A-Z Staff Directory

Assistant Professor in Psychology

01 449 8736

fearghal.obrien@ncirl.ie

Key Responsibilities at NCI

• Module Leader - Introduction to Research Methods, Introduction to Statistics (Part-Time), Cyberpsychology, Personality and Individual Differences (Part-Time)

Education

• Ph.D. in Psychology - Trinity College, Dublin 
• Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics - Trinity College, Dublin 
• BA (Hons) in Psychology - Trinity College, Dublin 

Academic Experience

• Visiting Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
• Research Assistant at the Centre for Human Innovative Systems, Trinity College, Dublin 

Research Interests

• Adolescent Risk-Taking
• Driver Behaviour
• Social Influences on Health Behaviour

Recent Funding

• $250,000 from the Division of Intramural Population Health Research to develop and test a smartphone application for naturalistic driving research (2015)
• $1,000 in travel funding from the National Institutes of Health for the Fellows Award for Research Excellence (2015)

Research Publications

Peer Reviewed Publications

• Perlus, Jessamyn G., O'Brien, Fearghal, Haynie, Denise L. and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2018) "Adolescent sleep insufficiency one year after high school". Journal of Adolescence, 68. pp. 165-170. ISSN 0140-1971. DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.07.016
• Gershon, Pnina, Ehsani, Johnathon, Zhu, Chunming, O'Brien, Fearghal, Klauer, Sheila G., Dingus, Tom and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2018) "Vehicle ownership and other predictors of teenagers risky driving behavior: Evidence from a naturalistic driving study". Accident Analysis & Prevention, 118. pp. 96-101. ISSN 0001-4575. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2018.06.001
• Haynie, Denise L., Lewin, Daniel, Luk, Jeremy W., Lipsky, Leah M., O'Brien, Fearghal, Iannotti, Ronald J., Liu, Danping and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2018) "Beyond Sleep Duration: Bidirectional Associations Among Chronotype, Social Jetlag, and Drinking Behaviors in a Longitudinal Sample of US High School Students". Sleep, 41 (2). ISSN 1550-9109. DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsx202
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Simons-Morton, Bruce G., Chaurasia, Ashok, Luk, Jeremy, Haynie, Denise and Liu, Danping (2018) "Post-High School Changes in Tobacco and Cannabis Use in the United States". Substance Use & Misuse, 53 (1). pp. 26-35. ISSN 1532-2491. DOI: 10.1080/10826084.2017.1322983
• Hadfield, Kristin, O'Brien, Fearghal and Gerow, Aaron (2017) "Is level of prematurity a risk/plasticity factor at three years of age?" Infant Behavior and Development, 47. pp. 27-39. ISSN 0163-6383. DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.03.003
• Simons-Morton, Bruce G., Haynie, Denise, O'Brien, Fearghal, Lipsky, Leah, Bible, Joe and Liu, Danping (2017) "Variability in measures of health and health behavior among emerging adults 1 year after high school according to college status". Journal of American College Health, 65 (1). pp. 58-66. ISSN 1940-3208. DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2016.1238384
• O'Brien, Fearghal and Gormley, Michael (2016) "Risk-perception and dangerous driving among adolescents: Outcome- and behavior-focused questions yield opposite results". Journal of Adolescence, 52. pp. 89-94. ISSN 0140-1971. DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.07.010
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Klauer, Sheila G., Ehsani, Johnathon and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2016) "Changes over 12 months in eye glances during secondary task engagement among novice drivers". Accident Analysis & Prevention, 93. pp. 48-54. ISSN 0001-4575. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2016.04.022
• Ehsani, Johnathon, Li, Kaigang, Simons-Morton, Bruce G., Tree-McGrath, Cheyenne Fox, Perlus, Jessamyn G., O'Brien, Fearghal and Klauer, Sheila G. (2015) "Conscientious personality and young drivers' crash risk". Journal of Safety Research, 54. pp. 83-87. ISSN 0022-4375.
• O'Brien, Fearghal and Cousineau, Denis (2014) "Representing Error bars in within-subject designs in typical software packages". The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 10 (1). pp. 56-67. ISSN 2292-1354.
• Cousineau, Denis and O'Brien, Fearghal (2014) "Error bars in within-subject designs: a comment on Baguley (2012)". Behavior Research Methods, 46 (4). pp. 1149-1151. ISSN 1554-3528.
• O'Brien, Fearghal and Gormley, Michael (2013) "The contribution of inhibitory deficits to dangerous driving among young people". Accident Analysis & Prevention, 51. pp. 238-242. ISSN 0001-4575.
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Dunne, Simon and Gormley, Michael (2010) "Young drivers: Investigating the link between impulsivity and problem driver status". In L. Dorn (Ed.), Driver Behaviour and Training IV. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 75-87. ISBN 9781409486435.

Publications under review

• O'Brien, Fearghal, Bible, Joe and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. "The impact of a collision on subsequent risky driving among adolescents". Psychological Science. ISSN 1467-9280.
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Simons-Morton, Bruce G., Chaurasia, A., Luk, J., Haynie, D. and Liu, Danping. "Post-high school changes in tobacco and marijuana use in the United States". Addictive Behaviors. ISSN 0306-4603.

Conference Abstracts

• Simons-Morton, Bruce G. and O'Brien, Fearghal (2016, January). "Driving outcomes among young, older adolescent, & adult drivers". Talk given at the 2016 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
• O'Brien, Fearghal and Gormley, Michael (2011, November). "Impulsivity among young drivers caught speeding". Paper presented at the 2011 annual conference of the Psychology Society of Ireland. 
• O'Brien, Fearghal and Gormley, Michael (2011, September). "The contribution of impulsivity to problematic driving among young people". Paper presented at the 25th European Health Psychology Conference in Crete, Greece.
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Dunne, Simon and Gormley, Michael (2009, November). "Young drivers: Investigating the link between impulsivity and problem driver status". Paper presented at the 4th International Driver Behaviour and Training Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Posters

• O'Brien, Fearghal, Haynie, Denise and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2016, March). "Is marijuana a gateway to harder drugs? Are harder drugs a gateway to marijuana". Poster presented at the 2016 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting in Baltimore, MD. 
• O'Brien, Fearghal and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2016, January). "Risky Driving Decreases After Being Involved in a Traffic Collision: A Preliminary Analysis". Poster presented at the 2016 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. 
• Perlus, Jessamyn G., O'Brien, Fearghal, Haynie, Denise and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2015, August). "Adolescent sleep insufficiency one year after high school". Poster presented at the 2015 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, ON.
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Chaurasia, A. and Simons-Morton, Bruce G. (2015, March). "Parental knowledge during high school and subsequent alcohol use post high school". Poster presented at the 2015 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. 
• O'Brien, Fearghal, Li, Kaigang, Perlus, Jessamyn G., Grayton, Candice and Simons-Morton, Bruce G.(2015, January). "Association between Risky Driving and Alcohol Use Among Adolescents: Preliminary Analysis Using g-Force Event Rates". Poster presented at the 95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, DC.