Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Behavior Inventory: To Ipsatize Or Not To Ipsatize, That Is The Question, Carolyn Hoessler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research extends prior knowledge of the statistical procedure of ipsatization, commonly utilized in interpersonal research to align data with theoretical expectations. The working hypotheses in prior studies have posited that a general factor, representing a response bias with no relevant substantive meaning, alters the data and interferes with analysis and interpretation unless removed by ipsatization. In the first of two studies, we initially investigated whether ipsatization removes important conceptual information from data when it removes a general factor. Three potential meanings of the general factor expected to occur in the Likert-scale version of the Social Behavior Inventory (SBI; Moskowitz, …

Assessing The ‘Hazards Of Place’ Model Of Vulnerability: A Case Study Of Waterloo Region, Erin Joakim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research project examines the Hazards of Place model of vulnerability (as developed by Cutter, 1996) to determine whether it is applicable in a Canadian context.

An in-depth case study of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo was used to determine whether the model accurately describes:

1. emergency and community practitioners understandings of vulnerability and vulnerable populations in Waterloo Region
2. emergency and community practitioners perceptions of the variables that influence vulnerabilities
3. mitigation and preparedness efforts that could be enhanced and/or implemented to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and groups in Waterloo Region

To complete this study, in-depth interviews and surveys were conducted …

Critical Approaches To Clinical Social Work Practice: Considerations From Contemporary Relational Psychoanalytic Theory, Christopher Trevelyan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Critical social workers now contend that an individual’s everyday living both shapes and is shaped by overarching social structures and discourses. As such, the subjectivity of the individual is considered an axis on which the existing social order can be either perpetuated or transformed. Transformations on the level of the individual are therefore argued to contribute to transformations on the levels of larger societal arrangements. For this reason, many critical social work theorists today argue that clinical social work practice with individuals is an essential component of effecting egalitarian forms of social change. Yet, critical social workers also widely acknowledge …

How The Formal Education System In Kenya Is Changing The Culture Of The Maasai Community, Jennifer Coles

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Colonialism brough Africa into the sphere of European dominance and laid the ground work for the adoption of neoliberal globalization. This has affected change for the Maasai of southern Kenya who had attempted to remain isolated for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, such cultural isolation has been disrupted by global tourism and the desire of western citizens to view and participate in ‘authentic’ experiences in unique Maasai environments; thus creating a global desire to visit the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR). The MMNR is part of Maasailand and has exposed many in the surrounding communities to new …