School of Psychology: Research Students

  Dr Sinéad Conneely, BA, PhD

   E-mail Sinead Conneely

BA (Psych), PhD, NUI Galway

Sinéad holds a First Class Honours BA (Psych) degree from NUI Galway, and in December 2010 she completed a PhD thesis entitled: ’A psychophysiological examination of factors that influence placebo-type responses: Expectancies, negative emotionality, and stress ’.

Her research interests lie primarily in the domain of stress and health-related outcomes (cardiovascular and hormonal); and the role of personality (specifically, neuroticism/negative affect) in moderating stress responses. Other interests include modern health worries ( http://www.uib.no/mhw/) and the psychological aspects (i.e., the placebo components) of therapeutic responsiveness to medicinally/ pharmacologically inert or fringe therapies.

Within the School of Psychology, Sinéad has been involved in the establishment of a biochemical assay laboratory ( www.nuigalway.ie/psychology/.../Cortisol_analysis_laboratory.doc), used for the analysis of stress-related biomarkers in saliva samples. As an undergraduate student, she held the position of Auditor of the University’s Psychological Society, as well as a number of class representative and official staff-student liaison roles; and as a Postgraduate student, was a committee member of the Psychological Society of Ireland’s Health Division, serving as PRO and Secretary.

Publications

• 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.

Presentations

Conference

• Conneely, S. M., Hughes, B. M., & Kaptein, A. A. Modern health worries and use of orthodox and alternative therapies. Thirteenth European Skeptics Congress, Dublin, September 2007.
• Conneely, S. M., Hughes, B. M., & Kaptein, A. A. Modern health worries, anxiety, and health-related behaviours in an Irish student sample. Twenty-seventh International Conference of the Stress and Anxiety Research Society, Crete, Greece, July, 2006.
• Conneely, S. M., & Hughes, B. M. Modern health worries and gender as predictors of use of alternative, but not orthodox healthcare. 3rd Annual Conference of the Division of Health Psychology, Psychological Social of Ireland, Galway, April 2006.
• Conneely, S., & Hughes, B. M. Does environmental context affect blood pressure? An examination of the effects of various settings and neuroticism on cardiovascular reactivity. 2nd Annual Conference of the Division of Health Psychology, Psychological Society of Ireland. Trinity College Centre for Health Sciences, AMNCH, Tallaght, Dublin, April 2005.
• Conneely, S.M., & Hughes, B. M. Does environmental context affect blood pressure? An examination of the effects of various settings and a personality variable on cardiovascular reactivity. Annual Congress of Psychology Students in Ireland, Galway, March 2004 (highly commended award)

Invited/Other

• Conneely, S. M. Wet lab measurement options: The example of salivary cortisol as a biomarker of stress. Centre for Research on Occupational and Life Stress (CROLS), NUI Galway, laboratory meeting, May 2009.
• Conneely, S. M. Salivary cortisol as a biomarker of psychological stress: theory, methods and applications. Presentation given to Interdisciplinary Health Research Group, Trinity College Dublin, February 2007.

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