W.M. Breland Short Bio Sheet
William Breland, Ph.D., joins the psychology department as a specialist in adult development
and research design and analysis. This specialty includes specific experience as a NIH fellow in
the multidisciplinary approach to understanding human behavior and adult development as well
as expertise in structural equation modeling techniques, analyses of normal and non-normal
distributions, factor analysis, measurement invariance, and interindividual vs. intraindividual
research design. Born and raised in Mississippi, he received his undergraduate degree in
mathematics and literature at William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. His graduate
education in psychology was obtained at California State University Northridge and his Ph.D.
was earned at the University of Southern California.
William currently resides in Port Hueneme, CA with his partner, Kathleen Linthicum. His two
daughters, Elyse and Gaedin, live in Pasadena, CA and Portland, OR respectively. In addition to
his research interest in the relationship of creativity to life satisfaction, he enjoys jazz, blues,
playing bass, writing music, painting with various media, friends, and family.
Other interest points:

Hypothesizes a structure of creative processing, which suggests that creative process is
curvilinearly related to a specific dimension of personality that moderates the relationship
between creativity and life-satisfaction, and proposes that an integrated
interindividual/intraindividual examination is important to study these relationships within a
multivariate, holistic system.

Co-created a procedure, with John Horn, Ph.D., for using an incomplete data approach to
unambiguously interpret the inter-relationships among ipsatively related variables.

Executed SEM analyses that examine the longitudinal interrelationships of elemental language
skills (oral language, phonemic awareness, emergent reading, and language processing speed)
across the acquisition of a second language – Spanish to English – and their influence of later
reading success in the second language (assisting Frank Manis and Kim Lindsey, co-principal
investigators).

Has managed data in ArcView, an Geographic Information Systems computer program, for the
Child Neglect Project (Penelope Trickett, principal investigator) – mapping the subjects’
neighborhood risk factors as determined by the 2000 U.S. Census, preparing summary statistics
of the data, and generating visual representations of the data.

Has successfully completed a variety of tasks in the private sector – for example: created,
engineered, arranged, and produced more than 30 compositions that have been sold to music
background companies (several of which have found heavy rotation in adult contemporary radio);
toured the world as a performing bassist with such artists as Helen Reddy, Alan Thicke, and the
jazz group Pocket Change; produced a Top 40 European hit, Tear Down the Wall, for musical
artist Joe Esposito; and, created and coordinated marketing efforts for Model Interiors (an interior
design firm located in Thousand Oaks, CA), statistically identifying appropriate advertising
models and reducing the cost of retail sales.

Co-owns Mojo Loon Records, an independent music distribution company.