Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Procrastination: Examining Trait And Cognitive Conceptualizations, And The Mediating Roles Of Fear Of Failure And Overgeneralization Of Failure, Lital Yosopov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The relationship between perfectionism and procrastination has been established in the literature; however, findings regarding the magnitude of this correlation are inconsistent. Some studies found small-to-medium effects between trait-perfectionism and trait-procrastination, while others found large effects between perfectionistic cognitions and procrastinatory cognitions, suggesting that the association may be stronger when assessed from a cognitive perspective. The present study addressed this inconsistency, by exploring this association using both trait and cognitive measures. There was a significant and positive correlation between perfectionism and procrastination, and the largest effect size was observed between perfectionism (trait and cognitive measures) and procrastinatory cognitions, suggesting that …

What To Say And How To Say It: The Interplay Of Self-Disclosure Depth, Similarity, And Interpersonal Liking In Initial Social Interactions, Yixian Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We often initiate social relationships with others through revelations of personal information, or self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is heavily involved in shaping interpersonal liking, but there are disparate and sometimes contradictory findings in the literature regarding the causal relationship between them. Moreover, a lack of careful control in experimental designs in many existing studies failed to eliminate important confounding factors that might provide alternative explanations for the disclosure-liking relationship. Here, we examined the relationships between self-disclosure and interpersonal liking during initial social interactions, while carefully controlling for a potential confounding factor, similarity between the social partners.

Across the first five experiments, I …

Assessment Instruments And Basic Personality Underpinnings Of Hypersexuality, Stephanie L. Montgomery-Graham

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite rejection of the Hypersexual Disorder (HD) diagnosis from DSM-5, individuals continue to present clinically with feelings of out-of-control sexual behaviour, clinicians continue to treat “sexual addiction,” and researchers continue to study HD-type symptomology. To further investigation of the HD construct, Levaque and colleagues (2016) used common HD assessment measures and found that between 16.7% and 37.8% of young adult males met clinically significant scores for HD. Phase one of this dissertation replicated the surprising finding in a North American community sample and furthered the research by testing the assessment tool used in DSM-5 HD field trials, and the first …

The Role Of Neural Entrainment In Statistical Learning, Jordan-Jerrica Mulgrew

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Statistical learning (SL) refers to our ability to extract patterns from the environment. Research has long acknowledged the importance of SL in language; however, the neural mechanisms underlying SL remain largely unknown. One potential mechanism is neural entrainment, which refers to the tendency of endogenous neural oscillations to align with an ongoing rhythmic stimulus. In the context of SL, neural entrainment may align neural excitability to the ongoing structure of the speech stream, increasing sensitivity to underlying patterns and supporting the learning of word boundaries. This thesis tested the hypothesis that neural entrainment plays a causal role in SL by …

When Life Gives You Lemons: The Development And Validation Of The Resilience Scale For Older Adults, Claire A. Wilson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study of resilience, or positive adaptation in the face of adversity, is important across the lifespan, but may be particularly relevant for older adults who tend to experience an increasing number of challenges. Traditionally, resilience assessment has largely focused on child and young-to-middle aged adult populations, and as such, the literature is lacking a validated resilience measure developed specifically for older adults. This dissertation aimed to improve the measurement of resilience in older populations by developing and validating a new resilience measure that is relevant and appropriate for older adults. In Study 1, a qualitative metasynthesis was conducted to …

Psychological Predictors Of Injury In Collegiate Cheerleaders, Alexander Marchand

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

According to the revised stress-injury model (Williams & Andersen, 1998), greater life stress predicts greater vulnerability to athletic injury, with this relationship being strongest among athletes exhibiting competitive anxiety, less social support, and non-adaptive coping skills. This study tested the validity of this model among collegiate cheerleaders, an injury-prone athlete group. Ninety-two collegiate cheerleaders recorded instances of injury over 12 weeks. Measures of life stress, competitive anxiety, coping style, social support, and previous injury were obtained. Heightened negative life stress did not coincide with greater injury. A positive stress-injury relationship was observed among cheerleaders reporting high avoidance coping. A negative …

The Human Cerebellum Has Almost 80% Of The Surface Area Of The Neocortex, Martin I. Sereno, J. Rn Diedrichsen, Mohamed Tachrount, Guilherme Testa-Silva, Helen D Arceuil, Chris De Zeeuw

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. The surface of the human cerebellar cortex is much more tightly folded than the cerebral cortex. It was computationally reconstructed for the first time to the level of all individual folia from multicontrast high-resolution postmortem MRI scans. Its total shrinkage-corrected surface area (1,590 cm2) was larger than expected or previously reported, equal to 78% of the total surface area of the human neocortex. The unfolded and flattened surface comprised a narrow strip 10 cm wide but almost 1 m long. By applying the same methods to the neocortex and cerebellum of …

Investigating The Relationship Between Event Knowledge, Autistic Traits, And Social Ability: A Network Science Approach, Kara E. Hannah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Event knowledge, a person’s understanding of patterns of activities in the world, is crucial for everyday social interactions. Atypical event knowledge could contribute to social communication problems, which are prominent in autism spectrum disorder. Previous research has found atypical event knowledge in autistic individuals; however, research is minimal. In two studies, the relationship between event knowledge and autistic traits, namely social abilities, was investigated. I predicted associations between atypical event knowledge and poorer social abilities. In Study 1, lower social ability correlated with more atypical ordering of event activities. In Study 2, for atypical activity ordering, a relationship was found …

Pupil Size Is Modulated By The Size Of Equal-Luminance Gratings, Jie Gao, Athena Ko, Yoshiko Yabe, Melvyn A. Goodale, Juan Chen

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Authors. Pupil size changes with light. For this reason, researchers studying the effect of attention, contextual processing, and arousal on the pupillary response have matched the mean luminance of their stimuli across conditions to eliminate the contribution of differences in light levels. Here, we argue that the match of mean luminance is not enough. In Experiment 1, we presented a circular sinewave grating on a gray background for 2 seconds. The area of the grating could be 3°, 6°, or 9°. The mean luminance of each grating was equal to the luminance of the gray background, such …

‘Instead Of Life In Prison, It Was Life In My Own Skin’: Scope And Limitations Of A Week-Long Daily Online Self-Compassionate Writing Intervention For Young Women’S Body Image, Katarina Huellemann

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Self-compassion involves reappraising negative events, accepting uncomfortable emotions, and practicing self-kindness. This thesis examined the effect of cultivating self-compassion via daily self-compassionate writing completed online for one week on stigmatizing and affirming self-perceptions in young undergraduate women. Undergraduate women (N = 254) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (i.e., self-compassionate writing, attentional-control, wait-list control) and completed measures of trait self-compassion, fear of self-compassion, affirming self-perceptions (i.e., body appreciation and broad conceptualization of beauty), and stigmatizing self-perceptions (i.e., self-objectification and phenomenological body shame) at baseline, post-test, and one-month follow-up. Hypotheses were tested using MANCOVA and a latent …

An Information—Motivation—Behavioural Skills Model Of Sexual Consent, Erin J. Shumlich

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation proposed an Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills (IMB) model of affirmative sexual consent, which is consent that is ongoing, continuous, and clearly communicated. The overall objectives of the current dissertation research were to: 1) elicit — from young, sexually active individuals — information, motivation, and behavioural skills factors that are related to affirmative sexual consent behaviours; 2) develop and empirically test an Information–Motivation–Behavioural Skills (IMB) model of sexual consent and use this to examine the hypothesized relationships of affirmative consent-related information, motivation, and behavioural skills with affirmative consent behaviours; and 3) evaluate the psychometric properties of an IMB scale measuring …

Longitudinal Changes Of Brain Microstructure And Function In Nonconcussed Female Rugby Players, Kathryn Y. Manning, Jeffrey S. Brooks, James P. Dickey, Alexandra Harriss, Lisa Fischer, Tatiana Jevremovic, Kevin Blackney, Christy Barreira, Arthur Brown, Robert Bartha, Tim Doherty, Douglas Fraser, Jeff Holmes, Gregory A. Dekaban, Ravi S. Menon

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

ObjectiveTo longitudinally assess brain microstructure and function in female varsity athletes participating in contact and noncontact sports.MethodsConcussion-free female rugby players (n = 73) were compared to age-matched (ages 18-23) female swimmers and rowers (n = 31) during the in- and off-season. Diffusion and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) measures were the primary outcomes. The Sports Concussion Assessment Tool and head impact accelerometers were used to monitor symptoms and impacts, respectively.ResultsWe found cross-sectional (contact vs noncontact) and longitudinal (in- vs off-season) changes in white matter diffusion measures and rs-fMRI network connectivity in concussion-free contact athletes relative to noncontact athletes. In particular, mean, axial, …

Is Social Rank Correlated With Cognitive Ability In Black-Capped Chickadees?, Gloria Hyun Young Cho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Traditionally, dominant animals have been regarded as better competitors in all aspects of life, including cognition. However, the survival and reproductive advantages of being a dominant chickadee are surprisingly modest. It is possible that subordinate individuals compensate for the disadvantages of a lower rank with better cognitive abilities. If dominants are monopolizing prime food sources, subordinates may have developed better associative learning skills by learning to associate novel types of stimuli with food rewards. In this thesis, I asked whether dominance rank is correlated with cognitive ability in Black-capped Chickadees. I determined dominance rank in six flocks of six chickadees, …

The Motherhood Penalty: Not So Black And White, Shruti Kumar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Working mothers experience discrimination in hiring, promotion, salary, and training opportunities. This “motherhood penalty” occurs, in part, due to stereotyped family role expectations: working mothers are often perceived as the primary caregivers in their families and are assumed to have additional domestic responsibilities compared to fathers or non-parents. Notably, when women are framed as breadwinners rather than caregivers, they do not experience a motherhood penalty. However, this line of research largely focuses on the experiences of White women and is lacking an intersectional approach. Using an experimental research design, I examined how candidate race and parenthood impacted breadwinner perceptions and …

Looming And Receding Visual Networks In Awake Marmosets Investigated With Fmri, Justine C. Cléry, David J. Schaeffer, Yuki Hori, Kyle M. Gilbert, Lauren K. Hayrynen, Joseph S. Gati, Ravi S. Menon, Stefan Everling

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Author(s) An object that is looming toward a subject or receding away contains important information for determining if this object is dangerous, beneficial or harmless. This information (motion, direction, identity, time-to-collision, size, velocity) is analyzed by the brain in order to execute the appropriate behavioral responses depending on the context: fleeing, freezing, grasping, eating, exploring. In the current study, we performed ultra-high-field functional MRI (fMRI) at 9.4T in awake marmosets to explore the patterns of brain activation elicited by visual stimuli looming toward or receding away from the monkey. We found that looming and receding visual stimuli …

The Conceptual Metaphor False Memory Effect, Jeffrey N. Reid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Conceptual Metaphor Theory posits that cross-domain mappings play a fundamental role in thought. However, to date there has been little research investigating the influence of conceptual metaphors in the subdomains of cognitive psychology, such as learning, concepts, and memory, leading critics to argue that conceptual metaphors are not psychologically real. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore whether conceptual metaphors influence episodic memory. In four experiments, a modified version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was employed in which participants studied lists of expressions. Every expression within each list was based on a proposed conceptual metaphor. For example, the TIME …

The Role Of Dark Personalities In Intimate Partner Violence, Rachel A. Plouffe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an international public health concern that poses significant mental and physical health risks for affected individuals. To improve prevention and intervention efforts, it is imperative that researchers and government bodies understand risk factors for IPV. This dissertation sought to evaluate individual differences in personality and childhood experiences as risk factors for various forms of IPV. The first two studies in this dissertation assessed whether the Dark Tetrad personality traits moderated the relationships between participants’ and their partners’ levels of IPV perpetration. In these studies, we assessed whether the Dark Tetrad traits operated differently in their …

Expanding The Search For Genetic Biomarkers Of Parkinson's Disease Into The Living Brain, Simon M. Benoit, Hu Xu, Susanne Schmid, Roumiana Alexandrova, Gaganjot Kaur, Bhooma Thiruvahindrapuram, Sergio L. Pereira, Mandar Jog, Matthew O. Hebb

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Altered gene expression related to Parkinson's Disease (PD) has not been described in the living brain, yet this information may support novel discovery pertinent to disease pathophysiology and treatment. This study compared the transcriptome in brain biopsies obtained from living PD and Control patients. To evaluate the novelty of this data, a comprehensive literature review also compared differentially expressed gene (DEGs) identified in the current study with those reported in PD cadaveric brain and peripheral tissues. RNA was extracted from rapidly cryopreserved frontal lobe specimens collected from PD and Control patients undergoing neurosurgical procedures. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was performed and …

Music As A Scaffold For Listening To Speech: Better Neural Phase-Locking To Song Than Speech, Christina M. Vanden Bosch Der Nederlanden, Marc F. Joanisse, Jessica A. Grahn

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Authors Neural activity synchronizes with the rhythmic input of many environmental signals, but the capacity of neural activity to entrain to the slow rhythms of speech is particularly important for successful communication. Compared to speech, song has greater rhythmic regularity, a more stable fundamental frequency, discrete pitch movements, and a metrical structure, this may provide a temporal framework that helps listeners neurally track information better than the rhythmically irregular rhythms of speech. The current study used EEG to examine whether entrainment to the syllable rate of linguistic utterances, as indexed by cerebro-acoustic phase coherence, was greater when …

The "Inferior Temporal Numeral Area" Distinguishes Numerals From Other Character Categories During Passive Viewing: A Representational Similarity Analysis, Darren J. Yeo, Courtney Pollack, Rebecca Merkley, Daniel Ansari, Gavin R. Price

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

A region in the posterior inferior temporal gyrus (pITG) is thought to be specialized for processing Arabic numerals, but fMRI studies that compared passive viewing of numerals to other character types (e.g., letters and novel characters) have not found evidence of numeral preference in the pITG. However, recent studies showed that the engagement of the pITG is modulated by attention and task contexts, suggesting that passive viewing paradigms may be ill-suited for examining numeral specialization in the pITG. It is possible, however, that even if the strengths of responses to different category types are similar, the distributed response patterns (i.e., …

Understanding The Effects Of Physical Activity On Executive Functioning And Psycho-Emotional Well-Being In Children With Adhd, Hannah B. Bigelow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A short bout of physical activity has been shown to improve executive functioning in children. However, the implications for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been understudied. We examined the impact of a 10min bout of physical activity on executive functioning and psycho-emotional well-being in children with ADHD. Participants engaged in two lab-based sessions separated by 1-week: a physical activity session and a control session. The physical activity session included a 10min bout of moderate-intensity biking, with a pre-post battery of cognitive and psycho-emotional assessments. The control session consisted of 10mins of silent reading. We used functional imaging …

Microdosing Mindfulness: Understanding The Effects Of Brief Mindfulness Meditation In Children With Adhd, Marcus D. Gottlieb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mindfulness Meditation (MM) is receiving increased empirical support as a method for addressing ADHD symptomology. Research shows that MM interventions lasting weeks or months promote key aspects of cognitive and psycho-emotional functioning in youth with ADHD. Using a pre-post within-subjects design, we sought to determine whether a single MM session supports neurocognitive and/or psycho-emotional functioning in youth with ADHD. Sixteen participants aged 10-14 completed measures of executive and psycho-emotional functioning before/after a 10-minute MM session and silent reading control. Functional neuroimaging assessed whether MM supported changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during cognitive tasks. We found that a single MM …

Recognizing Relational Boredom And Coping With It Through The Introduction Of Novelty, Kiersten Dobson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Relational boredom is a pervasive and potentially damaging relationship experience, but accurately perceiving these experiences in one’s partner may offer the opportunity for corrective action. The current studies examine whether romantic partners are accurate and biased in their perceptions of each other’s relational boredom (Studies 1-3), how these (in)accurate perceptions are associated with relationship quality (Studies 1-3), and the best practices for incorporating relationship maintenance behaviours to cope with the knowledge of one’s partner’s boredom (Studies 4-6). Studies 1 and 2 examine romantic couples’ accuracy, bias, and the consequences of these constructs on relationship quality cross-sectionally, while Study 3 examines …

Maternal Immune Activation Alters Fetal Brain Development And Enhances Proliferation Of Neural Precursor Cells In Rats, Kelly J. Baines, Dendra M. Hillier, Faraj L. Haddad, Nagalingam Rajakumar, Susanne Schmid, Stephen J. Renaud

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Maternal immune activation (MIA) caused by exposure to pathogens or inflammation during critical periods of neurodevelopment is a major risk factor for behavioral deficits and psychiatric illness in offspring. A spectrum of behavioral abnormalities can be recapitulated in rodents by inducing MIA using the viral mimetic, PolyI:C. Many studies have focused on long-term changes in brain structure and behavioral outcomes in offspring following maternal PolyI:C exposure, but acute changes in prenatal development are not well-characterized. Using RNA-Sequencing, we profiled acute transcriptomic changes in rat conceptuses (decidua along with nascent embryo and placenta) after maternal PolyI:C exposure during early gestation, which …

The Impact Of Partners In Doubles Racquet Sports And Interpersonal Emotional Regulation, Sarah J. Deck

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The overall purpose of this dissertation was to understand the impact that partner play has in doubles racquet sports (tennis, badminton and squash) on emotions, coping and emotional regulation. Study 1 laid the groundwork to understanding the impact (positive or negative) that the different types of partner play (playing well, playing normal, or playing poorly) has in these dyads. Participants (N=103) were randomized into one of three scenarios (written vignettes) designed to manipulate partners play and asked to fill out a questionnaire packet based on the scenario read. Findings of Study 1 showed that there was a difference in the …

An Examination Of Child And Youth Mental Health Service Urgency In Ontario, Valbona Semovski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ontario’s capacity to treat children and adolescents in mental health crisis is outweighed by the number and needs of individuals requiring treatment. A lack of standardized assessments for prioritizing individuals has contributed to long wait times for treatment and a paucity of information to help prioritize those requiring urgent services. This study examined whether sector (e.g., school, hospital), sex, age, legal guardianship, interpersonal and school conflict, intellectual disability and comorbid health conditions predicted greater mental health service urgency in 61,448 children (ages 4 to 18 years) assessed using the interRAI Child and Youth Mental Health Screener. Additionally, differences in mental …

The Relationship Between Schizotypal Traits And The Perceptual Processes Of Multisensory Integration, Temporal Processing, And Speech Perception, Anne-Marie Muller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Multisensory integration, the binding of sensory information from different sensory modalities, may contribute to perceptual symptomatology in schizophrenia, including hallucilllnations and aberrant speech perception. Differences in multisensory integration and temporal processing, an important component of multisensory integration, are consistently found in schizophrenia. Evidence is emerging that these differences extend across the schizophrenia spectrum, including individuals in the general population with higher schizotypal traits. In two studies, the relationship between schizotypal traits and perceptual functioning is investigated. We hypothesized associations between higher schizotypal traits and decreased multisensory integration, increased auditory speech distractibility, and less precise temporal processing. In Study 1, higher …

A Longitudinal Person-Centred Investigation Of Commitment In Newcomers To The Military, Brittney K. Anderson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Organizational commitment is a force that binds individuals to their company through their desire, obligation, and need to stay. Employees who are committed to the organization are more likely to demonstrate higher engagement, greater satisfaction, and fewer intentions to leave their company. Research has also demonstrated that investigating how each of the three forms of commitment – affective, normative, and continuance – interact allows for better prediction of employee outcomes. Using person-centred approaches, previous research has shown that there are typically five to seven profiles of commitment, and that membership in these profiles has implications for employee behaviours. However, little …

The Measurement Of Job Satisfaction Among Workplace Leaders: Scale Development And Validation Of The Leader Satisfaction Assessment, Erica A. Sutherland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As one of the most well-researched constructs in I/O psychology, the job attitudes literature is saturated with assessments of job satisfaction. However, none of these measures have explicitly examined the nature of job satisfaction among workplace leaders, a subset of employees who have the potential to influence organizations in substantive and meaningful ways. As such, the purpose of this dissertation was to examine the measurement of job satisfaction among leaders. A series of interviews and open-ended survey questionnaires were administered to a diverse group of leaders, employed across a variety of organizations and industries, to identify what facets contributed most …

Resonance, A Step Towards A Fluency For Complexity: The Science, Language, And Epistemology Of Gregory Bateson, Won Jeon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis confronts the urgency with which new language and vocabulary is required to move beyond linear assumptions in mainstream science and humanities, as well as global policy making. I examine Gregory Bateson’s body of work in history and philosophy of science, psychiatry and psychotherapy, anthropology, biology and ecology designed to communicate the necessarily interdisciplinary consideration for a nonlinear and recursive investigation of the self, other, and environment. Such intellectual forays cannot be dismissed as non-scientific. I offer definitions and contextualizations of key terms derived from cybernetics, new materialisms, and posthumanism (such as emergence, process, paradox, metaphor, fractality) to speak …