School of Psychology: Academic Staff

DR. BRIAN HUGHES Senior Lecturer in Psychology Office: Rm. 216, Cairnes Building (St. Anthony's) Telephone: 353-91-493568         E-mail: Brian Hughes t:b_m_hughes CROLS: www.nuigalway.ie/crols

Dr Brian M. Hughes, BA (NUI), EdM (SUNY), PhD (NUI),
AFPsSI, Reg Psychol (PsSI), MBPsS, CSci

Brian Hughes is the Director of the Centre for Research on Occupational and Life Stress (CROLS) and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He holds Ph.D. and B.A. degrees in psychology from NUI Galway, and an Ed.M. degree in public science education from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has previously held visiting academic appointments at the University of Missouri-Columbia (USA), Universiteit Leiden (Netherlands), the University of Birmingham (UK), King's College London (UK), and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He served as founding Head of the Psychology Department at Dublin Business School (1998-2001) and as President of the Psychological Society of Ireland (2004-2005). He sat on the Presidents Council of the European Federation of Psychology Associations (2004-2005) and was Founding Chair of the PSI's Division of Health Psychology (2003).

His research and publications focus on psychological stress (particularly its impact on cardiovascular psychophysiology, immunity, and health) and on psychosocial moderators of stress processes, such as social support, cognition, and personality. He also conducts research on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, and medicine. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed academic publications. He sits on the Editorial Boards of the journals Anxiety, Stress, and Coping (Taylor & Francis), Psychology & Health (Taylor & Francis), and the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science (Canadian Psychological Association), and has served as Guest Editor of the journal Biological Psychology (Elsevier). In 2007 he received the Early Career Achievement Award from the international Stress and Anxiety Research Society, for “achievement in the science of stress research”, and in 2009 he received the President’s Award for Teaching Excellence at NUI Galway. He is the author of the recently published undergraduate text, Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology (London: Pearson/Prentice Hall).

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Research Interests

Brian Hughes's research and publications focus on psychological stress (particularly its impact on cardiovascular psychophysiology, immunity, and health) and on psychosocial moderators of stress processes, such as social support, cognition, and personality. He also conducts research on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, and medicine. His work has been supported by several research grants (from bodies such as the Irish Heart Foundation, the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the National Suicide Review Group) and has appeared in a number of top international journals (including Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Clinical Psychology Review, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences). He is a Principal Investigator in NUI Galway's applied social sciences consortium who were recently awarded €5.8 million under Cycle 4 of the Irish Government's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, and a Co-Investigator on a major three-year study of sleep, psychosocial factors and blood pressure funded by the Health Research Board.

His PhD students are active in publication and presentation, and their research has attracted of a number of prizes, including Government of Ireland Grants, Faculty Fellowships, and Rotary and Fulbright Scholarships. Upon graduation, they have found employment in universities in Ireland, the UK, the US, and Australia.

Doctoral Students, Current

Doctoral Students, Completed

Doctoral Supervision Committees

Representative Publications   

Authored Book Hughes, B. M. (2012*). Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology. Harlow, UK: Prentice Hall (Pearson). (xv 205 pp.) ISBN: 978-0-273-73728-5 [*Published July 2011]

Edited Volumes

Phillips, A. C., & Hughes, B. M. (Eds.) (2011). Cardiovascular reactivity at a crossroads: Where are we now? Special Issue of Biological Psychology, 86 (2), 95-152 .  ISSN: 0301-0511 

Howard, S., & Hughes, B. M. (Eds.) (2010). STAR 2010: 31st World Conference on Stress and Anxiety Research--Book of Abstracts. Galway: CROLS. ISBN: 978-0955315954

Hughes, B. M., & Walsh, J. C. (Eds.) (2005). Preventing ill health: Psychological risk factors and behavioural interventions. Special issue of the Irish Journal of Psychology, 26 (1-2). (89 pp.) ISBN:0-9531019-9-1

Peer-Reviewed Articles

This year:

59.  Creaven, A-M., & Hughes, B. M. (in press). Cardiovascular responses to mental activation of social support schemas. International Journal of Psychophysiology.

58.  Howard, S., & Hughes, B. M. (in press). Benefit of social support for resilience-building is contingent on social context: Examining cardiovascular adaptation to recurrent stress in women. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping.

57.  Kola, S., Walsh, J. C., Hughes, B. M., & Howard, S. (in press). Attention focus, trait anxiety, and pain perception in patients undergoing colposcopy. European Journal of Pain.

56.  Higgins, N. & Hughes, B. M. (in press). Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias training on cardiovascular responses to stress in women. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping.

55.  Howard, S. & Hughes, B. M. (in press). Construct, concurrent, and discriminant validity of Type D personality in the general population: Associations with anxiety, depression, stress, and cardiac output. Psychology & Health.

Previous years:

54.  Healy, O., Hughes, B. M., Leader, G., & Devlin, S. (2011). Response re: "Comparison of Behavioral Intervention and Sensory-Integration Therapy in the Treatment of Challenging Behavior". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 1439-1441.

53.  Devlin, S., Healy, O., Leader, G., & Hughes, B. M. (2011). Comparison of behavioral intervention and sensory-integration therapy in the treatment of challenging behavior. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 1303-1310. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1149-x 

52. Howard, S., Hughes, B. M., & James, J. E. (2011). Type D personality and hemodynamic reactivity to laboratory stress in women. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 80, 96-102. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.02.006

51.  Pal, S., & Hughes, B. M. (2011). A cross-cultural questionnaire survey of job stress, psychosocial work environment and work-family conflict as predictors of subjective well-being and physical health: Comparing Norwegian and Indian Nurses. In S. Anand, I. Kumar, & A. Srivastava (Eds.), Challenges of the twenty-first century: A trans-disciplinary perspective (pp 218-227.). Noida, India: Macmillan.

50.  Kaptein, A. A., Zandstra, T., Scharloo, M., Vogel, J. J., Godefroy, P., Broadbent, E., Hughes, B. M., van der Mey, A. G. L. (2011). “A time bomb ticking in my head”: Drawings of inner ears by patients with vestibular schwannoma. Clinical Otolaryngology, 36, 183-184. doi:10.1111/j.1749-4486.2011.02264.x

49.  Hughes, B. M., Howard, S., James, J. E., & Higgins, N. M. (2011). Individual differences in adaptation of cardiovascular responses to stress. Biological Psychology, 86, 129-136. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.03.015

48.  Phillips, A. C., & Hughes, B. M. (2011). Cardiovascular reactivity at a crossroads--Where are we now? Biological Psychology, 86, 95-97. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.03.003

47.  Verrier, D. B., & Hughes, B. M. (2011). Spirituality and schizotypy: How personality can influence beliefs and experience.  In O. Cosgrove, L. Cox, C. Kuhling, & P. Mulholland (Eds.), Ireland's new religious movements (pp. 165-175). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN:1-4438-2588-3 

46.  Conneely, S., & Hughes, B. M. (2010). Test anxiety and sensitivity to social support among college students: Effects on salivary cortisol. Cognition, Brain, Behavior, 14, 295-310. [Invited contribution to Special Issue on Test Anxiety]

45.  O'Donovan, A., Hughes, B. M., Slavich, G. M., Lynch, L., Cronin, M. T., O'Farrelly, C., & Malone, K. M. (2010). Clinical anxiety, cortisol, and interleukin-6: Evidence for specificity in emotion-biology relationships. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity, 24, 1074-1077. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2010.03.003

44.  Hughes, B. M., & Higgins, N. M. (2010). Habituation-sensitization of cardiovascular reactivity to repeated stress in smokers and non-smokers: An anthropometrically matched trial. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 76, 34-39. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2010.02.001

43.  Kaptein, A. A., Hughes, B. M., Scharloo, M., Hondebrink, N. V., & Langeveld, T. P. M. (2010). Psychological aspects of adductor spasmodic dysphonia: A prospective population-controlled questionnaire study. Clinical Otolaryngology, 35, 31-38 . doi:10.1111/j.1749-4486.2009.02070.x

42.  Schallmayer, S., & Hughes, B. M. (2010). Impact of oral contraception and neuroticism on cardiovascular stress reactivity across the menstrual cycle. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 15, 105-115. doi:10.1080/13548500903499391

41.  Ferguson, E., Williams, L., O'Connor, R., Howard, S., Hughes, B. M., Johnston, D. W. et al. (2009). A taxometric analysis of Type-D personality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 71, 981-986. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181bd888b

40.  Hughes, B. M. & Howard, S. (2009). Social support reduces resting cardiovascular function in women. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 22, 537-548. doi:10.1080/10615800902814614

39.  Kaptein, A. A., Scharloo, M., Fischer, M. J., Snoei, L., Hughes, B. M., Weinman, J., Kaplan, R. M., & Rabe, K. F. (2009). 50 years of psychological research on patients with COPD: Highway to heaven or road to ruin? Respiratory Medicine, 103, 3-11. doi:10.1016/j.rmed.2008.08.019

38.  Howard, S., & Hughes, B. M. (2009). Does the Type D personality affect health through stress-related psychosomatic pathways? In K. A. Moore & P. Buchwald (Eds.), Stress and anxiety: Application to adolescence, job stress, and personality (pp. 139-144). Berlin: Logos Verlag. ISBN:978-3-8325-2352-7

37.  Hughes, B. M. (2009). Stress, social support, and blood pressure: Worktime-downtime distinctions. In A. Antoniou, C. L. Cooper, G. Chrousos, C. D. Spielberger, & M. W. Eysenck (Eds.), Handbook of managerial behavior and occupational health (pp. 413-426). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. ISBN:978-1-84844-095-1

36.  Hughes, B. M., & Creaven, A-M. (2009). Achieving greater theoretical sophistication in research on socially supportive interactions and health. In A. T. Heatherton & V. A. Walcott (Ed.), Handbook of social interactions in the 21st century (pp. 125-135). New York: Nova Science. ISBN:978-1-60692-860-8

35.  Howard, S., & Hughes, B. M. (2008). Expectancies, not aroma, explain impact of lavender aromatherapy on psychophysiological indices of relaxation in young healthy women. British Journal of Health Psychology, 13, 603-617. doi:10.1348/135910707X238734

34.  O'Donovan, A., & Hughes, B. M. (2008). Access to social support in life and in the laboratory: Combined impact on cardiovascular reactivity to stress and state anxiety. Journal of Health Psychology, 13, 1147-1156. doi:10.1177/1359105308095968

33.  Hughes, B. M. (2008). How should clinical psychologists approach complementary and alternative medicine? Empirical, epistemological, and ethical considerations. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 657-675. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2007.09.005

32.  Kaptein, A. A., Hughes, B. M., Scharloo, M., Fischer, M. J., Snoie, L., Weinman, J., Creer, T. L., & Rabe, K. F. (2008). Illness perceptions about asthma are determinants of outcome. Journal of Asthma, 45, 459-464. doi:10.1080/02770900802040043

31.  Williams, L., O'Connor, R. C., Howard, S., Hughes, B. M., Johnston, D. W., Hay, J. L. et al. (2008). Type-D personality mechanisms of effect: The role of health-related behavior and social support. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 64, 63-69. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2007.06.008

30.  Hughes, B. M. (2008). Evidence-based helping: Dispositional, situational, and temporal parameters of social support. In P. Buchwald, T. Ringeisen, & M. W. Eysenck (Eds.), Stress and anxiety: Application to lifespan development and health promotion (p. 121-132) . Berlin: Logos Verlag. ISBN:978-3-8325-1690-1

29.  O'Donovan, A., & Hughes, B. M. (2008). Factors that moderate the effects of social support on cardiovascular reactivity to stress. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 8, 85-102.

28.  Hughes, B. M. (2007). Social support in ordinary life and laboratory measures of cardiovascular reactivity: Gender differences in habituation-sensitization. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 34, 166-176. doi:10.1007/BF02872671

27.  Hughes, B. M., & Callinan, S. (2007). Trait dominance and cardiovascular reactivity to social and non-social stressors: Gender-specific implications. Psychology and Health, 22, 457-472. doi:10.1080/14768320600976174

26.  Hughes, B. M. (2007). Self-esteem, performance feedback, and cardiovascular stress reactivity. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 20, 239-252. doi:10.1080/10615800701330218

25.  Hughes, B. M. (2007). Individual differences in hostility and habituation of cardiovascular reactivity to stress. Stress and Health, 23, 37-42. doi:10.1002/smi.1117

24.  Hughes, B. M. (2007). Social Support at University Scale: A brief index. Psychological Reports, 100, 76-82.

23.  O'Donovan, A., & Hughes, B. M. (2007). Social support and loneliness in college students: Effects on pulse pressure reactivity to acute stress. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 19, 523-538.

22.  Hughes, B. M. (2006). Natural selection and religiosity: Validity issues in the empirical examination of afterlife cognitions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29, 477-478. doi:10.1017/S0140525X06389108

21.  Hughes, B. M., & Black, A. (2006). Body-esteem as a moderator of cardiovascular stress responses in anatomy students viewing cadaver dissections. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 61, 501-506. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2006.05.004

20.  Hughes, B. M. (2006). Regional patterns of religious affiliation and availability of complementary and alternative medicine. Journal of Religion and Health, 45, 549-557. doi:10.1007/s10943-006-9054-5

19.  O'Donovan, A., & Hughes, B. M. (2006). Your best interests at heart? The Psychologist, 19, 216-219.

18.  Hughes, B. M. (2006). Alternative medicine as tradition in a changing world. In P. Ó Healaí, F. Mugnaini, & T. Thompson (Eds.), The past in the present: A multidisciplinary approach (pp. 119-130). Catania, Italy: Edit Press. ISBN:88-89726-01-6

17.  Hughes, B. M. (2006). Workaholism, the work environment, and occupational stress: A biopsychosocial perspective. In P. Buchwald (Ed.), Stress and anxiety: Application to health, work place, community, and education (pp. 196-211). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press. ISBN:1-84718-071-X

16.  Hughes, B. M. (2005). Support as intimidation: When social interaction elevates stress-related blood pressure. Irish Journal of Psychology, 26, 75-86.

15.  Hughes, B. M. (2005). Birth order and locus of control revisited: Sex of siblings as a moderating factor. Psychological Reports, 97, 419-422.

14.  Hughes, B. M. (2005). Study, examinations, and stress: Blood pressure assessments in college students. Educational Review, 57 (1), 21-36.

13.  Hughes, B. M. (2005). Getting physical. The Psychologist, 18 (2), 65.

12.  Kennedy, D. K., & Hughes, B. M. (2004). The optimism-neuroticism question: An evaluation based on cardiovascular reactivity in female college students. Psychological Record, 54 (3), 373-386.

11.  Hughes, B. M. (2004). Academic study, college examinations, and stress: Issues in the interpretation of cardiovascular reactivity assessments with student participants. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 9 (1), 23-44.

10.  Hughes, B. M. (2003). Self-esteem and changes in heart rate during laboratory-based stress. Psicologica: International Journal of Methodology and Experimental Psychology, 24 (1), 79-91.

9.  Hughes, B. M. (2002). Research on psychometrically evaluated social support and cardiovascular reactivity to stress: Accumulated findings and implications. Studia Psychologica, 44 (4), 311-326.

8.  Hughes, B. M. (2002). Misremembering the appearance of common objects: Further cross-cultural confirmation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 95 (3), 1255-1258.

7.  Hughes, B. M. (2001). Communication ability as a buffer against cardiovascular reactions to stress. Studia Psychologica, 43 (4), 287-294.

6.  Hughes, B. M. (2001). Psychology, hospitalisation, and some thoughts on medical training. European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Health, 4 (1), 7-26.

5.  Hughes, B. M. (2001). Memory and arithmetic as laboratory stressors for analyses of cardiovascular reactivity: A cursory assessment. Studia Psychologica, 43 (1), 3-11.

4.  Hughes, B. M. (2001). Just noticeable differences in 2d and 3d bar charts: A psychophysical analysis of chart readability. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 92 (2), 495-503.

3.  Metekie, A. B., & Hughes, B. M. (2001). A brief survey of khat use among juvenile delinquents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Irish Journal of Psychology, 22 (2), 51-58.

2.  Hughes, B. M. & Curtis, R. (2000). Quality and quantity of social support as differential predictors of cardiovascular reactivity. Irish Journal of Psychology, 21, 16-31.

1.  Hughes, B. M., Brooks, A-M., Sweeney, J., O'Hara, T., & Leahy, A. (2000). Self-reported health status and patient satisfaction. Journal of Health Gain, 4 (4), 12-13.

Refereed Review Articles

5. Hughes, B. M. (2010). Response to Friedman and Krippner. PsycCRITIQUES: Contemporary Psychology--APA Review of Books, 55 (44). doi: 10.1037/a0021626.

4.  Hughes, B. M. (2010). Extraordinary people, ordinary evidence: New paradigms for parapsychology, same old problem [Review of the book Mysterious Minds: The Neurobiology of Psychics, Mediums, and Other Extraordinary People, by S. Krippner and H. Friedman (Eds.)]. PsycCRITIQUES: Contemporary Psychology--APA Review of Books, 55 (30). doi: 10.1037/a0019804.

3.  Hughes, B. M. (2007). To Err is Humane (sorry, Human): Enhancing health care and patient safety through ergonomics [Review of the book Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety, by P. Carayon (Ed.)]. PsycCRITIQUES: Contemporary Psychology--APA Review of Books, 52 (37). doi: 10.1037/a0007997.

2.  Hughes, B. M. (2006). Lies, damn lies, and pseudoscience: The selling of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) [Review of the book Secrets, Lies, Betrayals: The Body/Mind Connection--How the Body Holds the Secrets of a Life, and How to Unlock Them, by M. Scarf]. PsycCRITIQUES: Contemporary Psychology--APA Review of Books, 51 (10). doi: 10.1037/a0001765.

1.  Hughes, B. M. (2005). Trouble with a capital E: Evolutionary psychology and the descent of (straw) man [Review of the book Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature, by D. J. Buller]. PsycCRITIQUES: Contemporary Psychology--APA Review of Books, 50 (30). doi: 10.1037/05169111.

Grants

External

2009: Health Research Board.  Summer Student Scholarships (2), with S. Howard.

2007-2011: Higher Education Authority, Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions. Project Leader for CROLS within NUI Galway consortium of the Irish Social Sciences Platform (award: €5.8 million).

2007: Higher Education Authority, Equipment Grant Scheme.  Project Leader for CROLS within NUI Galway consortium (award: €0.3 million).

2003-2005: Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.  Research Project Grant.

2003-2005: Irish Heart Foundation.  Research Project Grant.

2003-2004: National Suicide Review Group.  Research Project Grant (with M. E. Gregg & J. E. James).

1998-1999: Department of Health and Children.  Research Funding (with J. Sweeney & A. Leahy).

Internal

NUI Galway Millennium Research Fund. Two Travel Assistance Grants (2007, 2008), one Conference Hosting Grant (2010), and three Research Project Grants (2001, 2001, 2002).

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