Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Factors Limiting Sand Dune Restoration In Northwest Beach, Point Pelee National Park, Canada, Pritichhanda Nayak, Pritichhanda Mohanty Nayak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Known as home to rare species of flora and fauna, and their critical habitats, Northwest beach of Point Pelee National Park has undergone significant ecological and infrastructural changes in the past decades. A number of important management challenges have emerged, including conservation of endangered Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) which inhabit the extensive dune system within the park. This research investigates key factors for sand dune ecosystem restoration in Northwest beach of Point Pelee with particular attention to the conservation of Skink habitat. Random stratified sampling method was used to collect sand and vegetation samples from the disturbed and …

Spatial Modelling And Wildlife Health Surveillance: A Case Study Of White Nose Syndrome In Ontario, Lauren Yee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Wildlife data is often limited by survey effort, small sample sizes, and spatial biases associated with collection and missing data. These factors can create unique challenges from a surveillance perspective when trying to extract spatial patterns of habitat suitability and disease distributions for conservation and management purposes. This thesis examined data quality from a wildlife health database in the context of spatial analysis of wildlife disease. Spatial analysis of the data to predict habitat suitability of bats and white nose syndrome afflicted bats was examined by using the MaxEnt modelling method. Methods to reduce spatial bias were examined and specific …

Comparison Of The Sensitivity Of Yes/No And Forced Choice Associative Recognition, Garrett Schliewinsky

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Yes-no (YN) and forced choice (FC) associative recognition tasks were compared across three experiments to test the varying effects of familiarity. Schliewinsky and Hockley (2016) previously found a discrimination advantage for FC tasks over YN tasks when word pairs were familiarized. The present research is a continuation to further explore the effects of increased familiarity. Experiment 1 manipulated the familiarity of individual items in the word pairs. No discrimination advantage for the FC condition over the YN condition was found when only item familiarity was increased, emphasizing the importance of associative information for accurate associative recognition. There was, though, a …

Beyond Muslim Xenophobia And Contemporary Parochialism: Aga Khan Iv, The Ismā‘Īlīs, And The Making Of A Cosmopolitan Ethic, Sahir Dewji

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aga Khan IV is the forty-ninth hereditary Imām of the Shī‘a Nizārī Ismā‘īlī Muslims (or ‘Ismā‘īlīs’ for short). As a Muslim leader, Aga Khan IV addresses salient issues concerning humankind in the contemporary world and expresses the challenges of living under such conditions through his public speeches and the institutions of the Ismā‘īlī Imāmate. His discourse is informed by the inseparability of dīn (faith) and dunyā(world), which is viewed as being a central function to the office of Imāmate. Aga Khan IV adopts a context-rich approach that addresses modernity by integrating commitments to theology with religio-cultural ethics, a formulation …

Exploring Patient Satisfaction Among Transgender And Non-Binary Identified Healthcare Users: The Role Of Microaggressions And Inclusive Healthcare Settings, Stevie Forbes-Roberts

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of quality of healthcare delivery. Transgender and non-binary (TGNB) people regularly report experiencing discrimination when in healthcare settings and few TGNB-inclusive services are available. Researchers have not examined how discrimination and access to TGNB-inclusive services are associated with patient satisfaction among TGNB healthcare users. Among a convenience sample of TGNB people (n = 146) from Canada and the United States, I examined the relationship between patient satisfaction, experiencing microaggressions from primary healthcare providers, and receiving care in a TGNB-inclusive healthcare setting.

The results from a multivariable linear regression suggest that experiencing microaggressions is …

Confronting Sexism In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem): What Are The Consequences?, Eden J.V. Hennessey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Disparaging remarks that female scientists are ‘Distractingly Sexy’ (Waxman, 2015) and ‘Too Pretty to Do Math’ t-shirts (Amazon.com) highlight the common belief that women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) violate perceived gender norms. However, by confronting these beliefs, women may incur a ‘double-dose’ of hostility; once for being present in science, and again because of the confrontation itself (Kaiser & Miller, 2001). Across three studies, this research tested how women confronting sexism in STEM contexts would elicit and anticipate social costs. Study 1 showed that male participants rated a hypothetical female confronter in STEM higher in bossiness and …

Knowledge Mobilization For Complex Community Initiatives: Examining How Peer Learning Strategies Influence Capacity For Local Implementation Of Housing First, Sarah Kathleen Worton

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Knowledge-to-action theories (such as knowledge mobilization, translation, and dissemination) have been developed to address a persistent disconnect between research and practice. Critiques of these theories highlight areas for improvement, including better incorporating knowledge generated through experience and examining the learning process in greater detail. The research in this dissertation examines peer learning as strategy for mobilizing knowledge to advance the uptake of evidence-based practices, particularly interventions that are complex in nature. Complex interventions require engagement of many different stakeholder groups and often require adaptation to ensure sufficient fit with the implementation context. Research on peer learning as a knowledge mobilization …

Exploring The Discourses Of Compulsive Hair-Pulling: A Body-Mapping Study, Julia Mason

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Compulsive hair-pulling (which is sometimes diagnosed as the OCD-Related Disorder, Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviour, "Trichotillomania)" is an understudied experience that has significant social and emotional impacts on the women that it affects. This study focused on the meanings that are derived from the interactions that women with compulsive hair-pulling experience with social discourses surrounding mental illness, physical appearance, and behaviour. Guided by relativist ontology and the co-creation of understanding between researcher and participants, this qualitative exploration was guided by anti-oppressive practice and used an arts-based research method called Body-Map Storytelling. In group format, four women were invited to describe their knowledge, …

Tweeting Strategy: Military Social Media Use As Strategic Communication, Rupinder Mangat

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Many Western militaries now actively engage with various social media platforms. The starting point for my dissertation research was this question: how does the military use social media? Considering the Canadian Armed Forces’ use of Twitter as a case study, I collected over 14,000 tweets from four Twitter accounts of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force with some tweets as old as September 2012 and the most recent tweets from December 2015. I employed Grounded Theory Method to analyze these tweets, which revealed four themes — organization, history, …

Securitizing Schooling: Post-Secondary Campuses As Security Projects, Andrea Corradi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Societal pressure to increase security after violent incidents on post-secondary campuses such as the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, combined with the pressure for universities to have high recruitment rates, has led to an emerging climate of security on campuses across North America. The present study uses Valverde’s (2001; 2008; 2009; 2011a; 2011 b; 2014) security projects framework to examine the lived experiences of security measures on a Canadian urban-integrated campus. Through semi-structured interviews with administrators, campus police officers, students, and faculty, and constructivist grounded theorizing, this study provides an in-depth examination of security from multiple perspectives within one institution. …

Assessing Job Seekers’ Attraction To Working In Green Buildings, Devon Fernandes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research explores to what extent young job seekers are attracted to working in green buildings and the processes underlying their potential attraction. An exploratory sequential mixed methods design research is employed that involves two studies. In Study One, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with university students in southwestern Ontario who identified as young (18 – 25 years old) job seekers. Based on insights from the interviews, Study Two obtained responses from 273 young job seekers across Canada to an online survey about their attraction to green buildings. This research shows that green buildings on their own are not a …

Good Works And The Great Commission: An Exploration Of Religious Influence In Evangelical Faith-Based Organisations In Canada And India, Ravi Gokani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

By the mid-1990s, the post-war, Keynesian welfare state that had typified much the landscape of service provision in North America had already begun seriously to corrode in the presence of a resurgent classical liberalism. This meant, among other things, an increased role for civil society organisations in the provision of social welfare to citizens in need. As part of this restructuring of the welfare state, faith-based organisations found a renewed place, bolstered in part by favourable legislation, political support, and the revival of a once-recluse evangelicalism. Today, with decades of maturity and the aide of technology, evangelical faith-based organisations are …

Do Early Community-Based Initiatives Predict Social Anxiety 20 Years Later?, Christina Dimakos

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social anxiety disorder is characterized by an extreme and persistent fear of embarrassment or scrutiny in social or performance situations. This condition is among the most common mental illnesses and is characterized by an early onset, chronic course, and significant associated health and social service costs. Nevertheless, it remains among the least recognized, researched, and treated mental health conditions. Critically, broader community characteristics have yet to be considered as valuable tools for disrupting the onset and maintenance of social anxiety. The present study examined the long-term impact of a comprehensive, holistic, community-based early childhood development initiative on social anxiety in …

“Inconvenient Neighbours, Whom It Was Desirable Ultimately Wholly To Remove”: Differing Factors In The Dispossessions Of Studied Anishinaabe Groups Of The Great Lakes Basin, 1820-1865, Heather J. Sanguins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite being located within a relatively close geographic area, the Anishinaabeg of the eastern Great Lakes basin had different experiences of, and responses to, attempted and actual dispossession between 1820 and 1865. This research explores these experiences and the exercise of colonial power through the dispossession of six groups: the Lake Erie Anishinaabeg, the Walpole Anishinaabeg, the “American” Anishinaabeg who migrated into Upper Canada and Canada West, the Chippewa of Lakes Huron, Couchiching, and Simcoe, the Potaganasee Ojibwa of Drummond Island, and the Manitoulin Anishinaabeg. While eight themes weave their way through the cases, every case of attempted or actual …

Defence In Depth: An Anatomy Of Containment From Quarantine To Resilience, Jessica West

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation investigates the logic of resilience as a prevailing mode of national security. Struck more by its familiarity than its novelty, I turn my attention to public health as a way of better understanding what resilience does and how it works. Using interpretive methods to read resilience theoretically as a function of complex systems and concretely as a set of homeland security policy practices in the United States, I situate the emergence and implementation of resilience as a redeployment of long-standing motifs and modes of “containment,” recast as an immune system. Specifically, I claim: 1) containment is a spatial …

Dynamic Balance Control And Segmental Orientation While Listening During Walking: Effects Of Age And Hearing Loss, Sin Tung Lau

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Dynamic control of balance changes with age and changes with declines in sensory and cognitive abilities. For instance, emerging, yet robust associations between hearing loss and poor mobility have been described and yet the mechanism underlying these associations remains unknown. It could be that age-related declines in hearing ability result in different kinematic strategies when having to walk and listen at the same time (e.g. head and body orienting responses toward sounds) and/or that declines in hearing result in increased cognitive load during listening, at the detriment to mobility-related performance. Therefore, this thesis sought to better characterize these associations by …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Online Self-Harm Support Forums: Examining Users’ Online Activities During Self-Harm Desistance Processes, Claudia Volpe

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Non- suicidal self-injury, commonly referred to as NSSI, is defined as the damage of one’s body tissue through the practices of, but not limited to, cutting, burning, branding, bone-breaking, biting, hair pulling and head banging (Adler & Adler, 2011), without suicidal intent (Lewis & Mehrabkhani, 2016). Self-harm literature has primarily focused on persistence processes and NSSI-related online interaction in the maintenance of pro self-harm ideology and practice. Alternatively, this research will provide insight into desistance processes of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and related online interactions by conducting a virtual ethnography (Hine, 2000) of open, online spaces, consistent with the symbolic interactionist …

Police Use Of Twitter: 21st Century Community Policing, Nicole Coomber

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With the advancement of social media platforms like Twitter increasingly being woven into the everyday activities of society members, police services, in an attempt to stay relevant and reflective, have begun adopting Twitter into their work initiatives. The present study examines the perceptions Canadian police officers regarding their use of Twitter as a community policing tool. Through semi-structured interviews with police officers and administrative staff operating official police Twitter accounts, and constructivist grounded theorizing, this research provides an in-depth examination of the perceptions of police officers who use Twitter as a part of community policing initiatives. Specifically, the study explores …

The Great And Widening Divide: Political False Polarization And Its Consequences, Victoria Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

American politics is becoming increasingly ideologically divided, and this cross-party hostility is reflected in pronounced partisan media outrage. However, while actual ideological polarization has indeed been rising, people estimate an ideological gap as being even larger than reality. We focus on whether part of this cross-party dislike can be explained by illusory perceptions of opposing party attitudes, attitudes the majority of the party members do not actually endorse. This illusory gap is referred to as false polarization; it is an interpersonal bias where a perceiver believes an opponent’s position is much farther away conceptually from where that opponent actually reports …

Attending To The Needs Of Inuit Inmates In Canada: Exploring The Perceptions Of Correctional Officers And Nunavut Officials, Kosta H. Barka

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

On March 10, 2015, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada released a performance audit concluding that the Nunavut Department of Justice did not adequately plan for and operate facilities to house inmates and did not adequately manage inmates in compliance with key rehabilitation and reintegration requirements. Given the room for improvement and my prior experience working with Nunavut Corrections, I embarked on a qualitative research project that sought to interview inmates in Nunavut Corrections about their perceptions of rehabilitation programs offered in Makigiarvik Healing Facility. Although university ethics approval was received for the research, I encountered resistance when …

Ecological Ethics And Social Work Therapy Practice, Karma Guindon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study sheds light on the meaning of ecological ethics from the perspectives of ecologically-informed therapy professionals. A qualitative methodology was used to explore the perspectives of therapists from Canada, England, and the United States. Thirteen professionals were interviewed and feedback on these interviews was obtained utilizing focus groups. The findings include themes of relational assumptions, ecological values and principles, practice ecologies, and challenges and solutions to embracing ecological ethics. The findings suggest ways social work therapists can integrate ecological ethics into their everyday practice and point to changes that can be made in the profession more broadly, including changes …