Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dealing With Disagreement: Towards A Conception Of Feasible Compromise, Friderike Marta Gabriela Spang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goal of this dissertation is to specify the feasibility conditions of compromise. More specifically, the goal of this dissertation is to specify the conditions of increasing the feasibility of compromise. The underlying assumption here is that feasibility is a scalar concept, meaning that a socio-political ideal can be feasible to different degrees (Lawford-Smith 2013). In order to specify the conditions of increasing the feasibility of compromise, it is necessary to first identify potential feasibility constraints. The main chapters of this dissertation are devoted to this task.

My research identifies two kinds of feasibility constraints that compromise potentially faces: …

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 …

"I Feel Like I Just Need To Be More Careful, You Know?": Gay And Bisexual Post-Secondary Students Contemplate The Job Market, Kyle Carmelo Militello

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Through a qualitative lens, this research explores the concerns sexual minority students have about making the transition to full-time employment and examines how experiences of adversity shape concerns and anxieties. Unlike the previous generations before them, the students who participated in this study share the privilege of entering a labour market that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual identity. With the aim of complementing and advancing existing literature, the study is motivated by the following research question: despite being a protected class, do post-secondary gay and bisexual students hold anxieties about joining a potentially heteronormative workforce? To answer this …

Essays In International Economics: Decomposing Episodes Of Large Growth In International Trade, Brandon K. Malloy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters relating to topics in International Economics. In the first essay, I use bilateral trade data from Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the U.S. and the U.K. to decompose the patterns of trade growth across various goods classifications during episodes of rapid growth in bilateral trade. I find that bilateral trade growth during these episodes is granular- less than 5\% of goods classifications account for over 65\% of overall bilateral trade growth. I quantitatively assess whether ``Melitz-style" trade models, with heterogeneous productivity firms, CES demand and fixed and variable costs of exporting, can match the observed …

A Gendered Perspective On Migrant Women Farmers’ Lived Experiences In The Brong-Ahafo Region Of Ghana, Jemima Nomunume Baada

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examined the lived experiences of migrant women in rural areas of the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR) of Ghana. Notwithstanding the depth of research on internal migrations in Ghana, little is known about women who have migrated from the Upper West Region to rural settlements in BAR to farm. Using 30 in-depth interviews, 5 focus group discussions and 10 key informant interviews, the study investigated migrant women’s productive and reproductive challenges, how they navigate these limitations, and the current state of livelihood improvement interventions. The findings revealed that migrant women’s livelihoods may not have improved as they had expected pre-migration, …

The E-Writing Experiences Of Literary Authors, Kathleen Schreurs

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The e-writing experience is new and not yet fully understood and there is a story to be told about the enigmatic term e-writing and its impact on authors in the e-paradigm. In this study I collected understandings of e-writing by exploring the experiences of literary authors through qualitative case studies. I set out to find answers amidst two interconnected plots of inquiry. The first plot examined e language, in particular the term e-writing, and asked how authors understand the term e-writing and how their experiences contributed to that meaning. The second storyline asked how the digital revolution and resulting e-culture …

Rekindling The Flame: An Exploration Of The Relationships Between Health, Culture And Place Among Urban First Nations Men Living In London, Ontario, Cindy Smithers Graeme

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I present the findings of a community-based participatory research project with the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC). Embracing a decolonizing methodology that draws upon strengths-based and intersectional approaches, I qualitatively explore the relationships between health, culture and place among urban First Nations men living in the city of London, Ontario.

Indigenous cultures are broadly defined as a “systems of belief, values, customs, and traditions that are transmitted from generation to generation through teachings, ecological knowledge and time-honoured land-based practices” (McIvor & Napoleon, p. 6). Culture is increasingly recognized as an important determinant of Indigenous health …

Women’S Experience Of Incivility In Professional Occupations: The Roles Of Gender Representation And Occupational Commitment, Christina Politis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of the current study was to examine the role of gender representation and occupational commitment in shaping women’s experiences of workplace incivility, which was compared to men. Participants included 550 professional employees (45% female) who provided demographic information about their work units and completed a series of questionnaires including ones measuring workplace incivility, affective occupational commitment (AOC) and burnout. The analyses revealed that gender representation in the work unit predicted perceived overt incivility but not covert incivility or overall incivility for the females in the sample, but not for males. The predicted indirect effect of gender representation on …

Conceptualizing Justice: Police Responses To Sex Crimes In Partnership With Canadian Police Departments, Keyanna Drakes

MA Research Paper

Justice exists in and through interpretations of past laws and legal procedures. Justice for sex crimes, however, is particularly complex due to the differences between victim needs and the operations of the criminal justice system. This study, using 70 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups from Canadian police departments, shows procedural and distributive justice as the two most prevalent forms of justice police officers use when dealing with sex crimes. The commonalities between the two forms of justice support the notion that police officers have adapted to using multiple methods of justice that are more compassionate to victims of sexual …

Racism, Oligarchy And Contentious Politics In Bermuda, Andrea Dean

MA Research Paper

In 1959, ‘blacks’ in Bermuda boycotted the island’s movie theatres and held nightly protests over segregated seating practices. By all accounts the 1959 Theatre Boycott was one of the most significant episodes of contentious politics in contemporary Bermuda, challenging social norms that had been in existence for 350 years. While the trajectory and outcomes of ‘black’ Bermudians’ transgressive social protests could not have been predicted, this analysis uses racism, oligarchy and contentious politics as conceptual tools to illuminate the social mechanisms and processes that eventually led to the end of formal racial segregation in Bermuda after less than three weeks …

Virtual Archaeology, Virtual Longhouses And "Envisioning The Unseen" Within The Archaeological Record, William M. Carter

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We are of an era in which digital technology now enhances the method and practice of archaeology. In our rush to embrace these technological advances however, Virtual Archaeology has become a practice to visualize the archaeological record, yet it is still searching for its methodological and theoretical base. I submit that Virtual Archaeology is the digital making and interrogating of the archaeological unknown. By wayfaring means, through the synergy of the maker, digital tools and material, archaeologists make meaning of the archaeological record by engaging the known archaeological data with the crafting of new knowledge by multimodal reflection and the …

A Novel Measure Of Work Stress: Identifying Work Stressor Patterns In Canada Using Latent Class Analysis, Vesna Pajovic

MA Research Paper

This analysis utilizes data from the 2012 Mental Health component of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS-MH) and latent class analysis to identify patterns of stressful work environments and their relationship with occupational and social location. Based on the intersection of 12 work stress measures, five classes of stressful work environments emerged that can be described as low stress, high stress, physical stress, monotonous, and chaotic environments. Results from models including covariates show that work stress exposure is stratified by occupation, socioeconomic status, age, gender, race/ethnicity, immigrant status, and marital status. Notably, blue- and pink-collar workers had higher odds of …

Jihad And Hashtags: Women's Roles In The Islamic State And Pro-Jihadist Social Networks, Rachel K. Inch

MA Research Paper

Over a one-year period from January 2015 to January 2016, a team of researchers collected nearly 100,000 Tweets from female operated Twitter accounts that exhibited pro-Islamic State (IS) affiliations. The following exploratory research paper aims to address two questions: (1) will identifiable patterns of engagement be revealed through a thematic analysis of Tweets posted by pro-IS women?, and (2) do these patterns illuminate the roles pro-IS women occupy online and in real-time social networks? This research paper intends to challenge the gendered assumption that women play strictly supportive roles within the boundaries of the IS, and demonstrate that IS female …

The Economic Integration Of Canada's Refugees: Understanding The Issues With Canada's Approach, Ryan Endicott

MA Research Paper

This paper examines the extent to which Canada’s refugee policies have fostered the economic integration of refugees. This paper uses content analysis to examine past research, government reports and news articles, to better understand the effectiveness of Canada’s policies on refugee integration. This paper finds that refugees in Canada face severe barriers to economic integration, resulting in high unemployment and a concentration in precarious work. Exploring these issues reveals key limitations within Canadian policies, and the devastating consequences they have for Canadian refugees. Policy suggestions are made based on established international best practices on the economic integration of refugees.

The Influence Of Parents And Natural Mentors On Young Adults' Substance Use Behaviours: Evidence From A National Study, Travis Hackshaw

MA Research Paper

This study examines the impact of parenting during adolescence and young adulthood on children’s use of alcohol and illicit drugs in young adulthood. The influence of mentoring relationships are also assessed. Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and ordered and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to test models predicting young adults’ frequency of heavy drinking and illicit drug use. Interaction terms were tested between parent and mentor variables as well as college enrolment. Parental monitoring during adolescence reduced young adults’ use of alcohol, but not illicit drugs. Rather, attachment to parents reduced young …

The Richness Of Food: A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Huaca Santa Clara And Huaca Gallinazo, North Coast Of Peru, Arwen M. Johns

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is a zooarchaeological study examining the entangled nature of human-animal relations within processes of food production, preparation, and consumption at Huaca Santa Clara and Huaca Gallinazo in the Virú Valley, North Coast of Peru. It assesses how the consumption of animal products influenced social differentiation and identities during early state development in the Early Intermediate Period (200B.C.E – 800 C.E.). This thesis takes a social zooarchaeological approach and utilizes the framework of relational ontology to emphasize the social and symbolic roles of animals. Faunal remains suggest that individuals at Huaca Santa Clara had comparatively equal access to animal …

Essays On Growth And Input Misallocation In China, Wenya Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters that contribute to the study of input misallocation and TFP growth in China.

In Chapter 2, I compare the misallocation of intermediate goods to those of capital and labor, which have been extensively studied in the literature. To measure misallocation, I compute the dispersion of marginal products of intermediate goods across firms, and the potential output gains by eliminating this dispersion in China Industrial Enterprise Survey (CIES) data. Although the within-industry dispersion of marginal products of intermediates is smaller than that of capital and labor, gross output and value added gains from reallocating intermediate …

Tourism And State Violence In The Chittagong Hill Tracts Of Bangladesh, Hana S. Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh have the highest military presence in Bangladesh. Following its emergence as an independent country in 1971, the military carried out a campaign of systematic repression of the Jumma indigenous people of the region. In this thesis, I focus on tourism and argue it is one of the ways by which ruling elites expropriate Jumma lands and circumvent indigenous land and cultural rights. The process is riddled with contradictions. On the one hand, violence against the Jumma has not ceased, and instead, the presence of the military has become normalized. …

Trees For The Primates: A Community-Based Assessment Of Crowned Lemur (Eulemur Coronatus) Habitat Preferences And Conservation In Northern Madagascar, Fernando Mario Mercado Malabet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a result of the continuous loss of forest habitats in Madagascar, forest fragments that exhibit a high degree of degradation and are strongly embedded on the livelihood needs of rural Malagasy people are increasingly being considered as the focus of conservation management operations. This new type of protected areas, based on the IUCN’s Category V management model for conservation action, promises a social-ecologically balanced method of environmental intervention that seeks to protect ecological communities while promoting sustainable socioeconomic systems. However, due to the poor ecological quality and immense level of anthropogenic influence in the type of forests that serves …

Examining And Understanding Social Connectedness And Social Engagement Among Muslim Lebanese Canadian Older Adults, Nada Chams

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

With the projected increase in the older adult population and the rise of

immigrants to Canada, there is a critical need to explore immigrant older adults’

experiences of ageing. The objectives of this study are to: understand what it

means to be an ageing, Muslim Lebanese immigrant in Canada by

understanding their experiences of social connectedness and engagement.

Constructivist narrative inquiry was used to provide direct insight into the diverse

lived experiences of two men and two women who came to Canada during the

1960s and decided to stay and age in Canada. Participants were involved in two

in-depth narrative …

The Retention Of International Students To Their Place Of Study Upon Permanent Resident Status, Sonia P. Nguyen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

International students have become an increasingly important source of permanent migration in meeting regionalization policy goals. However, little is known about their retention to their place of study after they transition to permanent resident status. Using data from the Longitudinal Immigrant Database (IMDB), this study examines how elements of international students’ pre-landed experience in Canada are related to their retention when they later become permanent residents in Canada. Results show that length of study and region of study are positively associated with the likelihood of international students landing in their place of study. Conversely, higher Canadian educational attainment and Canadian …

Branding In The Liberal Party Of Canada From 2006 To 2015, Elisha M. Corbett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This paper uses content analysis to define and measure the Liberal Party of Canada’s brand from 2006 to 2015. The main research questions that this paper addresses are: 1) What was the Liberal Party brand in each federal election from 2006 to 2015? 2) To what extent has the Liberal Party used branding techniques in each of the four elections between 2006 and 2015? This paper has three main hypotheses. This paper first hypothesizes that the Liberal Party brand changed in each federal election. Secondly, this paper hypothesizes the Liberal Party brand became more consistent over time. Lastly, this paper …

Understanding Workplace Incivility Experiences And The Moderating Role Of Mindfulness, Rima C. Tarraf

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Rude treatment at work can lead to many negative consequences, as evidenced by the wealth of research available. This dissertation, addressed two important questions that have yet to receive adequate attention. First, how does an employee experience incivility, and second, what is a practical and cost-effective way of mitigating the negative outcomes associated with incivility and promoting positive ones? Incivility research has mainly employed quantitative methods to understand incivility experiences. Using qualitative methods however, would complement the knowledge and potentially move the field of inquiry in new directions. As such, the goal of Study One was to obtain a narrative …

Language As Function Or Fashion? Multilingual Identity Formation Through Korean Language Learning, Hannah C. Cho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines identity in relation to the Korean language learning experiences of non-Korean and ethnic Korean learners. Based on participant observation and interviews done in Toronto and an international online survey, I use a language-ideological perspective to look at why and how people choose to learn (or not learn) a particular language. Specifically, I analyze how nationalist, functionalist and cosmopolitan language ideologies position learners in various ways and in turn, affect their sense of ethnic, cultural and other forms of identity. I show how these ideologies are interrelated and have different effects on how the identities of non-Koreans and …

Entangled Resurgence: Investigating 'Reconciliation' And The Politics Of Language Revitalization In The Oneida Nation Of The Thames, Hannah E. Mcgregor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 has initiated numerous conversations about Canada’s renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples, and elicited questions about what it means to ‘reconcile’. I use ethnographic methods to examine these issues in the context of language revitalization, at the nexus of government policy, university-community partnerships, and the experiences of individual language learners within the Oneida Nation of the Thames. This thesis re-evaluates the relationship between Indigenous language revitalization and the political process of reconciliation through the framework of Indigenous resurgence, an emerging theory and practice that seeks to regenerate Indigenous communities through self-recognition. …

Imagining The Unimagined Metropolis: Privilege, Liminality, And Peripheral Communities In The Contemporary Urban Situation, Colton R. Sherman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Various works of psychogeographic literature explore privileged and non-privileged communities and spaces through narrative and character development. Novels of this sort—specifically those by China Miéville, Neil Gaiman, and J.G. Ballard—feature narratives where their respective protagonists undergo a liminal metamorphosis and transform from a monotonous, albeit privileged urbanite into a free-associating inhabitant of the urban periphery: the unimagined, non-privileged space of urban detritus. By engaging with these authors’ novels alongside the works of the Situationists, Walter Benjamin, Rob Nixon and others, the goal of this thesis is to explore how the dominant urban epistemologies are subverted—whether or not they should be …

The Development And Evaluation Of A Smartphone Nutrition Intervention For Adolescents, Sarah A. Cappuccitti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A diet high in fruit and vegetables is associated with the prevention of many chronic diseases; however, only one in ten Canadian students in grades 6 to 12 consume the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Using smartphones to deliver nutrition interventions is an emerging area of research, although to-date these interventions typically limit their focus to weight loss. The overarching purpose of this research is to redevelop and evaluate an existing smartphone application for an adolescent population. This thesis used a mixed-methods approach to gain adolescent perspectives on how to redevelop the app and to evaluate its use …

Development Of New Methods To Investigate The Role Of The Avian Hippocampus In Memory Formation In Brown-Headed Cowbirds, Madeleine Ir Brodbeck

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The hippocampus is known to participate in a variety of cognitive functions in humans, non-human primates, rodents, and birds. A great deal of previous research on the avian hippocampus has examined its role in spatial memory. A question regarding avian hippocampal function that remains unanswered is, what is its role in encoding, retention, and retrieval of spatial information? To answer this question I, 1) describe spatial and non-spatial versions of a touchscreen task and my attempts to determine if the spatial version of the task is hippocampus dependent, and 2) describe the development of an implantable cryoloop which can be …

The Influence Of Beliefs And Gender On Choosing, And Feeling Like You Belong In Engineering, Julia Mcmenamin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

After decades of research and interventions, the gender gap in STEM fields has narrowed, and even closed in some sub-fields, such as the life sciences. This trend toward gender parity has plateaued, however, in engineering. Efforts to encourage young women to study engineering often portray the field as affording opportunities for collaboration and helping others. The success of such efforts rests, arguably, on the accuracy of the assumption that women value these qualities in a career. It also depends on the degree to which women’s perceptions of the field of engineering reflect this portrayal. For the present study, measures of …

The Effects Of Corticosterone And Social Isolation On Song Stereotypy And Neural Plasticity In Zebra Finches, Pavlina Faltynek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Birdsong is important to male songbirds’ reproductive success. For male birds it is important to consistently reproduce their song with high stereotypy, and the effects of stress on song consistency are little studied. My current study examined the effects of social isolation and corticosterone administration on song production and migrating and apoptotic neurons in the song-control brain region HVC of zebra finches. All males significantly decreased in song stereotypy over time, independent of treatment or housing. Males who were housed in isolation had a significant decrease in their latency to sing, as well as a decrease in arborization in migratory …