Brian P. O’Connor

the University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Purpose To reveal the within-person trajectories in quality of life (QOL) in patients receiving early palliative care. Previous studies have mostly focused aggregated trajectories, based on all research participants combined, whereas this study focused on within-person trajectories in QOL and on whether the variability in QOL trajectories across pa...

Functions for eleven procedures for determining the number of factors, including functions for parallel analysis and the minimum average partial test. There are also functions for conducting principal components analysis, principal axis factor analysis, maximum likelihood factor analysis, image factor analysis, and extension factor analysis, all of...

Functions for revealing what happens when effect size estimates from previous studies are taken into account when evaluating each new dataset in a study sequence. The analyses can be conducted for cumulative meta-analyses and for Bayesian data analyses. The package contains sample data for a wide selection of research topics. Jointly considering pr...

Background Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) have significantly lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL) compared to the general population and patients with other heart diseases. The research emphasis on the influence of AF symptoms on HRQoL overshadows the role of individual characteristics. To address this gap, this study’s purpose was...

Background: The purpose of this study was to design, usability test, and explore the feasibility of a web-based educational platform/intervention for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) as part of their virtual AF care. Methods: Participants were patients attending a specialized AF clinic. The multiple mixed-methods design included website de...

Background Telehealth can optimize access to specialty care for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Virtual AF care, however, may not fit with the complex needs of patients with AF. Objective This study aims to explore the correlation among attitudes toward health care technologies, self-efficacy, and telehealth satisfaction as part of the fut...

Background Examining characteristics of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) has the potential to help in identifying groups of patients who might benefit from different management approaches. Methods Secondary analysis of online survey data was combined with clinic referral data abstraction from 196 patients with AF attending an AF specialty cl...

Produces SPSS- and SAS-like output for linear discriminant function analysis and canonical correlation analysis.

BACKGROUND Telehealth can optimize access to specialty care for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Virtual AF care, however, may not fit with the complex needs of patients with AF. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the correlation among attitudes toward health care technologies, self-efficacy, and telehealth satisfaction as part of the fut...

Description Provides SPSS-and SAS-like output for least squares multiple regression and moderated regression, as well as interaction plots and Johnson-Neyman regions of significance for interactions. The output includes standardized coefficients, partial and semi-partial correlations, collinearity diagnostics, plots of residuals, and detailed infor...

Provides 'SPSS'- and 'SAS'-like output for cross tabulations of two categorical variables (CROSSTABS) and for hierarchical loglinear analyses of two or more categorical variables (LOGLINEAR).

Lag-sequential analysis is a method of assessing of patterns (what tends to follow what?) in sequences of codes. The codes are typically for discrete behaviors or states. The functions in this package read a stream of codes, or a frequency transition matrix, and produce a variety of lag sequential statistics, including transitional frequencies, exp...

Objectives: This study examined how childhood residential moves and non-normative school transitions are associated with a sense of belonging and depression in young adults, and how parental and peer relationships may serve as moderators of these associations. Methods: The participants were 487 young adults (358 females, 129 males; mean age = 19 ye...

This chapter provides an overview of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and of the problems involved with NHST. This is followed by a non-technical description of perhaps the most useful NHST alternative, Bayesian methods. We then provide illustrations of an unnecessary, tragic consequence of using NHST in a series of individual studies: T...

The extent to which morality and being a moral person are important to one’s identity is most commonly assessed using Aquino and Reed’s (2002 Aquino, K., & Reed, A. II. (2002). The self-importance of moral identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1423–1440.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Self-Importan...

Force produced by the muscle during contraction is applied to the tendon and distributed through the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the tendon. This ratio of force to the tendon CSA is quantified as the tendon mechanical property of stress. Stress is traditionally calculated using the resting tendon CSA; however, this does not take into account the...

Bodybuilding is often considered more appropriate for men than for women. Previous research has shown that knowledge of a target’s involvement in bodybuilding influences interpersonal judgments. The present study examined whether this is also the case for women with competitive-type bodybuilder physiques. Participants (N = 263) were shown photograp...

Dix-huit ensembles de données pour une vaste gamme de sujets de recherche ont été utilisés pour illustrer l’importance de tenir compte de résultats antérieurs lorsqu’on vise à déterminer un effet dans le cadre de l’évaluation d’un nouvel ensemble de données. Les méthodes d’analyse traditionnelles qui ne prennent pas en compte les résultats antérieu...

Muscle strength is sex-related and declines with advancing age; yet, a comprehensive comparative evaluation of age-related strength loss in human females and males has not been undertaken. To do so, segmented piecewise regression analysis was performed on aggregated data from studies published from 1990 to 2018 and are available in CINAHL, EMBASE,...

The letter by JP Nunes and colleagues raise concerns over the conclusions and results of the manuscript “Stretch training induces unequal adaptation in muscle fascicles and thickness of the medial and lateral gastrocnemii” published in Scand J Med Sci Sports 27(12):1597‐1604, 2017 based on the statistical analysis employed. Nunes et al., are thanke...

Statistical and graphical methods were used to explore the conceptual networks of high and low psychopathy scores, with a particular focus on discovering what constitutes the opposite of psychopathy. The participants, 615 university students, completed three measures of psychopathy along with an assortment of measures of personality, interpersonal...

Markon’s (2018) comment on the O’Connor (2017) article advances the debate on the computation of reliability coefficients from test information functions. The present reply to Markon (2018) places his statements in broader context regarding the interpretation of test information values and it outlines an area of apparent disagreement. It also descr...

This article begins with a brief summary of the problems with null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), followed by a short, nontechnical description of perhaps the most useful NHST alternative, Bayesian methods. Simple R commands and output for Bayesian correlations, regressions, and ANOVA are provided. This is followed by examples of how to de...

Background Few services are available to support rural older adults living at home with advancing chronic illness. The objective of this project was to pilot a nurse-led navigation service to provide early palliative support for rural older adults and their families living at home with advancing chronic illness. Methods Twenty-five older adults an...

Objective: The Brown Location Test (BLT) was developed to remedy some of the problems in existing visual-based memory tests. The hand version has demonstrated good psychometric properties, the ability to provide lateralization information for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients, and has normative data. The purpose of this study was to compare t...

Measurement precision often fluctuates across latent trait continuums. Plots of test information are typically provided in item response theory (IRT) investigations, but the numerical values for test information are not readily interpretable. This article draws attention to the important, nonlinear relationships between test information, location-s...

Context: In problem-based learning (PBL), students construct concept maps that integrate different concepts related to the PBL case and are guided by the learning needs generated in small-group tutorials. Although an instrument to measure students' concept maps in PBL programmes has been developed, the psychometric properties of this instrument ha...

Item response theory analyses were conducted on Lyubomirsky and Lepper’s (Soc Indic Res 46:137–155, 1999) Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) in a sample of 1,037 undergraduates. In general, the SHS performed well. However, four, clear, previously unreported findings emerged that suggest modifications for improving the scale. The measure displayed wea...

Aim To describe the symptoms and functional changes in patients with high levels of somatization who were referred to an outpatient, multidisciplinary, shared mental healthcare (SMHC) service that primarily offered cognitive behavioural therapy. Second, we wished to compare the levels of somatization in this outpatient clinical sample with previous...

The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is arguably the predominant model of general personality structure. There is a considerable body of research supporting its construct validity and practical application. There have been a few books specifically concerning the FFM, but to date there has not yet been a text that brings together in one location all that is...

The current work builds a definition of irritability from both academic definitions and lay perspectives. In Study 1, a quantitative content analysis of academic definitions resulted in eight main content categories (i.e., behaviour, emotion or affect, cognition, physiological, qualifiers, irritant, stability or endurance, and other). In Study 2, a...

Elevated levels of irritability have been reported across a range of psychiatric and medical conditions. However, research on the causes, consequences, and treatments of irritability has been hindered by limitations in existing measurement tools. This study aimed to develop a brief, reliable, and valid self-report measure of irritability that is su...

The goal of this study was to investigate the translate-ability of creative works into other domains. We tested whether people were able to recognize which works of art were inspired by which pieces of music. Three expert painters created four paintings, each of which was the artist's interpretation of one of four different pieces of instrumental m...

A general dynamical process model of psychiatric disorders is proposed that specifies the basic cognitive processes involved in the transition from beliefs about self, others and world that are normal and adaptive, to beliefs that are rigid, extreme, and maladaptive. The relevant thought trajectories are self-confirming, and are considered to under...

The goal of this study was to investigate the translation of creative works into other domains. We tested whether people were able to recognize which works of art were inspired by which pieces of music. Three expert painters created four paintings, each of which was the artist's interpretation of one of four different pieces of instrumental music....

Attempts to increase socially responsible behavior are more likely to succeed if they address how individuals perceive their current behavior. This study examined how individuals perceived their own behavior in a “commons dilemma”—a particular kind of social dilemma in which individuals must decide how much of a shared resource to take for themselv...

We present a set of studies that tested the hypothesis that creative style is recognizable within and across domains. Art students were shown two sets of paintings, the first by five famous artists and the second by their art student peers. For both sets, they guessed the creators of the works at above-chance levels. In a similar study, creative wr...

Popular statistical software packages do not have the proper procedures for determining the number of components in factor and principal components analyses. Parallel analysis and Velicer’s minimum average partial (MAP) test are validated procedures, recommended widely by statisticians. However, many researchers continue to use alternative, simpler...

Social allergens are behaviors or characteristics of others that generate strong, negative experiences in us. As with physical allergens, initial exposures may prompt only mild and slow-developing aversive reactions, whereas repeated exposures can elicit immediate and intensely uncomfortable emotions. Social allergens are pervasive and harmful to r...

Emotional deception is a common behaviour that can have major consequences if undetected. For example, the sincerity of an offender's expressed remorse is an important factor in sentencing and parole hearings. The present study was the first to investigate the nature of true and false remorse. We examined facial, verbal and body language behaviours...

The goal of this naturalistic study was to examine heterogeneity among female and male civil psychiatric patients with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Participants were 567 patients drawn from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study (J. Monahan et al., 2001). The authors examined subtype composition among 138 women a...

RÉSUMÉ Le courant principal de la psychologie s'est jusqu'ici très peu intéressé aux populations âgées et le domaine a surtout été développé par les gérontologues sociaux et présente donc une forte connotation sociologique. Le texte de Pratt et Norris constitue ainsi un pas important en direction d'une véritable «psychologie» de la psychologie soci...

We all have our moments. We all occasionally seem peculiar and perhaps even annoying to those around us. For individuals who have personality disorders (PDs), these are not isolated episodes, but chronic, central, defining, and dysfunctional aspects of who they are. PDs are characteristic, maladaptive patterns of thoughts, feelings, perceptions, an...

Reviews the book, Abnormal psychology: Canadian edition by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema and Neil Rector (2008). The first Canadian and fourth overall edition of this course textbook gets an A-plus from this reviewer. Abnormal psychology is a huge, growing field. Presenting the field to readers in just 18 chapters in ways that spark both human and scientif...

Aim: To describe symptom improvement and change in function in patients referred to a shared mental health care service (SMHC) that provided psychiatric consultation and brief counselling. Method: Pre (N = 1,310) and post (N = 395) measurements and comparisons with normative samples using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) and World Health Orga...

It is difficult to detect interactions between continuous variables in field research using moderated multiple regression (MMR). One reason is that multivariate normality, which occurs in field research but not experimental research, suppresses the residual variance of interaction terms. SPSS, SAS, and Matlab programs that expose the extent of this...

The identification and reduction of measurement errors is a major challenge in psychological testing. Most investigators rely solely on classical test theory for assessing reliability, whereas most experts have long recommended using generalizability theory instead. One reason for the common neglect of generalizability theory is the absence of anal...

Current knowledge of the associations between personality disorders (PDs) and the five-factor model (FFM) is based largely on the results of linear correlation statistics. Yet we do not know whether FFM–PD associations are indeed linear, and correlational statistics are not directly informative regarding the FFM deviations of individuals with PDs....

Previous attempts to elucidate the dimensional structure of personality disorders (PDs) have been based on single samples and measures. Like one-item tests, they are useful but scattered and potentially misleading glimpses at the true structure of PDs. Therefore, reanalyses of 33 previously published data sets were conducted using recommended stati...

Levels-of-analysis issues arise whenever individual-level data are collected from more than one person from the same dyad, family, classroom, work group, or other interaction unit. Interdependence in data from individuals in the same interaction units also violates the independence-of-observations assumption that underlies commonly used statistical...

Self-reports of levels of physical exercise, experienced bodily changes, and attitudinal and well-being variables were obtained from 407 adults, aged 26 to 95 years. The purpose was to assess the relative magnitudes of the experienced benefits of exercise across the exercise continuum. Cluster analyses identified three groups at each of four age le...

Older persons (N = 159) were surveyed for their impressions of and experiences with elderspeak from friends, same-age family members, younger family members, familiar service workers, and unfamiliar service workers. Two dimensions, "warmth" and "superiority," emerged in the judgments of elderspeak from all five speaker types. Respondents perceived...

A statistical review of published data for 37 personality and psychopathology inventories was conducted to determine whether there are dimensional structure differences between clinical and nonclinical respondents. Correlation and factor-loading matrices from multiscale inventories and from specialized measures were tested for structural invariance...

A statistical review of published data for 37 personality and psychopathology inventories was conducted to determine whether there are dimensional structure differences between clinical and nonclinical respondents. Correlation and factor-loading matrices from multiscale inventories and from specialized measures were tested for structural invariance...

Reports of associations between the five-factor model (FFM) and the scales of popular personality inventories have generated controversy regarding the comprehensiveness of the FFM. The controversy is fueled by a preoccupation with capturing scale variance and differentiating between specific scales, whereas the focus should instead be on whether th...

The authors examined job satisfaction, job stress, and thoughts of quitting in relation to positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and alcohol consumption among police officers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that 2 dimensions, positive affect and negative affect, provided a clear family-tree organizatio...

Personality disorder rigidity and extremity can be geometrically defined and operationalized within the 5-factor model (FFM) of personality. A series of geometric and substantive assumptions were derived and then tested in samples of college students (N = 1,323) and psychiatric patients (N = 86). Normal and disordered personalities were found to co...

Personality disorder rigidity and extremity can be geometrically defined and operationalized within the 5-factor model (FFM) of personality. A series of geometric and substantive assumptions were derived and then tested in samples of college students (N = 1,323) and psychiatric patients (N = 86). Normal and disordered personalities were found to co...

Personality–environment interactions figure prominently in theories of development and psychopathology, yet they have rarely been examined in empirical work. In this study, parenting behaviors, five-factor model personality characteristics, and internalizing and externalizing problems were examined in a community sample of 14- to 21-year-olds (N =...

Popular statistical software packages do not have the proper procedures for determining the number of components in factor and principal components analyses. Parallel analysis and Velicer's minimum average partial (MAP) test are validated procedures, recommended widely by statisticians. However, many researchers continue to use alternative, simpler...

This paper contrasts the ideal forms of psychotherapy supervision described in the professional and empirical literatures with forms of supervision that fall short of these ideals in daily clinical work. The focus is on the circumstances that permit inadequate supervision to take place and go unnoticed. The discussion focuses on regulatory, organiz...

This paper describes simple and flexible programs for analyzing lag-sequential categorical data, using SAS and SPSS. The programs read a stream of codes and produce a variety of lag-sequential statistics, including transitional frequencies, expected transitional frequencies, transitional probabilities, adjusted residuals, z values, Yule's Q values,...

This paper describes simple and flexible programs for analyzing lag-sequential categorical data, using SAS and SPSS. The programs read a stream of codes and produce a variety of lag-sequential statistics, including transitional frequencies, expected transitional frequencies, transitional probabilities, adjusted residuals, z values, Yule’s Q values,...

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1999, Vol 44(6), 544–546. This is a review of the book, “Exploring Adolescent Happiness: Commitment, Purpose, and Fulfillment” (see record 1998-06554-000). In Exploring Adolescent Happiness, the author, Zipora Magen, claims that although adolescence is commonly defined by idealis...

Psychotropic medication continues to be commonly used for non-therapeutic, behavior management purposes. We describe reasons for excessive use of psychotropics in nursing homes and strategies for reducing consumption, focusing is on simple tactics that can be used to confront the challenges that arise in every day nursing home settings. Attempts to...

Upon discovering an interaction in moderated multiple regression, users must conduct complicated and time-consuming simple slope analyses that are not performed by current statistical software programs. This article describes SAS and SPSS programs that provide complete simple slope statistics and plots all in one job run. Programs are available for...

Mortality over a 4-year period was examined in relation to self-esteem, depression, life satisfaction, and meaning in life in a nonclinical sample of 129 intermediate-care nursing home residents. Survival was associated with the psychological adjustment variables, and the effect persisted after statistically controlling for age, sex, and physical h...

In this study, the authors examined the degrees to which various models of personality disorder (PD) configuration are consistent with the primary data sets from clinical and community samples reported in the recent literature. Factor analyses were conducted on PD intercorrelation matrices, and the loading matrices were rotated to maximum possible...

We tested predicted relationships (Widiger, 1993; Widiger, Trull, Clarkin, Sanderson, & Costa, 1994) between personality disorder scores and facets of the five-factor model, and evaluated the relative benefits of facet-level analyses over domain-level analyses. Data from 614 undergraduates indicated: (a) 63% of the predicted facet relationships wer...

We examine the correlational structure of the personality disorder (PD) scales from the MCMI-III (Millon, 1994) among 614 college students. The correlation matrix from our nonclinical sample was highly similar to the clinical sample matrices reported by Millon (1994). Further analyses revealed that the correlation matrices from a variety of MCMI da...

In this test of interpersonal theory (R. C. Carson, 1969; D. J. Kiesler, see record 70-10243; T. Leary, 1957; J. S. Wiggins, 1982), complementarity and interpersonal rigidity were examined in relation to positive regard for others and group integration among 206 members of 54 musical bands. Complementarity was associated with more positive regard a...

In this test of interpersonal theory (R. C. Carson, 1969; D. J. Kiesler, see record 70-10243; T. Leary, 1957; J. S. Wiggins, 1982), complementarity and interpersonal rigidity were examined in relation to positive regard for others and group integration among 206 members of 54 musical bands. Complementarity was associated with more positive regard a...

Community-living seniors (n = 113) and nursing home residents (n = 43) provided their impressions of baby-talk and neutral-talk scenarios and completed measures of functional health, need for succorance, and self-esteem. Two orthogonal dimensions were found in perceptions of baby talk: Warmth and Superiority. The personality trait of need for succo...

This study examined whether an attitudinal variable, beliefs about the fetus, plays a moderating role in post-abortion psychological well-being. Subjects (N = 817) were recruited from the waiting rooms of physician's offices and answered questions about their pregnancy histories, self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and emotional states. Moderated...

A framework that has been found useful in research on young adults, Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory [1, 2], is suggested as a promising direction for research on motivation in later life. The theory proposes the existence of four types of motivation (intrinsic, self-determined extrinsic, nonself-determined extrinsic, and amotivation) whic...

This research examined relationships and life satisfaction among older and younger adults. Eighty-two independently-living older adults and ninety-one younger adults completed a variety of measures of their relationships with family and friends. For both groups the quality of relationships was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction than frequenc...

Adolescent egocentrism involves heightened self-consciousness and feelings of uniqueness (O. Elkind [1967], Egocentrism in Adolescence, Child Development, Vol. 38, pp. 1025–1034). Some studies have found that adolescent egocentrism is associated with identity development, and other studies have found that egocentrism is associated with perceptions...

In this study, the personality characteristics of rock and country musicians were examined. One hundred and seventy-one musicians completed Inter-personal Adjective Scale-Big Five (IASR-B5) measures of personality. The results suggest that such musicians tend to be more arrogant, dominant, ex-traverted, open to experience and neurotic than universi...

In this report self-determination theory is applied to the regulation of everyday behavior in later life. Nursing home residents with more self-determined motivational orientations displayed higher levels of psychological adjustment. However, the effects of opportunities for self-determination available in the environment were less straightforward...

Applied self-determination theory to the regulation of everyday behavior in later life. Nursing home residents with more self-determined motivational orientations displayed higher levels of psychological adjustment. However, the effects of opportunities for self-determination available in the environment were less straightforward and were moderated...

RÉSUMÉ Récemment, la théorie de l'autodétermination (Deci & Ryan, 1985a) a été utilisée pour expliquer la motivation dans le comportement quotidien des personnes âgées (Vallerand 'Connor, 1989). Selon cette théorie un des principaux facteurs déterminants de la motivation est le degré d'autodétermination offert par l'environnement. Il peut donc être...

This research examined variables associated with marital success among 40 stably married couples and 38 unstably married couples. The latter had taken steps toward dissolving their marriages or had sought marital counseling. Consistent with Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, identity achievement and intimacy were greater in stably marrie...

This study examined the looking-glass self process among 171 bar band musicians. The primary goal was to more precisely locate the weakest path in the model. Five variables were measured: the actual appraisals of significant others, feedback given by significant others, feedback received by individuals, reflected appraisals, and self-appraisals. Th...

This study attempted to find support for the controversial complementarity hypothesis by using more specialized measures than have been used in previous research. One hundred seventy-six musicians from 40 bar bands were interviewed in the venue where they were performing. A significant inverted-U relationship was found between interpersonal dominan...

Individuals differ in their perceptions of actprototypicality. This study examined whether incorporating such individual differences enhances trait-behaviour correlations and provides stronger evidence for cross-situational consistency. Three hundred and fifty-three subjects rated the dominance prototypicality of 100 acts, indicated how often they...

Tested the existence of the intellectual cycle of the popular version of biorhythm theory. Cognitive performance of 24 experimental Ss (aged 18–38 yrs) was tested first during the low phase and later during the high phase of their intellectual biorhythm cycles. The cognitive performance of 24 control Ss (aged 18–38 yrs) was tested twice at the midp...

Le but de cet article consiste à présenter les résultats de quatre études ayant pour objectif de construire et valider un nouvel instrument mesurant la motivation des personnes âgées vis‐à‐vis les activités importantes de leur vie, soit l'échelle de Motivation pour les Personnes Âgées (EMPA). L'EMPA est formée de quatre sous‐échelles mesurant la mo...

The self-concerns and social expectations that are part of the identity development process may lead adolescents to think that others survey them for signs of individuality. The novelty of identity development may also lead to feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability. The imaginary audience and personal fable may therefore stem from identity deve...

To clarify further the relationship between religiosity and personal adjustment, four kinds of religious motivation were distinguished: intrinsic, self-determined extrinsic, non-self-determined extrinsic, and amotivation. A study of 176 French-Canadian elderly people found that these four kinds of religious motivation can be reliably measured, that...

A longitudinal study of newly admitted nursing home residents examined the effects of perceived control over the relocation decision and acceptance of the relocation in general as determinants of changes in functional health and morale. Perceived control had positive effects on health during the first month of residency but negative effects on heal...

Suggests a theoretical framework that has been found useful in research on young adults as a promising direction for research on the psychology of motivation in the elderly. This framework by E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan (1985) posits the existence of 4 types of motivation (intrinsic, self-determined extrinsic, nonself-determined extrinsic, and amotiv...