Krystelle Shaughnessy

I  currently am an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa. I  completed the  PhD Program in Clinical Psychology program at the University of New Brunswickin 2013 under Dr. Byers' suprvision, after which I held a position as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. David Moscovitch at the Univesity of Waterloo. 

During my doctoral studies, I  developed a  program of research focused on online sexual activities(OSA). You can find a list of my publications below. To date I have published studies on predictors of OSA experience, perceived outcomes of OSA, and definitions of,  measurement of, and experiences with cybersex. Across all these studies, the results suggest that OSA experiences are common and that people hold relatively neutral attitudes toward these experiences. Additionally, people report that their own recreational OSA experiences have little impact on the sexual attitudes, sex life, and life in general. Moreover, many people engage in cybersex with their primary partner and do so more frequently than with someone they know who is not a partner or a stranger. I am continuing to analyze data i have related to  motivations for cybersex as well as a cross-country comparison of attitudes, experiences, and outcomes of OSA. 

I was also involved in secondary lines of sexuality research at UNB. I have collaborated on a study examining attitudes towards sexuality and aging with Dr. Lucia O'Sullivan, Ashley Thompson, and Dr. Sandra Byers. I have conducted research on variety of sexual experiences, interests, and fantasies.

Along with my enthusiasm for research, I also enjoyed opportunities to mentor and teach undergraduate students at UNB. Specifically,  I taught Human Sexuality and co-taught  Introduction to Research and Statistical Methods in Psychology  with Dr. Daniel Voyer.  I was actively involved with co-supervising the research of a number of Basic Research and Honours  students in the Byers lab. 

Here are my sexuality-related publications:

 Byers, E. S.,  & Shaughnessy, K. (2014). Attitudes toward online sexual activities. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research in Cyberspace, 8(1).  http://cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cislocianku=2014030603&article=10

Shaughnessy, K., Byers, E. S., (2014). Contextualizing cybersex experience: Heterosexually identified men and women's desire for and experience with cybersex in three types of relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 32, 178-185. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.12.005. 

Thompson, A., O'Sullivan, L. F., Byers, E. S., & Shaughnessy, K., (2014). College students' implicit and explicit attitudes toward sexuality of older adults. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 33(3), 259-270. doi: 10.1017/s0714980814000208

Shaughnessy, K., Byers, E. S., Clowater, S.L., & Kalinowski, A. (2013). Outcomes of arousal-oriented online sexual activities: Perspectives of college, community, and sexual minority samples. Archives of Sexual Behavior. doi: 10.1007/s10508-013-0115-z

Shaughnessy, K., & Byers, E. S. (2013). Seeing the forest through the trees: Using cybersex as a case study of single versus multi-item measures of sexual behaviour. Canadian Journal of Behaviour Science. 45, 220 – 229. doi: 10.1037/a0031331

Shaughnessy, K.,  Byers, E. S ., & Thornton, S. J. (2012). What is cybersex?: Heterosexual students definitions. International Journal of Sexual Health, 23, 79-89. doi: 10.1080/19317611.2010.546945

Shaughnessy, K., Byers, E. S.,, & Walsh, L. (2011) Online sexual activity experience in heterosexual students: Gendere similarities and differences. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40,  149. doi: 10.1016/10.1007/sl10508-010-9629-9

Here are my recent conference presentations:

Shaughnessy, K, & Byers, E. S. (June, 2013). Contextualizing cybersex experience: Heterosexually identified men and women’s desire for and experiences with cybersex in three types of relationships. In K. Blair (Chair), Not the usual suspects: Unique Predictors of relationship satisfaction & functioning in diverse relationship types. Symposium to be presented at the Canadian Psychological Association Annual Convention, Quebec City, QC., Canada.

Shaughnessy, K., & Byers, E. S. (September, 2012). Contextualizing cybersex; An examination of heterosexual adults’ cybersex experience with three types of partners. Canadian Sex Research Forum Annual Meeting, Ottawa, ON., Canada.

Shaughnessy, K., & Byers, E. S. (2012, June). Women's perceptions of their online sexual activity experience. Paper to be presented at the Section on Women and Psychology Preconference Institute, Canadian Psychological Association, Halifax, NS.

Shaughnessy, K., & Byers, E. S. (2011, September). Specificity in attitudes towards online sexual activity. Poster presented at the meeting of the Canadian Sex Research Forum, Vancouver, B.C.

Thompson, A. ,Shaughnessy, K., O'Sullivan, L., & Byers, E. S. (2011, September). Are your biases showing? An  IAT test of students' implicit attitudes toward sex among the elderly. Paper presented at the meeting of the Canadian Sex Research Forum, Vancouver, B.C.

Shaughnessy, K., & Byers, E. S. (2011, July). Gender differences and similaritiesin heterosexual students' online sexual activity experiences. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, Prague, Czech Republic.