About the Lab
Understanding the psychological factors and processes involved in health and well-being is the overarching theme that unifies the research conducted in the Health & Well-being Lab. The Health & Well-being Lab's new home as of July 1, 2010 is Bishop's University. The Lab continues to feature on-line research facilities for on-line data collection.
The Health & Well-being Lab was formerly located in CHS 176, 275 and 275a at the University of Windsor with research facilities supported in part by an infrastructure grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation Leaders Opportunity Fund, and the Ontario Research Fund awarded to Dr. Sirois in 2006.Research in the Health and Well-being Lab is conducted using a diverse range of methodologies and data analytic techniques, and provides students with excellent training opportunities to expand their repetoire of research skills. Methodologies include on-line data collection, mail surveys, longitudinal designs, experimental designs, and interviews. Data analytic techniques include structural equation modeling, latent growth modelling, scale development, qualitative analyses, and computational linguistics analysis. On-line data collection is a particular specialty of the lab and to date we have published a number of papers in well-known peer-reviewed journals that used this technique.
| Director | : | Dr. Fuschia Sirois |
Lab News!
March 2012- Congratulations to honour's student Meagan Gallacher whose poster took first prize at the 7th annual Research Week Student Poster Competition.
- Congratulations to lab member Ryan Kitner who was awarded a B.E.S.T. (Bishop’s Experiential or Service Term) Projects fund. Ryan will be working under the mentorship of Dr. Sirois this summer on the project "Experiential learning in meta-analytic techniques and working with large data sets" which will include attending a week long "Stats Camp" on the foundations of meta-analysis at the University of Kansas, and applying the skills from this workshop to conduct a meta-analytic research study that will be prepared and submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.
- Dr. Sirois was awarded a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Health and Well-being. In conjunction with her CRC she was awarded funds from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to fund the set up of her new Health and Well-being Lab at Bishop's University. The new Lab which will be located in the Mackinnon Building is scheduled to be completed late Spring 2012.
- Honour's student Lauren Oswald won 2nd prize in the Bishop's University 6th Annual Research Week poster competition for her thesis Self-compassion and Adherence to Exercise Programs. Congratulations Lauren!
- Dr. Sirois will be presenting three papers at the upcoming 7th Biennial Conference on Procrastination this July in Amsterdam.
- A symposium organized by Dr. Sirois titled Self-perceptions, Health and Well-being: A Temporal Perspective was accepted for presentation at the Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association , to be held in Toronto, ON, in June 2011. The symposium features three papers by researchers from the Psychological Health and Well-being research cluster at Bishop's University.
- Dr. Sirois was interviewed by Dr. Tim Pychyl on mindfulness, emotional regulation, procrastination for a podcast on iProcrastinate Podcast, on Friday February 4, 2011. In this podcast Dr. Sirois discusses her research paper "Lost in the Moment: An Investigation of Procrastination, Mindfulness and Well-being" which highlights the role of mindfulness for coping with the uncomfortable feelings associated with an unpleasant task and the subsequent short term mood repair which can take us off task. You can hear the podcast by clicking here. Dr. Pychyl also runs a blog called "Don't Delay" on Psychology Today
- A paper co-authored by Dr. Sirois and colleauges from RTI International including Pam Williams-Piehota and Carla Bann, on the role of complementary and alternative medicine providers in health behaviour change was published in the January/February issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
- The paper authored by Dr. Sirois and two former honour's students on the role of counterfactual thoughts for perfectionists, was published in the December issue of Personality and Social Pyschology Bulletin.
- Dr. Sirois participated in a Think Tank sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH; USA). The purpose of the Think Tank was to provide expert guidance to NCCAM as it sets priorities for future areas of CAM research. The results of the Think Tank will serve to suggest content on the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the 2012 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS).
- A paper authored by Dr. Sirois and two former honour's students on the role of counterfactual thoughts for perfectionists, has been accepted for publication in Personality and Social Pyschology Bulletin, the official journal for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). The paper titled "If only I had done better: Perfectionism and the functionality of counterfactual thinking" examines how maladaptive and high personal standards perfectionists differ in their use of counterfactual thoughts ("if only" statements) for regulating behaviour. Co-author Jennifer Monforton is currently a PhD student in the clinical psychology program at Ryerson University, and Melissa Simpson is a teacher with the Greater Essex County School board
- A paper co-authored by Dr. Sirois and two colleagues, Carla Bann and Edith Walsh, on measuring provider support in complementary and alternative medicine CAM) has been published the July issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. The paper which reports the development and testing of new CAM specific measures for assessing aspects of the patient-practitioner relationship is also the focus of this issue's editorial.
- As of July 1, 2010 Dr. Sirois has joined the Department of Pyschology at Bishop's University. Accordingly, the Health & Well-being Lab is no longer at the University of Windsor and is now relocated to Bishop's University.
May 2010
- A paper authored by Dr. Mary Gick from Carleton University and Dr. Sirois on the role of attachment in women's adjustment to inflammatory bowel disease, has been published in the May issue of the APA journal Rehabilitation Psychology.
- Dr. Sirois presented a poster co-authored by honour's student Natalia Tosti on the links among procrastination, mindfulness, and well-being at the 22nd Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), Boston, MA. Dr. Sirois also gave a talk as part of the first ever symposium on Perfectionism and Health.
- Dr. Sirois presented a poster co-authored by Master's student Sean Locke on the role of CAM providers in physical activit at the 5th International Congress on Complementary Medicine Research (ICCMR), Tromso, Norway . Dr. Sirois also gave an talk on the factors associated with continuing CAM use.
- Master's student Sean Locke was awarded a Joseph-Armand Bombardier scholarship form the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Congratulations Sean!
- Emrah Eren presented his honour's thesis at the 40th Annual Ontario Psychology Undergraduate thesis conference held at the University of Windsor. Congratulations Emrah!
- Dr. Sirois will be joining the Department of Psychology at Bishop's University starting July 1 2010, and relocating the Health & Well-being Lab to Bishop's University. Dr. Sirois has been selected to apply for a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Psychological Health & Well-being that will begin July 2011.
- Dr. John Graham, University of Calgary, (PI) and Dr. Sirois have received funding for their the 3-year project "Subjective Well-being and Canadian Social Work from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
- Dr. Antonio Pascual-Leone (PI) and Dr. Sirois have received funding for their the one year project "Patterns in Emotional Development: Emotional Processing in the Expressive Writing Paradigm from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
- Research assistant Christine Cobbler has been accepted into the Master's program in Public Health at the University of Guelph. Congratulations Christine!
- Lab manager Emrah Eren has been accepted into the MA program in Psychology at Carleton University where he will be working with Dr. Tim Pychyl. Congratulations Emrah!
- A paper authored by Dr. Mary Gick from Carleton University and Dr. Sirois on the role of attachment in women's adjustment to inflammatory bowel disease, has been accepted for publication in the APA journal Rehabilitation Psychology.
- Dr. Sirois has joined the Editorial Board of the journal BMC Public Health for a 3 year term as an Associate Editor. BMC Public Health publishes original peer-reviewed research articles in the epidemiology of disease and the understanding of all aspects of public health. It has a special focus on the social determinants of health, the environmental, behavioral, and occupational correlates of health and disease, and the impact of health policies, practices and interventions on the community.
- A paper based on former lab member Karey Wilson's Master's thesis was published in this month's issue of the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology. You can read an abstract of the paper titled "Birth attendant choice and satisfaction with antenatal care: The role of birth philosophy, relational style, and health self-efficacy." here.
- A paper authored by Dr. Sirois and MA student Sean Locke has been accepted for presentation at the 5th International Congress on Complementary Medicine Research (ICCMR) in Tromso, Norway, this May. The paper is titled "The role of CAM providers in motivating physical activity" and is based on data collected for Sean's honour's research project. Dr. Sirois will also be presenting another paper at the congress titled " 'I would be foolish to stop something that has helped' Reasons for continuing use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)"
- Dr. Sirois was interviewed by Dr. Tim Pychyl from Carleton University on counterfactual thinking and procrastination for a podcast on iProcrastinate Podcast, on Monday January 18, 2010. In this podcast Dr. Sirois discusses how counterfactual thoughts - imagining better or worse possibe outcomes when thngs don't work out the way we had hoped - can contribute to problems in regulating behaviour. You can hear the podcast by clicking here. Dr. Pychyl also runs a blog on Psychology Today and has featured Dr. Sirois's work on counterfactuals in an entry titled Avoiding What Might Have Been.
- Dr. Sirois was interviewed on the 95-9 FM CJWF-FM Mitch & Mel in the Morning show on January 8, 2010 about procrastination and New Year's resolutions.
- Dr. Sirois was interviewed on the AM800 CKLW afternoon news with Paul McDonald on December 30, 2009 about procrastinating on New Year's resolutions.
- Dr. Sirois' editorial for the American Journal of Gastroenterology (a member of the Nature publishing group) on psychological adjustment to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was published in the December 2009 issue. You can read an abstract of the paper here.
- Dr. Sirois gave a talk at York University on October 5, 2009 titled Blame it on time: Time-related perfectionism, health and well-being for the Health Psychology Graduate Diploma Program Seminar.
- Dr. Sirois gave a talk at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Semel Institute on the role of individual differences in the placebo response. The talk was part of the Mindfulness and Integrative Medicine Seminar monthly lecture series.
- Doctoral student Jenn Voth successfully defended her comprehensive systematic review on August 28. Congratulations Jenn!
- The 6th biennial Procrastination Research Conference at York University is featured in a Y-file story July 28. Dr. Sirois is chairing the conference to be held August 4 and 5th, and will be presenting several papers along with lab manager Emrah Eren.
- Doctoral student Barat Wolfe successfully proposed her dissertation on July 28. Congratulations Barat!
- An online study conducted by Dr. Sirois and Dr. Chung-Yan is featured in the story
"Auto Stress" posted May 27 on InnovationCanada.ca, a site that features research excellence in Canada.
The study examines how the stress from downsizing in the automotive industry affects the health and well-being of automotive workers in Windsor.
For more details about the study, or to participate, please click here.
- Former doctoral student Tobi Wilson successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on May 25. Congratulations Tobi - or should I say "Dr. Wilson"!
- Dr. Sirois appeared on the TV show Positive Living, on One: Mind, Body & Spirit on May 7 at 9 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.
In this episode (#112) Dr. Sirois discusses the links between anxiety, procrastination, and well-being,
and offered some tips on how to break out of the anxiety/procrastination cycle.
Click here for more details about broadcast dates and times featured in this University of Windsor Daily News feature.
Click here for more details about the show.
- Dr. Sirois' comments on research findings regarding the effects of sharing one's identity-related goal intentions are featured in this article "Keep your 'identity goals' to yourself, scientists advise". in the
Vancouver Sun, May 2, 2009. This story also appeared in the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Victoria Times Colonist, Montreal Gazette, and Nanaimo Daily News
- Doctoral student Jenn Voth has been awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for the 2009-10 year. Congratulations Jenn!
- Honour's student Kyle Stanyar has been accepted into the graduate program in Occupational Health Psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina, and as Fall 2009 he will be begin his graduate career as a MA student. Congratulations Kyle!
- Honour's student Sean Locke has been accepted into the graduate program in Applied Social Psychology here at the University of Windsor, and as Fall 2009 he will be begin his graduate career here in the Lab as a MA student. Congratulations Sean!
