Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons^™

Relational Variables Impacting The Healthcare Team, Linda J. Macdougall Ms

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The movement in the healthcare system towards interprofessional collaborative teamwork values the perspectives of various healthcare professionals. Although this system shift has been essential to quality improvement, there have been indications of issues occurring between professionals that include conflict and impaired team performance. Although the current literature on interprofessional collaboration acknowledges the competencies and demonstrated behaviours that indicate successful and difficult collaborative efforts there is a lack of research investigating the relational variables that occur between healthcare professionals.

The purpose of this research was to test a theoretically derived model of healthcare professionals’ relational variables. These variables related to warmth, …

The Experience Of Mindfulness And Its Nondual Nature In Active Practitioners, Benjamin Tran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mindfulness-based interventions have become well-established in the literature as an effective treatment for various health issues. Its application in psychology is predominantly informed by dualism; however, according to its Eastern traditions, a true understanding of mindfulness is developed via nondualistic ontological experiences that emerge in a mindfulness state. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of mindfulness and its nondual nature as it is experienced in the world. Hermeneutical phenomenology, informed by an interpretivist lens, was employed. A sample of 13 mindfulness practitioners were individually interviewed. The experience of mindfulness and its nondual nature was considered through …

Investigating The Role Of Targeted Memory Reactivation In Sleep Spindle Production, Justin W. Hopper

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In ‘targeted memory reactivation’ (TMR) paradigms, information learned during wakefulness is paired with a cue, and reactivated during sleep by presenting that same cue. TMR improves memory. In a prior study (Antony et al., 2012), participants learned two melodies. One melody was cued during a nap, and performance was better than for the uncued melody. The current study reanalyzed these data to characterize sleep spindle density during TMR cue-periods relative to non-cued periods, and whether spindle density correlated with performance. During TMR stimulation, spindle density was significantly higher than during non-stimulation in four time windows. Compared to the non-TMR group, …

Investigating Gene-Environment Interaction In A Double-Hit Model For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Melvin Maroon

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

With the exponential advancements seen in the field of sequencing technology, the science community has come to identify hundreds of potential genetic risk factors for neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite our knowledge that such risk factors exist, we have yet to understand their specific influences on the behavioral profile of an individual. In addition, maternal infection during pregnancy can have longstanding detrimental outcomes on a child’s development. This is especially impactful with the present threat of viral infection during the pandemic. Our study aims to understand the influence of a specific genetic and environmental factor on a preclinical rodent model’s behavioral development. …

Depression & Anxiety In Brain Vs. Body Trauma Patients, Olivia Mercier

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

The Experiences Of Iraqi Refugees In Canada: A Life History Study Of War And Resilience In The Aftermath Of Migration, Nada Nessan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis reports on a life history narrative on the experiences of Iraqi refugees who resettled in Canada after living through war. The aim of this study is to help change the narrow perspectives on the mental health of war affected populations to a broader perception shaped by cultural and social aspects and to inform the development of meaningful and cultural relevant programs and policies with a particular attention to the concept of resilience.

The first part of the study presents the chronological narratives, or profiles. of eight participants. The second part of the study is a thematic discussion of …

The Experiences Of Female Adolescents Who Have Sustained A Concussion Through Sport Participation: A Consideration Of An Occupational Perspective During Recovery, Annalise Michelle Tichenoff

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Adolescence is a time of rapid and tumultuous development in the physical, cognitive and psychosocial domains. Sustaining a concussion during this time period may complicate this development, particularly when symptoms are prolonged. Of particular importance is the study of adolescent females, as this population has been under-evaluated within the literature. This is especially troubling due to the number of concussions that occur among adolescent females, as concussions within this population reportedly occur at twice the frequency of adolescent males. This dissertation presents a qualitative case study investigation that explores the recovery experiences of adolescent female athletes who have sustained a …

Exploring The Relationship Between Misophonia Severity And Anterior Insular Cortex Activity, Nicole M J Sedlak

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Misophonia is an under-recognized neuropsychological condition involving a severe sensitivity towards specific sounds called triggers. The aim of this study was to investigate how activity in the anterior insular cortex (AIC) differed with varying levels of sound sensitivity (SS); misophonia being the most severe. Data was collected from university undergraduates/young adults (N = 31). Participants completed an online survey to assess their misophonia severity and symptoms. A case study was conducted on some of the students (N = 4) to assess misophonia at a neurological level. In addition to experiencing a heightened sensitivity to sounds, the misophonia group reported having …

Investigating The Relationship Between Subcortical And Cortical Auditory Processing, Sonia Varma

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The auditory system is highly integrative, with feedforward and feedback connections from periphery to cortex (and stages in between). In order to understand how the different levels of the human auditory system interact, it is necessary to simultaneously measure responses from multiple auditory levels. A novel stimulus was paired with electroencephalography (EEG) in 29 young, normal-hearing participants (17-34 years) to examine interactions among stages of the auditory pathway. Temporal regularity was manipulated by continuously accelerating and decelerating the rate of a click-train stimulus (i.e., ~3.5 Hz frequency modulation of the click rate). Adaptation of the brainstem (cochlear nucleus and inferior …

Mouse Performance On A Novel Touchscreen Continuous Performance Task Is Dependent On Signaling In The Prelimbic Cortex, Tyler D. Dexter, Daniel Palmer, Amy C. Reichelt, Anita Taksokhan, Lisa M. Saksida, Tim J. Bussey

Western Research Forum

Attention is the cognitive processing that facilitates the ability to target and attend to relevant environmental stimuli, while filtering out irrelevant or distracting stimuli. Control over selective attention is theorized to be dependent on organized neural communication that stems from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). To evaluate selective and sustained attention, mice were trained on the novel touchscreen rodent continuous performance task (rCPT), a task designed to emulate the human CPT. In the rodent version, images are continuously presented on a touchscreen, where mice have been trained to selectively respond to one image type while suppressing responses to all others. …

Pparg Signaling In The Nucleus Accumbens Regulates Mesolimbic Dopamine Activity, Tony Jung, Roger Hudson, Hanna Szkudlarek, Walter Rushlow, Steve Laviolette

Western Research Forum

Background: The mesolimbic dopamine system consists of dopamine neuron projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). The NAc regulates VTA dopamine release through inhibitory GABA projections to the VTA. Hyperactive mesolimbic dopamine signaling is implicated in anxiety. Cannabidiol, a compound found in cannabis, demonstrates promising therapeutic potential for anxiety through the regulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system. Previous studies have revealed that cannabidiol infusions into the NAc decreases mesolimbic dopamine activity - potentially through the inhibitory GABA signaling to the VTA. However, the receptor mechanism in the NAc through which CBD produces its effects is …

Searching For Wisdom: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Women's Perspectives Following Participation In An Ovarian Cancer Supportive Care Group, Helen Butlin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study used a novel methodology of hermeneutic-poetic-phenomenology to explore perspectives of women living with ovarian cancer. Each had participated in a supportive care group process Soul-Medicine prior to volunteering. Three women, Beth, Carrie, and Denise contributed to this study. The methodology was grounded in Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy of poetic-phenomenology. Data was analyzed with attention to image-centred knowledge; material imagination; reverie; and horizons of hope to elucidate their implicated aspects of wisdom and the ways participant’s formed their personal wisdom integrating feminist theories of embodiment and bioethics.

Findings are framed through three images of a uniquely formed inner ‘wisdom-compass’, an …

Multisensory Integration And Autistic Traits Using Non-Sociolinguistic Information, Sébastien A. Lauzon, Samantha E. Schulz, Zack I. Cohen, Ryan A. Stevenson

Western Research Forum

Background: Sensory processing issues are one of the most common complaints in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One area of sensory difficulties in ASD that has been the focus of intense research in recent years is multisensory integration (MSI), or the ability to bind auditory and visual information into a single, unified percept. While integration of social or linguistic information is consistently shown to be an area of difficulty in ASD, results are less clear with simple, non-sociolinguistic stimuli. This study aims to address this ambiguity by determining whether MSI of non-sociolinguistic sensory information is related to traits and symptomatology …

The Effect Of The Dopamine Agonist Pramipexole On Measures Of Impulsivity In Young, Healthy Participants, Daniel Glizer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Patients with Parkinson disease are prescribed dopamine agonists such as pramipexole to improve motor symptoms. Several studies have found that patients taking dopaminergic medication develop impulse control disorders. In contrast, other studies suggest that some behaviors become less impulsive with pramipexole. We evaluated the performance of 20 young, healthy participants who received pramipexole (0.5 mg) and 20 participants who received placebo, on the Go/No-Go, the Stop Signal Task, and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. We found that the pramipexole group had more timed out Go trials on the Go/No-Go task than the placebo group, suggesting reduced motor impulsivity. There were …

Semantic Integration In Adults With Nonverbal Learning Disabilities And Autism Spectrum Disorder: Influence Of Word Knowledge And Gestalt Perception, Margot E. Stothers

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Language in individuals with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been described as semantically empty and impoverished, despite apparently average word knowledge. Here, inter-related studies explored semantic representations in adults with these disorders of social perception. Studies highlighted semantic integration, a form of gestalt perception in which new concepts are developed by connecting familiar terms in novel ways. Semantic integration was compared to vocabulary breadth, and to nonverbal gestalt perception, comparing clinical groups to each other and to adults without a diagnosis. Because weaknesses in gestalt perception have been seen in NLD and ASD, it was …

Seeing With Sound: Investigating The Behavioural Applications And Neural Correlates Of Human Echolocation, Jennifer L. Milne

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Some blind humans use the reflected echoes from self-produced signals to perceive their silent surroundings. Although the use of echolocation is well documented in animals such as bats and dolphins, comparatively little is known about human echolocation. The overarching goal of the work presented in this thesis was to shed light on some of the basic functions of human echolocation, including the perception of the shape, size, and material. I addressed these aspects of echolocation using behavioural psychophysics and neuroimaging.

In Chapter 2 I show that blind echolocators were able to accurately identify the shape of 2D objects, but that …

Secondary Traumatic Stress And Alexithymia In High-Risk Professionals, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the role that cognitive deficits in emotional processing (i.e., alexithymia) play in the development of traumatic responses, such as secondary traumatic stress (STS), following work with clients who have experienced trauma. Using a prospective cohort of novice counselling psychology and pre-service education students, participants were measured for traits of alexithymia and STS before and after their first practicum placements. Elevated rates of STS consistent with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder were identified in participants following initial practicum placement. Correlation analyses demonstrated that alexithymia and alexithymia symptom clusters were significantly, and robustly, associated with STS and STS …

Resilience As Health Promotion In Action: University Students Who Grew Up Amid Violence Directed Towards Their Mothers, Tatiana Murkin (Zdyb)

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Violence against women is among the greatest threats to the health of our population. An estimated three hundred and sixty thousand children in Canada, and over two million worldwide are exposed to violence in their homes (UNICEF, 2006). Growing up amidst such violence seriously compromises children’s capacities for healthy development. Violence against women is not limited by culture, geography or socioeconomic status. It constitutes one of the most pervasive and yet least openly discussed human rights violations and public health issues known today.

Researchers and allied health professionals generally agree that children whose development has been interfered with by …

Measuring The Sixth Vital Sign: A Descriptive Analysis Of Distress In Individuals With Head And Neck Cancer And Their Caregivers, Catherine C. Bornbaum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Introduction: Distress has become so problematic in oncology that it has been recognized as the “sixth vital sign” implying that distress monitoring should occur as routinely as the monitoring of one’s temperature or blood pressure. The research reported herein investigated the impact of head and neck cancer on levels of distress, commonly reported problems, and perceptions of quality of life in individuals with head and neck cancer and their caregivers.

Method: Two distinct studies were conducted; the first explored the patient experience of distress and quality of life while the second assessed the caregiver experience of these same constructs. A …

The Change Program: Comparing An Interactive Versus Prescriptive Telephone-Based Behavioural Intervention On The Psychological And Physiological Profiles Of University Students With Obesity, Erin S. Pearson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of the CHANGE (Coaching towards Healthy Actions Naturally through Goal-related Empowerment) Program was to compare the effectiveness of an interactive versus prescriptive 12-week telephone-based behavioural intervention on the psychological and physiological profiles of university students with obesity. Motivational Interviewing administered using Co-Active Life Coaching (MI-via-CALC) and a structured lifestyle treatment following the LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships, Nutrition) Program for Weight Management were examined.

Article 1 provided a methodological account of the CHANGE Program which included a detailed rationale for its development and a comprehensive description of the methods used. Because goal setting has been established as an …

Preventing Mental Distress In The Military, Charles Nelson, Kate St. Cyr, Bradley Corbett, Elisa Hurley, Shannon Gifford, Jon D. Elhai, J. Donald Richardson

CRDCN Research Highlight/RCCDR en évidence

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Cohesion Inventory For Children's Sport Teams, Luc J. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The general purpose of this dissertation was to develop an inventory designed to measure cohesion in children’s (ages 9-12) sport teams. To this end, three studies were conducted. In Study 1, children became active agents in the process of test construction. More specifically, children (N = 167) participated in focus groups and completed open-ended questionnaires in order to provide information on their perceptions of cohesion as well as motives for participating, continuing, and ceasing involvement on sport teams. Study 2 involved the use of the information obtained from Study 1 to develop potential items for the questionnaire. In addition, the …