Biography
Claire is a psychology researcher interested in identifying the long-term impact of music and visual arts engagement on lifelong health and wellbeing using controlled experimental designs and evidence synthesis from large international datasets. Central to Claire's research is understanding how music and arts engagement can facilitate personal agency, identity development, and self-efficacy, which are key determinants of mental health and psychological wellbeing.
Claire is currently an assistant professor in psychology in Trinity college Dublin. Previously Claire was a post-doctoral researcher in the Autism Research Centre in the university of Cambridge where she was the lead researcher on the Autism-CHIME study and held a junior research fellowship in Wolfson college and a creative health research fellowship from University College London. She is currently a committee member of a special interest group for arts and health in the Royal Society of Public health.
Previous research projects have included music and pain, community arts for social inclusion, art viewing for psychological wellbeing, music therapy for autism, and socio-emotional reasons for music engagement in times of Covid.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Howlin C., Stapleton A., Rooney B., Tune out pain: Agency and active engagement predict decreases in pain intensity after music listening, PLoS ONE, 17, (8 August), 2022
Howlin C., Rooney B., The Cognitive Mechanisms in Music Listening Interventions for Pain: A Scoping Review, Journal of Music Therapy, 57, (2), 2020, p127 - 167
Howlin, C., Rooney, B., Cognitive Agency in Music Interventions: Increased perceived control of music predicts increased pain tolerance, European Journal of Pain, 2021
Howlin C., Rooney B., Patients choose music with high energy, danceability, and lyrics in analgesic music listening interventions, Psychology of Music, 2020
Howlin C., Vicary S., Orgs G., Audiovisual Aesthetics of Sound and Movement in Contemporary Dance, Empirical Studies of the Arts, 38, (2), 2020, p191 - 211, p191-211
The Health Benefits of Art Experience in, editor(s)M Skov, M Nadal , The Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics, 2022, pp410 - 422, [Claire Howlin]
LK Fink, LA Warrenburg, C Howlin, WM Randall, NC Hansen, M Wald-Fuhrmann, Viral tunes:changes in musical behaviours and interest in corona music predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, (8), 2021
The Audio-Visual Aesthetics of Music and Dance in, editor(s)Marcos Nadal and Oshin Vartanian , The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics, Oxford , Oxford University Press, 2020, [Guido Orgs, Claire Howlin]
Walsh, A., McCluskey, R., Cassidy, D., McGoldrick, G., Howlin, C., Muldoon, K., Butler, É., & Byrne, G., The Support Needs and Current Practices of Public Health Nurses in the Republic of Ireland Who Provide Support to Breastfeeding Mothers: A Cross-Sectional Survey. , Journal of Human Lactation, 2023
Howlin, C. Lynch D., Guerin, S., Rooney, B. , It's not just the music: impact of the environment and individual differences on music medicine in pain settings., Proceedings of the 11th International Student Conference on Systematic Musicology (SYSMUS 18), 11th International Student Conference on Systematic Musicology (SYSMUS 18, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, June 2018, 2018, pp106 - 114
Howlin C. Orgs, G., Vicary, S. , The impact of soundtrack congruency on the aesthetic experience of contemporary dance: exploring aesthetic interaction in terms of arousal and enjoyment ratings in three audio settings., In Proceedings of the 25th Anniversary Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Ghent, Belgium, 31 July - 4 August , European Society for the Cognition of Music, 2017, pp91 - 95
Howlin, C., Rooney, B. , Exploring danceability and music energy in mediating the analgesic benefits of music listening., 'Time changes in experiences of music and dance', International Symposium, Hamburg, Germany, 29th-30th November , 2019
Howlin, C. Lynch D., Guerin, S., Rooney, B. , Visual Imagery and music listening interventions for pain: preliminary results, KOSMOS workshop on "Mind wandering and visual mental imagery in Music, Berlin, Germany, May, 2018
McCann M., Kelly A.M., Eustace-Cook J., Howlin C. and Daly L., Community nurses attitudes, knowledge and educational needs in relation to urinary continence, continence assessment, and management: A systematic review, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 31, (7-8), 2022, p1041-1060
Howlin C., Walsh R., D'Alton P., Rooney B., How do people with chronic pain choose their music for pain management? Examining the external validity of the cognitive vitality model, Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 2023
O'Connor Power F., Beatty S., Dunne N., O'Connell L., O' Riordan N., Sloane H., Prizeman G., O'Sullivan K., Butler E., Howlin C., Byrne G., 'I'm not being serviced; I'm being cared for': A mixed methods study of patients' and nurses' perceptions of community oncology nursing delivered by a Community Intervention Team, European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 60, 2022
C. Howlin, E. O'Shea, M. Dunne, L. Mullaney, M. McGarry, A. Clayton-Lea,M. Finn, P. Carter, B. Garret, P. Thirion, A randomized controlled trial comparing customized versus standard headrests for head and neck radiotherapy immobilization in terms of set-up errors, patient comfort and staff satisfaction (ICORG 08-09), Radiography, 21, (1), 2015, p74 - 83
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
C Howlin, E Quinn, J Jones, Identifying the art of wellbeing: The experiences and impacts of Entelechy Arts' Staying Connected Programme, Dublin Ireland, Entelechy Arts, July, 2022, p1 - 40
Howlin, C*. Fink, L.*, Randall, W., Warrenburg, L., Wald-Fuhrmann, M. and Hansen, N. C, Music as a tool for socio-emotional coping during Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. , SEMPRE Conference 'The role of music psychology research in a complex world', Leeds, 9th - 11th September, 2020
Orgs, O., Howlin, C. , Music Dance interactions. , Congress of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics., University of Toronto, Canada, 30 August- 2 Septemb, 2018
Mc Cluskey, R., Walsh, A, Howlin, C., Cassidy, D., Muldoon, K., Byrne, G., Developing a questionnaire-based tool to assess the support needs and current practices of PHNs who provide support to breastfeeding mothers., Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference , Dublin, Ireland, March , 2021
Fink, L., Warrenburg, L. A., Howlin, C., Randell, W. M., Hansen, N. C., Wald-Fuhrmann, M., Viral Tunes: Changes in musical behaviours and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown, PsyArchiv, 2021
Research Expertise
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship from the Irish Research Council
UCD College of Social Sciences and Law Scholarship
Awarded UCD Graduate Research and Innovations award to present at the 25th Anniversary Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Ghent, Belgium.
Conference Award from the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research
Awarded SEMPRE Conference award to attend and present my research at the international student conference for systematic musicology, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Awarded UCD Graduate Research and Innovations award to present my research at the European society for the cognition of music's 10th triennial conference, in Gräz, Austria.
Awarded SEMPRE Conference award to attend and present my research at the international student conference for systematic musicology at Berlin, Germany