Biography

Associate Professor in Health Psychology. Stephen Gallagher is a health psychologist and a Professor in the Psychology Department here in UL and has been here since August 2010. My main research interests focus on the impact of stress on health and well-being (see google scholar). I am particularly interested in the impact of psychosocial factors on health via interactions between the neuroendocrine and immune systems. My current research is looking at the psychological and social factors that are associated with caregiver health as well as those experiencing unemployment, both of who are under chronic stress. We are also involved with designing and delivery of number interventions (e.g. stress management, positive psychology, and physical activity) to improve health and well-being for carers, the general population as well those with chronic illnesses. I am also using laboratory-based research to examine the buffering role of social support on cardiovascular reactivity and immunity. I am also a member of the Centre for Social Issues Research and the Health Research Institute and Director of the Study of Anxiety, Stress & Health Laboratory here in UL, www.sashlab.com. Stephen has published extensively in the areas described above, with national and international research teams and his research has been funded by the Irish Research Council, Health Research Board, and Research Institutes in the USA. He would be interested in supervising Postdoctoral or PhD projects in some of the areas described above. Please send an e-mail to Stephen for possible opportunities.

Research Interests

My main research interests are on stress and health, with a particular focus on how stress gets inside the body via biobehavioural pathways including immune, hormonal and cardiovascular biomarkers. In terms of stress, I use a variety of paradigms including life events stress (e.g. bereavement), chronic (e.g, caregiving, unemployment and long-term conditions) and acute stress (e.g,. exams and maths tasks) as well as conduct both observational and experimental studies including psychosocial and positive psychology interventions. My lab group (sashlab.com) and our health and psychophysiology laboratory have two experimental testing rooms and a wet-lab. These are equipped with full cardiovascular monitoring equipment with several Dinamaps, and a Finometer Pro which allows for beat-to-beat continuous hemodynamic monitoring. The labs also have plate readers, incubators, centrifuge and the capability to assess a range of hormonal and immune biomarkers and we tend to look at cortisol, DHEA, and secretory immunoglobulin A. Some of the projects I am currently involved with include examining the biological correlates of caregiving and unemployment as well as the stress of bullying in the workplace; other projects are looking at how loneliness and social relationships affect our health via cardiovascular and hormonal interactions. While our interventions focus on improving social relations via gratitude and benefit finding with other studies investigating health behaviour interventions to those managing and living with long-terms conditions (e.g, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis). In terms of collaborations, my group has several local (UL), and national (NUI-G, UCC, MIC, UCD), and international projects (UK, US) that are on-going and we would be keen to develop other collaborations if they fit with our agenda. Thus, feel free to get in touch with me if you think we have shared interests.

Professional Activities

Association

  • 2010 Affilation and support for psychologists in Ireland, Psychological Society of Ireland
  • 2005 Support and network for Health Psychologists, Division of Health Psychology, British Psychological Society, UK
  • 2003 Professional body for psycholgist, British Psychological Society, UK

Award

  • - Ratcliffe Prize, 2009,
  • - Deanery Prize Winner

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journals

2019

An evaluation of an intervention designed to help inactive adults become more active with a peer mentoring component: a protocol for a cluster randomised feasibility trial of the Move for Life programme.

O'Regan A;Glynn L;Garcia Bengoechea E;Casey M;Clifford A;Donnelly A;Murphy AW;Gallagher S;Gillespie P;Newell J;Harkin M;Macken P;Sweeney J;Foley-Walsh M;Quinn G;Ng K;O'Sullivan N;Balfry G;Woods C; (2019) An evaluation of an intervention designed to help inactive adults become more active with a peer mentoring component: a protocol for a cluster randomised feasibility trial of the Move for Life programme.. Pilot And Feasibility Studies

2018

Prior depressive symptoms and persistent child problem behaviours predict future depression in parents of children with developmental disabilities: The growing up in Ireland cohort study

Gallagher, S;Pilch, M;Hannigan, A (2018) Prior depressive symptoms and persistent child problem behaviours predict future depression in parents of children with developmental disabilities: The growing up in Ireland cohort study. OXFORD : PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD Research in developmental disabilities :170-179

2017

Effect of exercising at minimum recommendations of the multiple sclerosis exercise guideline combined with structured education or attention control education - secondary results of the step it up randomised controlled trial

Coote, S,Uszynski, M,Herring, MP,Hayes, S,Scarrott, C,Newell, J,Gallagher, S,Larkin, A,Motl, RW (2017) Effect of exercising at minimum recommendations of the multiple sclerosis exercise guideline combined with structured education or attention control education - secondary results of the step it up randomised controlled trial. BMC neurology

Books

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Book Chapters

2012

Religion/Spirituality

Gallagher, Stephen and Tierney Warren (2012) Religion/Spirituality. New York : Springer Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

2012

Religiousness/Religiosity

Gallagher, Stephen and Warren Tierney (2012) Religiousness/Religiosity. New York : Springer Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine

2012

Spirituality

Gallagher, S & Tierney, W (2012) Spirituality. United States : Springer Publishing Encyclopedia of Behavioural Medicine

Edited Books

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Other Journals

Conference Publications

2018

Congress of the International society of physical activity for health

Woods, C;O'Regan, A;Glynn, L;Casey, M;Clifford, A;Donnelly, A;Murphy, AW;Gallagher, S;Coote, S;Gillespie, P;Harkin, M;Macken, P;Sweeney, J;Foley-Walsh, M;Quinn, G;Ng, K;O'Sullivan, N;Garcia, E (2018) Congress of the International society of physical activity for health. :133-134

Conference Contributions

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Published Reports

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Editorials

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Book Reviews

Other Publications