Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Predictors Of Canadians’ Psychological Well-Being In Retirement: A Mixed Methods Approach, Jessica Miller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In prior decades, retirement research focused on the negative effects of the life transition—such as negative psychological well-being caused by factors such as difficulties adjusting to retirement, feelings of a role loss, or the financial effects of retirement. However, there is considerable agreement across recent research studies that post-retirement years are marked by positive psychological well-being due to a variety of factors. For example, retirees often spend more time in roles (such as volunteer positions) that provide life satisfaction. The present study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine factors related to well-being in retirement among individuals living in …

A Close Look At The Connections Between Mental-State Talk, Theory Of Mind, And Source Monitoring During Parent-Child Reminiscing Of Emotional Events, Mallory Earnshaw

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Autobiographical memories play a critical role in shaping personal identity, regulating emotions, and guiding future behaviour. Reminiscing about these memories can be particularly beneficial for coping with negative experiences. This study investigated the connections between mental-state talk, theory of mind, and source monitoring in parent-child reminiscing, and how it can be influenced by remembering enjoyable versus frustrating events. This study involved children ages 3-8 (N = 50) and consisted of two sessions. In the first session, the child reminisced with their parent about an enjoyable and frustrating event and completed two source-monitoring tasks. In the second session, the child …

Distinctiveness And Similarity: How The Sub-Trait Facets Of The Big Five Self-Organize To Create Personality Types, Jonathan Thiessen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The belief that people can be placed within a personality typology has persisted for millennia. At least as far back as Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE–370 BCE) people were believed to be of a kind based on the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Since then, there have been many conceptions of personality typologies. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram of Personality are likely the most well-known personality typologies among the general public. Despite their wide public usage, neither typology boasts strong empirical support. However, psychology continues to investigate personality for evidence of a typology of personality. In …

First Language Loss And Maintenance In Adolescents And Young Adults From Immigrant Backgrounds, Wanxin Li

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Language attrition is a documented phenomenon that occurs when individuals progressively lose their first language (Schmid et al., 2007). This is particularly common among individuals who relocate to a country that speaks a foreign language that differs from their first language, as the societal language eventually becomes their dominant language. Deterioration and loss of the first language (L1) may result in consequences such as loss of ethnic and cultural identity, leading to the loss of a link to one’s country of origin (Cho & Krashen, 1998). Thus, the present study examined factors that may contribute to L1 attrition. The …

Exploring Individuals’ Views On The Malleability Of Their Moral Self-Concept, Steven Hertz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Drawing on work by Carol Dweck, Moral Self-Theory was conceptualized as describing lay views of the moral self-concept as either malleable (incrementalist view) or fixed (entity view) in order to better capture the goal-achievement aspect of morality. To this end, research into the areas of implicit theories of intelligence and personality were drawn upon to explore the possibility that lay views of morality could help inform our understanding of moral behaviour. Three studies were designed to: 1) examine individuals’ perceptions of their moral self-concept over time for evidence of change and assess participants’ opinions towards that change, as well as …

Using Online Training Modules To Enhance Parents' Early Literacy Training Skills And Understanding, Ayodele Sanni

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Parental involvement is considered a crucial factor in developing children’s early literacy and reading skills, especially for children not yet in school. The present study aims to determine whether an online literacy module can increase early literacy knowledge in parents who may not have the training to promote their child’s learning. Additionally, the study examines parent perspectives of online video training and the practicality of the video’s content. To test the hypothesis that parent knowledge will increase after exposure to the online video, 29 Canadian parents (27 mothers, two fathers) with children aged 3 to 5 were provided with supervised …

Early Predictors: The Impact Of Childhood Exposure To Interparental Conflict On Developmental Outcomes For Emotion Self-Regulation And Related Problem Behaviour., Katrina Abela

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The capacity to independently regulate emotions occupies a central role in children’s physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing as they progress through their development. The influence of adverse childhood experiences on the absence of attuned emotion self-regulation (ESR) abilities has been recurringly linked to, and coupled with, a range of adverse developmental outcomes for children and adolescents, such as internalizing problem behaviours (i.e., anxiety) and externalizing problem behaviours (i.e., peer bullying and victimization). Although exposure to interparental conflict has been widely associated with such short- and long-term adverse effects for children’s physical, emotional, social, and behavioural development, further investigation is needed …

Relationships Between Executive Functioning, Memory, And Source Judgements On Children’S Responses To Online Advertising, Samantha Barbosa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Children’s understanding of online content is a topic of interest, yet little is known about how children distinguish distracting and often misleading information (e.g., advertisements) from relevant information. Our aim is to measure the relationship between executive functioning, memory and source monitoring in a population that has heavy internet usage and are also the most at risk for mistakenly recalling false or irrelevant information. Children aged 7-12 years old (N = 30), with no known developmental or cognitive disorders, were recruited for the study. In an online session, the children viewed two novel online media sources (i.e., a website …

Reading In Kapampangan, Filipino, And English: A Look At Multilingual Children In An Economically Challenging Philippine Community, Portia Padilla

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present studies advance current understanding of the skills and processes involved in multilingual reading, especially in less researched alphabetic languages. These studies examined whether the dominant models in reading in English can explain the reading processes involved among low-income multilingual speakers of Kapampangan (L1), Filipino (L2), and English (L3) in the Philippines, a developing country. Kapampangan and Filipino use the same Roman alphabet that English uses. However, these two languages have transparent orthographies while English has an opaque orthography.

Study 1 examined the psycholinguistic grain size theory within the context of multilingual reading. There were three hundred twenty-six children …

Who Is The Stranger Really? A Reluctant Autoethnography Of The Strange Situation Procedure, Tara Yazdani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper aims to review the cross-cultural application of attachment theory as a western model of thought and practice. That is, this research aimed to recognize and question how embedded attachment theory has become in programming and education within North American academic and practical arenas. In applying the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to a limited sample of Eritrean dyads, important considerations and questions arose regarding the cross-cultural application of this protocol. The aims of this research shifted toward further exploring these considerations and questions, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the new research aim emphasized how to inform future …

Investigating The Use Of Mental-State Talk In Parent-Child Joint Reminiscing And Storytelling On Children’S Source Monitoring, Holly Autumn Nelson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Source monitoring is the process of identifying and analyzing sources of information (Johnson et al., 1993). The ability to monitor source improves with age which places children at a greater risk for blending and misattributing information from different sources. Experiencing source confusions has academic, legal, and social implications, and thus understanding how source monitoring develops is important. Research exploring factors that impact source monitoring have predominantly focused on maturational aspects such as at which ages children learn to monitor source and neurological factors such as executive functioning. However, the impact of age and executive functioning may vary across the type …

Bicultural Identity And Academic Achievement: The Second-Generation Immigrant Student Experience, Karimeh Haddad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

By comparing the academic success and internal processes of immigrant groups, this study aimed to explore the impact of immigration status (first, second, and third-generation) and cultural backgrounds on academic achievement on a holistic level. By measuring acculturation, parental expectations, self-efficacy, goal adjustment, motivation, control beliefs, and vocabulary knowledge of university students, the combination of constructs best correlated to academic achievement was studied with determinants of demographics playing a key role. In addition to quantitative analyses, in-depth interviews supplemented the analyses and further gave insight to the backgrounds of the target population, second-generation immigrant students. The results indicated that there …

Mother-Child Shared Story Telling Of Wordless And Worded Picture Books: A Within-Subject Design Study Of Preschool Children, Katherine Reid, Alexandra Gottardo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Issues pertinent to developmental psychology and education often intersect. For example, both literatures can inform the assessment of differences in early literacy and school readiness, as well as how to bridge the literacy gap for children coming from different backgrounds. In times of COVID-19, it is especially important that we research the impact of strategies that are accessible to all, and can be utilized both in the home, and in more formal learning environments. This study assessed how the use of wordless picture books impacted the quality and quantity of language output, and engagement in dialogue between mother and child. …

The Inclusive Nature Of Mindfulness-Based Practice: Does Executive Functioning Play A Role In Children's Mindful Experience?, Kaitlyn Butterfield

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

We examined the effects of a six-week mindfulness program in order to assess how executive function level played a role in students’ mindful experience. The effects of the mindfulness program were evaluated according to prospective outcomes across students’ level of executive function, in comparison to an active control group. Classrooms were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based program or a health-based active control group. Pre- and early adolescent students in the 5th to 8th grade (N = 52) from two MindfulMe! program classrooms and two HealthyMe! program classrooms (active control group) completed self-reported pretest and post-test measures to assess mindful attention …

Examining Gender Differences In Perceptions Of Pay Negotiation And Remuneration Among Late-Adolescents, Meghan Borg

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Documented gender differences exist between males and females in terms of preparedness for the workforce in financial knowledge obtained from both family and educational sources (e.g., Danes & Haberman, 2007; Saari, Wood, & Wood, 2017), and the ways in which they negotiate (or fail to negotiate) for higher pay (e.g., Babcock, Gelfand, Small, & Stayn, 2006; Kugler et al., 2018). The current study extends this literature by investigating factors associated with Canadian late-adolescents’ preparedness for work by documenting work experiences (both casual and formal), remuneration experiences, and negotiation experiences as a function of gender. In total, 268 participants (137 females) …

Be Kind To Your Mind: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing The Benefits Of Mindfulness And Self-Compassion Vs. Social Skills Training Among Children And Adolescents, Lindsey Feltis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Childhood and adolescence can be difficult for young people as they navigate a variety of significant transitions. Thus, it is imperative that researchers focus on programs that support children and adolescents during this time. Mindfulness and self-compassion are two such programs that may promote positive youth development. Mindfulness and self-compassion have been explored in the adolescent context, and mindfulness has been explored with young children, however research on self-compassion for children is currently lacking. The present studies were designed to examine the feasibility, acceptability and potential benefits of a combined mindfulness + self-compassion program for children and adolescents in the …

An Evaluation Of The Timeline As A Memory Retrieval Aid For Children’S Recall Of Specific Details From A Repeated Event, Huan Huan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Investigators and prosecutors are heavily dependent on children’s testimony in abuse cases where physical evidence is often lacking, making children the sole source of information. Decades of research have shown that young children are indeed capable of accurately recalling events from the past. Findings from research on interview techniques suggest that interview aids such as dolls and human diagrams are often not helpful and pose risks of eliciting inaccurate reports unless they are used cautiously and non-suggestively at the end of the interview.

The timeline, which is a visual depiction of time, is another type of interview aid that is …

The Role Of Life Events In Older Women's Psychosocial Development And Well-Being, Taylor Hill

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Research on well-being and aging has suggested the trajectory of well-being through adulthood is U-shaped, with the lowest point typically occurring in midlife (Stone, Schwartz, Broderick, & Deaton, 2010). Toward the end of life, well-being (and in particular, life satisfaction) may surpass earlier levels and individuals tend to engage in a life review process wherein they evaluate how their life has turned out. Those who are satisfied with how their life events fit together to form their life story have been shown to have achieved ego integrity (i.e., accepting of their life to date and the limited time they have …

Moral Development In The Online Context, Sarah Mitchinson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Past research has found strong evidence that individuals behave differently when they are online compared to when they are in face-to-face interactions. These differences may be caused by factors such as anonymity, remoteness from interactions and reduced empathy. The current study attempts to expand on these past research findings by examining moral development and specifically the relationships between moral emotions, moral identity and antisocial behaviour in the online context. In total, 392 participants were placed into three separate age groups: early adolescence (n = 99, aged 12.42-14.33), late adolescence (n = 180, aged 17.17-22) and early adulthood (n = 113, …

Learning, Attitudes And Perceptions: Evaluating Teachers Acquiring Competence With Online Literacy Programs For Children, Constanza Uribe-Banda

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Given the prevalence of computer software in educational settings, it is important to establish the efficacy of software for teachers in the classroom. One free software program, ABRACADABRA (ABRA), has been demonstrated to be effective in the development of literacy skills in young children (e.g. Wolgemuth, et al., 2014). The present study evaluated the impact of teachers’ literacy knowledge and comfort with technology with respect to professional development workshops providing training in the implementation of ABRA. Two cohorts of teachers were drawn from Canada and one from Kenya. A total of 64 female teachers (Mage= 38.26, SDage =11.22) completed two …

Building Young People’S Capacity For Critical And Transcendent Engagement: Examining The Institution, The Community, And The Individual As Protagonists Of A School Setting, Livia Dittmer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As a powerful socializing force in Western society, schools have significant influence on young people’s development into adulthood. As powerful agents of societal maintenance and change, adolescents have significant influence on communities and institutions such as schools. In this embedded case study, I use structuration theory, German Critical Psychology, and systems thinking to examine the dynamic relationship between institutional structures and student agency in a school setting. I specifically examine the influence of this relationship on young people’s capacity for critical and transcendent engagement, constructs described further in this work. In the setting of Nancy Campbell Academy (NCA), an international …

Perceived Social Support And Identity Formation In Bereaved University Students, Katherine Ottley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The experience of death-related loss is almost universal, which makes it an important area of study. The experience of death-related loss can cause a re-evaluation of identity (Hibberd, 2013), but this has not been widely studied in emerging adults. The lack of research into bereavement experiences in emerging adulthood leaves many questions unanswered, in particular regarding identity. This is the case, despite identity consolidation being considered an important task of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2006; Erikson, 1959). I examined the relationships between bereavement, identity and social support, using a sample of 98 university students, many of whom were White and female. …

Exploring The Female Autism Phenotype: Personal Identity Formation And Well-Being In Autistic Females, Erinn Nell Barry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A personal identity answers the questions: who am I and where do I fit in the world? While these are questions that all persons may encounter, I examine identity formation, as conceived by Marcia (1980), in a community sample of females diagnosed (or self-identified) as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), given that less is known regarding the identity process that autistic females undergo. More specifically, I examine the relationship between autism traits and the achieved and diffuse identity statuses. Research indicates the existence of a female autism phenotype (Lai et al., 2015), such that autistic females often present with …

Moral Identity, Moral Disengagement, And Online Behaviour From Adolescence To Young Adulthood, Luc Saulnier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become the most popular medium for social communication amongst adolescents and young adults. However, there is growing concern surrounding heightened ICT use and the development and activation of influential social constructs such as moral identity and moral disengagement. The importance of moral ideals to oneself (i.e., moral identity) and the distancing of oneself from these moral ideals (i.e., moral disengagement) are often contextual and may differ in online domains when compared to traditional face-to-face interactions. Developing youth consistently report high moral identity adherence within family and friend contexts during moral development, yet these constructs …

Psychosocial Development And Well-Being In Retirement: The Relationship Between Generativity, Ego Integrity, And Regret Among Canadian Retirees, Shauna Spirling

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Transitions such as retirement may facilitate change in social and psychological dynamics, perhaps encouraging what Butler (2002) refers to as a life review: an introspective process encouraging reflection on the life course, potentially eliciting regret(s). Older adults may especially be tasked with coming to terms with the life they have lived given time constraints and perceivably less opportunity to rectify paths not taken. Drawing upon Erikson’s (1950) stages of generativity and ego integrity, the purpose of the present study is to understand the role of psychosocial development in the presence or absence of regret as well as to further understand …

Connectedness To Nature And Pro-Environmental Behaviour From Early Adolescence To Adulthood: A Comparison Of Urban And Rural Canada, Daniel Anderson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous research has demonstrated that emotional connectedness to nature (ECN) is one of the strongest predictors of pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). This study investigated the influence of age, gender and living context on ECN and PEB in two Canadian samples.

Study participants completed an environmental survey, which assessed demographic data as well as their levels of ECN and PEB. Project I, which contained 1251 participants, investigated what group factors (age, urban vs. rural living context, male vs. female) contributed to ECN and PEB, as well as whether ECN mediated the relationship between age and PEB. Project II, which contained 84 adolescents, …

The Influences Of Culture And The Self On Children’S Memory Encoding And Delayed Retrieval, Hongyuan Qi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Culture and the self form a dynamic system that shapes children’s memories. However, how these two constructs influence specific memory processes still requires further investigation. The present dissertation contains four studies that examined the influences of cultural backgrounds and self-views on children’s memory encoding and delayed retrieval. Participants across four studies were recruited in the year range of 2016 to 2018. A total of 243 Grade 1 and 2 (the younger group) and Grade 3 and 4 (the older group) children participated, with an age range of seven to ten years. Specifically, 121 Chinese children were from Mainland China and …

Older Adults’ Social Networks And The Role Of A Telephone Helpline Program, Harmanpreet (Preet) Chauhan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Over the past century, advances in health care, higher levels of education, and improved living conditions have resulted in increased human life expectancy. However, with longer life expectancy comes potential challenges to quality of life, as individuals may face numerous transitions in older age: children leaving home, employment to retirement, or physical declines possibly leading to lack of mobility. As a result, older adults may experience social isolation and difficulty in building new relationships. This is problematic, as lack of social connection is a strong predictor of lower physical and mental health (Fiori & Jager, 2012; Fiori, Smith, & Antonucci, …

The Hold Me Tight Program For Couples Becoming Parents: A Mixed Methods Study, Debbie Wang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT

Attachment theory has made substantial contributions to the understanding of close relationships. The purpose of this study was to inquire whether an attachment-informed psychoeducational program is a feasible and effective intervention for couples expecting their first child. The overarching question was: Is an attachment-informed relationship enhancement program, such as Hold Me Tight^® (HMT), helpful to couples in strengthening their relationship and increasing their confidence in becoming first-time parents? The research question was addressed using a mixed-methods approach.

In the first phase, the Hold Me Tight^® program developed by Dr. Sue Johnson was modified for use with couples …

A Phenomenological, Arts-Based Study Of Art Therapists’ Self-Reflective Practice, Laurie Ponsford-Hill

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This phenomenological, arts-based study examined the experiences of 15 art therapists using five-minute, full-bodied self-portraiture with 55 minutes of self-reflective journaling once a week for four weeks at the end of each work week. The therapists determined the location for this practice. Subsequently, the four artworks, as a serial, were explored with each participant in a one-hour telephone or Skype interview to understand their lived experience through art, and its signs, and symbols. This process enabled the therapists to act as witness to their respective self/selves, deepening their insights and connections about self. The transcribed audio-taped interviews were manually coded …