A., Melton. J. (2007). Methodology for identifying the human error in U.S. Navy diving accidents. Human Factors, 49(2), 214-226.

Flin, R., O'Dea, A., Yule, S. (2002). Leadership behaviors for maximizing safety. Journal of Petroleum Technology, 54(11), 28-32.

O’Dea, A., Flin, R. (2000). Site managers and safety leadership in the offshore oil and gas industry. Safety Science, 37, 39-57.

O’Dea, A.,, Flin, R. (1998).Safety initiatives: Room for improvement. Journal of Petroleum Review, 52, 26-27.