Glynn Owens

University of Auckland · Department of Psychology

Alongside increasing rates of dementia diagnoses worldwide, efforts to seek alternative end-of-life options also increase. While the concept of assisted dying remains controversial, the discussion around its provision for people with dementia raises even more sensitivity. In this study, we explored how the practice of assisted dying for people with...

Dementia is one of the prominent conditions for which an aging population has been seeking end-of-life solutions such as assisted dying. Individuals with dementia, however, are often unable to meet the eligibility criteria of being mentally competent and are thus discriminated against in relation to assisted dying laws. Provided that the assisted d...

This study explored personal experiences of animal rights and environmental activists in New Zealand. The stories of participants provided insight into the challenges activists face in a country where the economy is heavily dependent on animal agriculture. A qualitative methodology was utilised and several major themes emerged: (1) emotional and ps...

Assisted dying although illegal in New Zealand, is often in the spotlight and surrounded by much debate. Moreover, while sentencing may take into account the motivation (ending of suffering) of those who assist, this is done on a case-by-case basis, with the process and resulting punishment extremely taxing on the offender psychologically, physical...

Swipe and wipe are types of transfer patterns commonly encountered at bloodied scenes. So far, there have been little published data on the reliability of evaluating these patterns. In this study, 36 bloodstain patterns were randomly assigned to 12 analysts in three separate trials, and the analysts were required to evaluate the pattern type and di...

Research suggests that health-promoting storylines in developed nations’ fictional television programs can have a beneficial impact on viewers’ beliefs, attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. The sizes of the effects are generally modest; however, the audience reach is substantial. Given that many fictional programs may hold the prolonged attention o...

In recent investigations [1,2] into the reliability of bloodstain pattern classifications, experienced bloodstain pattern analysts classified bloodstain patterns that were varied to represent factors commonly encountered in practice (pattern type, substrate, pattern extent, and case information). Analysts could select any number of pattern types th...

This study was designed to produce the first baseline measure of the reliability of bloodstain pattern classifications on fabric surfaces. Experienced bloodstain pattern analysts classified bloodstain patterns on pairs of trousers that represented three fabric substrates. Patterns also varied in type (impact, cast-off, expiration, satellite stains...

Introduction Recent studies have demonstrated the role of sexual dysfunctional beliefs, negative automatic thoughts, and emotional responses in relation to sexual functioning. Nevertheless, no studies seem to have evaluated the role of these cognitive-emotional factors in determining sexual dissatisfaction. Aim To test a cognitive-emotional model...

Objectives There remains limited consensus regarding the definition and conceptual basis of exercise addiction. An understanding of the factors motivating maintenance of addictive exercise behavior is important for appropriately targeting intervention. The aims of this study were twofold: first, to establish consensus on features of an exercise add...

This study was designed to produce the first baseline measure of reliability in bloodstain pattern classification. A panel of experienced bloodstain pattern analysts examined over 400 spatter patterns on three rigid non-absorbent surfaces. The patterns varied in spatter type and extent. A case summary accompanied each pattern that either contained...

Storylines in fictional television programs may be an effective medium for health-promoting messages. This randomized pretest-posttest (N = 111) with follow-up (n = 71) study examined the persuasive impact of an alcohol poisoning story in the program ER on viewers' drinking-related beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior. The perception of per...

Much has been written about the ethical issues involved in euthanasia, assisted suicide and other forms of assisted dying. Such discussions have often raised legitimate concerns and challenges to those arguing the case for some form of assisted dying to be legalised. A further concern, though, which relates only tangentially if at all to the ethica...

Death and dying are inevitable life encounters, but a nurse's first experience with patient death may pose considerable cognitive, emotional and clinical challenges. This paper reports the findings of the second phase of a study; the first has been reported elsewhere. This phase explored the earliest memorable patient death experiences of New Zeala...

The uptake of advance care planning (ACP) is particularly low among people with dementia. This may reflect barriers to communication between professionals, patients and families in the face of lack of consensus about the process. This study aimed to methodically investigate consensus views of how ACP should be explained and carried out with people...

Purpose: This case study describes how an individual with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy was trained over a period of four weeks to use a commercial electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI). Method: The participant spent three sessions exploring the system, and seven sessions playing a game focused on EEG feedback t...

Background: The experiences of young people who have siblings with life-limiting illnesses are not well understood. Aim: The study proposed to identify the concerns of siblings of pediatric palliative care (PPC) patients. Design and measurement: Semistructured interviews were administered to participants and analyzed using qualitative inductiv...

Obsessive-compulsive models of workaholism do not allow diagnosing it as an addiction. We introduce an empirical evidence for conceptualization and measurement of work addiction as work craving. The Work Craving Scale (WCS) comprises: (a) obsessive-compulsive desire for work, (b) anticipation of self-worth compensation, (c) anticipation of reductio...

Perfectionism has been assessed in relation to salient or narrow domains within specific populations, yet little is understood across broader domains of life. The aim was to assess positive perfectionism (PP) and negative perfectionism (NP) in five broad domains; university/work, relationships, physical activity, domestic environment and appearance...

The perspectives of young New Zealanders receiving pediatric palliative care (PPC) are not well understood. A qualitative study of the perceptions of 16 PPC patients and their siblings, aged 9 to 18, was conducted through audio and written diary accounts. Inductive thematic analysis revealed several concerns. of participants, including special trea...

Communication about death is often a sensitive topic in families with children. The present studied compared answers of 141 school children aged 5-7 to questions about death, and their caregivers' predictions. Children were interviewed, and caregivers answered on paper, questions on inevitability, applicability, irreversibility, cessation, causatio...

Communication about the end of a child’s life is highly sensitive. Although children may be aware of their prognoses when they are dying, primary caregivers do not always acknowledge the impending deaths to them. How primary caregivers communicate (or avoid communicating) with their children who have life-limiting illnesses about their (or their si...

The aim of this article is to give an overview of some of the key dimensions of variation in cultural and religious rituals during the immediate period after a death and in the longer term, in order to inform service delivery in multi-cultural societies. For each area we give examples of different customs, and consider their functions and possible...

Anxiety disorders share high comorbidity with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. This study examined the outcomes of a transdiagnostic education and support group for people with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses and problematic anxiety. Results suggest that transdiagnostic education and support may be effective in reducing anxiety for people with sc...

Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is a family-centered method of caring for young patients with life-limiting illnesses. A qualitative study of caregivers’ communication with their children aged 3.5 years to 18 years was conducted using semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Nineteen caregivers living in the Auckland area participated. Interviews focu...

Korean society highly values personal appearance. Given the established links between perfectionism and eating disorders in Western countries, the present project investigated such links and the extent to which these were moderated by the acculturation patterns of the participants. Korean immigrants to New Zealand (N = 123) completed measures of pe...

The article by Flett and Hewitt (2006) highlights a number of important issues in the study of perfectionism and rightly urges caution against simplistic conceptualizations. Their view that the term perfectionism should be reserved for pathological forms of behavior is questionable, though understandable given the perspective from which they view i...

A review of the literature is presented on the effectiveness of screening methods for detection of breast cancer (e.g. breast self-examination, BSE) and on factors (e.g., marital status, education, worry) that possibly are related to delay in presentation of symptoms for diagnosis and treatment. The discussion also focuses on the psychosocial impli...

The objective of the study described here was to obtain information on the beliefs of professionals concerning possible indicators of a child having been sexually abused. Data were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires, distributed at meetings on child sexual abuse. The respondents were professionals working in the field of child s...

This paper reports a study which examined the specific information needs and sources of information for 105 women with breast cancer at two time points, the time of diagnosis and a mean of 21 months from diagnosis At diagnosis the priority information needs concerned survival issues Further from diagnosis survival issues were still a concern, but i...

This intervention study evaluates a decision-making aid for parents considering childhood immunizations. Participants (women in 3rd trimester of pregnancy, n = 100) rated likelihood of immunizing their child, anxiety, and perceptions of risk of the diseases and immunizations. Individuals were allocated to intervention group (received a decision aid...

Three hundred and one Chinese drawn from the University of Auckland and local communities in New Zealand completed an anonymous questionnaire consisting of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale (PANPS), the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) and the short form of the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirabi...

IntroductionThe Role of EvidenceLaboratory Methods in Clinical Health Psychology; the Example of PsychoneuroimmunologyMoving outside the Laboratory: Experiments in Other SettingsLongitudinal StudiesSmall-N Experimental ResearchSurvey ResearchCausal Modelling and Path AnalysisMulti-centre Trials and Meta-analysisHealth AuditFailings of Existing Rese...

As part of a larger study, four decisions related to a vignette scenario of the elective death of a terminally ill patient suffering intractable pain are examined (doctor supplying information and drugs, assisting patient to take the drugs, or administering a lethal injection). Judgments on justifiability and legality of actions were obtained from...

To explore type and incidence of medical decisions at the end of life that hasten death made by general practitioners in New Zealand, within the context of access to palliative care. An anonymous questionnaire investigating the last death attended in the previous 12 months was sent to 2602 general practitioners (GPs) in New Zealand. From a 48% (125...

Cook Island women (CIW) in New Zealand are disproportionately represented among almost all of the negative health statistics. They predominately occupy the lowest socio-economic level, present with high rates of heart disease risk, cervical cancer and smoking. Furthermore, they delay seeking treatment until their diseases are at an advanced stage....

The number of requests for euthanasia or physician assisted suicide increased in the first decade of registration in the Netherlands, but from 1995 onwards stabilised at about 5000 requests per year. The increase probably reflected the process of liberalisation in the early years, boosted by broad publicity on lawsuits and the foundation of the Dut...

Objective: To examine the relationship between Positive and Negative Perfectionism and Social Physique Anxiety (SPA) and the extent to which these two variables predict disturbed eating attitudes in male and female elite athletes.Design: Cross-sectional survey.Method: Athletes (n=316) completed measures of Positive and Negative Perfectionism, SPA,...

This article argues for a gendered psychology of men's health. We argue that capitalism and patriarchy, through their reliance on a restrictive definition of masculinity, limit men's choices and impact on their health. A psychology of men's health situates men in their social, cultural and political contexts, addressing the social construction of m...

The administration of repertory grids often involves the use of one or more examples as an illustration for participants. In an attempt to investigate the effects of different kinds of examples, a group of raters was asked to categorize constructs that had been elicited under two different conditions, using either descriptive examples or neutral ex...

Contemporary analyses of work and unemployment need to place psychological findings in the context of society, culture, and gender in understanding the meanings of paid and unpaid work for men and for women. The Australian Psychological Society discussion paper (in this issue) takes a comprehensive view of the literature and places it in the contem...

This book provides a clear and relatively concise social psychology, drawing together the variety of arguments, controversies and approaches that constitute the field. It is organised around three interrelated aspects of critics' dissatisfaction with social psychology: its methods and claim to be a science (the paradigm crisis); its mental concepts...

One hundred and fourteen consecutive patients with early breast cancer were entered into a study on the psychological effects of involvement in treatment choice. All women were offered counselling throughout. One group of women (n = 34), were advised to undergo mastectomy, due to the nature or position of the tumour. These women fared less well psy...

This paper provides a preliminary address to the question of whether mainstream health psychology needs to be 'rethought'. In order to do this, it first provides a definition of 'mainstream' health psychology, characterizing it as a discipline wedded to the increasingly popular 'biopsychosocial' model of health care and practice. Because of the nee...

To explore the subjective meaning of illness in a sample of renal patients. Patients' illness representations, such as the meaning they attach to illness, may affect their coping and adaptation. Improved understanding in this area may therefore benefit patient care. Meaning of illness has not previously been explored in renal disease. Cross-section...

Like many other disciplines, psychology has made a number of contributions to the continuing debate on voluntary euthanasia. The present paper describes a number of aspects of palliative care practice and argues that (a) good palliative care should consider the issue of euthanasia (b) psychologists have much to contribute to the consideration of eu...

Advances in DNA technology have facilitated presymptomatic testing for an inherited predisposition to a number of autosomal dominant cancer syndromes. While testing is generally undertaken with informed consent and within a counselling protocol, there is still much to be learned about the psychological impact of DNA testing in a predictive setting....

One purpose of the present research was to determine the relationship between perfectionism and eating attitudes among national level rowers. A second purpose was to determine if body mass, weight classification and gender moderate perfectionism-eating attitude relations. Rowers from New Zealand and Australia (W=449) completed the Positive and Nega...

The 1970’s, and a major international judo tournament is in the offing. I am selected to represent Britain as the Lightweight representative. However, there is a problem: I weigh only 58Kg, several Kg less than my prospective opponents from overseas. Extra mass, and especially extra muscle, would tremendously improve my prospects, but how to achiev...

This article begins with a brief review of the current literature on the structure and measurement of perfectionism. It is concluded from this review that two major types can be distinguished, a normal/healthy form and a pathological form. These two forms are then defined as positive and negative perfectionism and related directly to Skinnerian con...

The meaning that women with breast cancer ascribe to their disease may well have an impact on the effectiveness of coping strategies used to come to terms with breast cancer. Health care professionals need to know what meanings women with breast cancer are ascribing to their disease if they are to identify maladaptive coping strategies and ensure t...

The meaning that women with breast cancer ascribe to their disease may well have an impact on the effectiveness of coping strategies used to come to terms with breast cancer Health rare professionals need to know what meanings women with breast cancer are ascribing to their disease if they are to identify maladaptive coping strategies and ensure th...

This paper reports a study which examined the specific information needs and sources of information for 105 women with breast cancer at two time points, the time of diagnosis and a mean of 21 months from diagnosis. At diagnosis the priority information needs concerned survival issues. Further from diagnosis survival issues were still a concern, but...

The purpose of this study was to explore the hypothesis that women with breast cancer had specific preferences about the degree of control they wanted over treatment decision making. One hundred fifty women, newly diagnosed with breast cancer, were interviewed and their preferences for participation in treatment decision making were established usi...

Research into sexuality following spinal cord injury (SCI) has tended to concentrate on male experiences and the physical capabilities for sexual intercourse. The sexuality of women following SCI has only recently been addressed and studies are limited to small numbers and the use of non-standardised measures. The present investigation utilised sta...

The demand for transplantable organs and tissues is steadily increasing and action is necessary to improve the organ and tissue donation rates. Previous research has suggested that nurses have a substantial influence on the rates of donation in the clinical area. Nurses (N = 150) were asked to complete a number of measures to assess positive and ne...

Three groups (incarcerated rapists, incarcerated non-rapists and nonincarcerated controls) were administered and completed Parry's (1983) Anglicized version of Spence, Helmreich and Stapp's (1973) Attitudes Towards Women Scale. Results of the seventy-one subjects showed that the incarcerated non-rapist group held the most traditional/conservative a...

Nurses can play a key role in patient education, including providing patients with useful and appropriate information. Rather than focusing on the process of education or information giving by nurses, this study places emphasis on the content of that information by taking the patients' perspective and asking the patients themselves what particular...

Previous research into perfectionism has focused on clinical populations resulting in a bias towards a negativistic, pathologically inclined conceptualization. The present study investigated the possibility of distinguishing aspects of perfectionism on the basis of perceived consequences, mirroring a behavioural distinction between positive and neg...

There are several anxiety-related reactions associated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Patients who experience such reactions may disrupt the examination or move so much that images are degraded. These experiences may also influence patients' perceptions of the quality of their care. The objective of this study was to further assess the subj...

The need for a functioning system of continuing professional education (CPE) in nursing, midwifery and health visiting has received increased attention in recent years However, whilst the literature describes a number of benefits, detailed empirical studies have been limited There is, in particular, a dearth of information on nurses' perceptions of...

Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and how science impacts upon all aspects of society and life.

The rules of judo provide for strangulation techniques in which the blood supply to the brain is blocked by pressure on the carotid arteries; such techniques produce anoxia and possible unconsciousness if the victim fails to submit. A case is presented of a patient with signs of anoxic brain damage, with psychometric investigation showing memory di...

This paper builds on the suggestions of Samson and McDonnell (1990) concerning functional analysis and challenging behaviour and argues that although presenting an excellent outline of the general use of functional analysis, Samson and McDonnell (1990) have failed to sufficiently address the complexities of a functional approach to complex behaviou...

This paper responds to the comments of McDonnell and Samson concerning the Jones and Owens article which raised some issues related to the use of functional analysis in challenging behaviour. It is concluded that there is considerable agreement between the authors of both papers. The present paper raises some brief questions concerning the issues o...

Three groups (20 incarcerated rapists, 21 incarcerated nonrapists, and 30 nonincarcerated controls) assessed the likelihood of sexual activity between a heterosexual couple, depicted either verbally or pictorially. Scenarios involved an experimental manipulation in terms of the female's dress. Overall sexual activity between the couple was perceive...

Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and how science impacts upon all aspects of society and life.

Clinical experience with the new technology of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has indicated that the procedure may produce anxiety in a number of patients, to the extent that occasionally a patient may be unwilling to undergo the procedure. A study of patients' subjective experiences of MRI was therefore conducted and these were compared with tho...

Despite the recent increase in interest in the area of child sexual abuse, few studies have explored the attitudes of professionals involved in working with children. The present study investigates variables relating to the attribution of censure by two professional groups (teachers and social workers), to a victim of father-daughter incest, the fa...

Seventy one long-term users of benzodiazepines were asked by their general practitioners in a letter or short interview to reduce their medication. Twenty two patients were successful in giving up or reducing their consumption to less than 100 tablets per annum. There were no clear predictors of success in terms of patient characteristics, duration...

Synopsis The psychological well-being of forty-four breast cancer patients was assessed shortly before and after surgery, and at three and twelve months post-operatively. Regression analysis revealed type of treatment, control over treatment and concern for appearance as significant predictors of nature of subsequent mood state. Results are discuss...

Questionnaire measures relating to a recent episode of unmodified heroin withdrawal (the target episode) were obtained from 70 subjects. The duration of the target episode, but not reported distress during the episode, correlated with the amount of heroin consumed in the previous 3 months. Data from scales measuring motivation during the target epi...

Seventy-eight subjects were selected and allocated to groups. Any subjects who failed to meet the inclusion criteria at a point after selection were excluded from the data analysis from that time onwards. Three patients were excluded from analysis within the first six months: (a) One patient in the control group was unwittingly requested to stop me...

It was noted that there were missing data for many of the questions posed at interview and that just over half of the subjects attended the interview. Often these omissions may have been unavoidable, for example, most studies suffer some subject attrition. Nonetheless, a different style of introduction of the psychologist and a firmer procedure for...

One of the findings of the previous work is that the average user of benzodiazepines is not a person who is constantly demanding the attention of the general practitioners. Rather, the long-term user tends to be comparatively unknown to the doctor and merely attends the practice to pick up the next prescription.

The present research was designed to address a number of questions about the long-term use of benzodiazepines and the potential for stopping medication with minimal effort. The literature on withdrawal from benzodiazepine medication tends to focus on the symptoms that patients experience, giving the impression that withdrawal is difficult. Only a f...

Demographic characteristics, health behaviour and knowledge of breast cancer were assessed in 183 women from a regional breast screening unit and compared with those of 182 women from a breast clinic and 41 control subjects. A questionnaire yielded information on (i) demographic characteristics and cancer-related behaviours including breast self-ex...

It has been suggested that long-distance runners may show characteristics similar to those of patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. The present study attempted to obtain objective data pertaining to this issue by circulating to female marathon runners a questionnaire known to relate to personality characteristics associated with anorexia nervos...

43 women with breast cancer received either mastectomy or lumpectomy plus radiotherapy. Whenever medically feasible, the Ss were allowed to choose their own treatment. When they needed help in deciding, an informal decision analysis based on the principles of Bayesian decision analysis was conducted to help them choose. Those who needed a mastectom...

While there has been increasing interest in the topic of child sexual abuse, few studies have focused on attitudes or the determinants of such attitudes held by professionals. To what extent concern is based on stereotyping or factual knowledge is not clear. The present study uses a combination of experimental and survey methodologies to address th...