Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

High Technology Industry And Material Linkages In The Toronto Region, Jim Torretto

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examines the material linkage patterns of a sample of 80 high technology establishments located in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). The main focus of the research is to relate the spatial spread of linkages to aspects of plant structure, most notably ownership. In addition, an attempt is made to compare linkage arrangements of firms in Toronto with other regional studies of high technology industry. The results reveal the expected linkage patterns with respect to ownership. Foreign owned companies show much lower levels of purchasing and selling within the Toronto economy than domestic firms. Further dimensions of plant …

Identifying Directional Properties Of Spatial Point Patterns An Investigation Of Two Methods, Rolf Puchtinger

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Analyses of spatial point patterns tend to focus on deviations from randomness by either clustering or regularity. One assumption of these analyses implies that the point generating process is equal in all directions. However, the association of the location of points with a process biased in one or more directions is widely neglected due to a lack of appropriate statistical procedures. This is surprising, since patterns generated by directional processes are important in Geography. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the blunt-triangle method and the third moment method for their potential of identifying directionality in spatial point patterns. …

Elderly Housing Choice: A Case Study Of Brantford, Ontario, David Owen Diegel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As Canada’s population ages, policy analysts are increasingly concerned with issues related to housing the elderly. Addressing some of these concerns, this thesis provides evidence of the characteristics of the elderly who choose to move to Senior Citizens’ Apartments (SCAs), as opposed to staying in their own homes. Choice based sampling and binary logit analysis are used to investigate the connection between the choice made and the characteristics of the elderly. The results indicate that being married and owning a car increase the odds of elderly persons staying in their own homes as opposed to moving to an SCA, while …

The Impact Of Teaching Cartographic Lexicon And Of Geographic Experience On Map Use, James Cuame Saku

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although maps are often thought to be easily understood, for many people they are not. Research into how best to make the map more useful to the user has taken different forms including applied psychology. While some researchers focus on the map maker, others are concentrating on the map user. In this study, attention is focused on the map user. Specifically, the study tries to look at how “years of geographic instruction” and teaching of “geographic lexicons” can enhance the performance of map use activities. Since maps are more associated with geographers, it is believed that they are in a …

Regulatory Reform And The Ontario For-Hire Motor Carrier Industry: An Investigation Of Associated Impacts, Clarence G. Woudsma

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The for-hire motor carrier industry is a vital component of the Ontario economy. The industry is presently going through a period of instability brought about by a variety of changes. This research deals with one such change, namely, recent changes in the economic regulation of the for-hire industry. This research focuses on the impact of this regulatory reform on the industry and on the Province in general. The two main issues identified in past research include the impact of regulatory reform on the rates for trucking service, and the impact on service to small/remote areas. An improved methodology for examining …

A Social Psychological Analysis Of Religious Doubts Integrative Complexity And Attribution Biases, Barbara Dallas Mckenzie

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research explored religious doubts in two separate investigations, the first an interview study and the second a questionnaire-based survey. In the interview study, 80 persons of varied religious orientations (28 high, 25 middle and 27 low orthodoxy participants) as measured by Fullerton and Hunsberger’s (1982) Christian Orthodoxy Scale, were selected from a sample of approximately 700 introductory psychology students. Respondents were asked about religious doubts they had experienced, the perceived causes of these doubts as well as their resolutions. Responses were coded for complexity of thinking to assess thought patterns related to these doubts. Complexity of thinking about religious …

Support For Non-Therapeutic Research With Incompetent Children An Argument From An Ethical Perspective, Jim Izawa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The thesis of this paper contends that the judgement rendered in the case re Eve v. “E.” by the Supreme Court of Canada on October 23, 1986, from an ethical perspective demonstrates limitations in the legal judgement. Moreover, the thesis maintains that the legal arguments presented in the judgement are narrowly developed. If this paper should demonstrate the above mentioned, then, it of necessity questions the adequacy of the present case law. It is the hope of this paper that the evaluation of the “Eve” case from an ethical viewpoint will evoke further discussion from both the legal and medical …

Quality Of Life For Persons With Disabilities, Akiie H. Ninomiya

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The praxis of Christian social work in Japan needs to find a new direction due to social changes such as industrialization and technological development. Liberation theology has been responding to the critical stance toward the existing order and identifying with new movements for emancipation and justice. This paper analyzes the ethics of liberation theology and adapts it to the real life situation of people with disabilities in Japan. Chapter I deals with liberation theology and its ethics concerned with disabilities. It defines the measurement of ethics as a quality of life, so that the ethics can be examined in context. …

Determinants And Distinguishing Variables Of Pro-Disarmament Behaviour And Responsible Environmental Behaviour, Lisa Sara Nemiroff

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The possibility of nuclear holocaust and the destruction of our environment are two issues that threaten all of humanity. As one would expect, disarmament proposals and proposals aimed at improving the quality of the environment have received overwhelming public support. However, while the public often engages in behaviour congruent with their attitudes toward environmental problems, they do not demonstrate attitude-behaviour congruence with regard to nuclear arms race issues. In addition to attempting to substantiate past research results concerning the determinants of peace and environmental activism, the purpose of this thesis was to identify the variables that bring about this discrepancy. …

Program Evaluation Of The Community Aftercare Program, Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Region, Karen J. Nesbitt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper describes an evaluation of the Community Aftercare Program, a program of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Waterloo Region. This case management program offers long-term support to psychiatrically disabled adults who were once hospitalized and now live in this community. Ten people from the Community Aftercare Program and ten individuals who were on the waiting list for the program were interviewed for this static group comparison design. Using a stakeholder approach, data were collected on measures of hospitalization, adaptive functioning, community integration, social support networks, employment, housing, service use, and quality of life. Results indicated that the program clients …

The Retention Of Children's Mental Health Workers In Northern Ontario, Sydney Jean Parlour

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this qualitative study, I explore with Northern Ontario children’s mental health administrators and clinicians their concerns about employee retention, given the high costs of turnover in human (providers and consumers) and financial terms. I use an ecological framework, borrowed by community psychology from the biological sciences, whereby retention is considered to be not only a work-related phenomenon but also influenced by a variety of non-work factors. In the belief that employee retention is best understood from a holistic, multi-level perspective, I review literature from a variety of related areas. I consider the characteristics of rural life, practice and practitioners; …

The Impact Of Multi-Stop, Multi-Purpose Shopping On The Location And Efficiency Of A Supermarket Chain: A Location-Allocation Approach, Andrea K. Dawkins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As the retail environment became increasingly competitive and the risks of opening new outlets also increased, there became a need for firms to develop a quantifiable location strategy in order to help them minimize these risks and be successful in the market place. Past location models however, modeled consumer shopping trips as consisting of a single-stop, single-purpose, were home generated and were only considered with the impact of a single store location. Recent literature however, has revealed consumer shopping trips as being more complex with multiple stops and multiple purposes. In addition, the retail environment has shifted from consisting of …

Needs, Supports, Burden, And Affect The Experiences Of Family Members Of Individuals With Mental Illness, Lysanne Chénier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this research project was to examine the needs and supports of family members of people with schizophrenia and to determine the relationship between needs, supports, objective burden, negative affect, and positive affect. The participants were 32 family members of a self-help and support group catering to the families of people with schizophrenia. Three categories of needs and supports were examined. These three categories included: problem-solving, financial and tangible assistance, and social-emotional needs and supports. Family members discussed: the degree of need and support, who currently meets the need, issues and concerns, and suggestions about who might best …

An Evaluation Of Outcome Differentiation Using Biologically Neutral Stimuli, Wendy Ann Newell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This experiment investigated the specificity of encoding the outcomes of instrumental responding with rats. The first part of the study examined the differential outcome effect (DOE) using a 0.5 second flash of light as the outcome differentiator. Acquisition of a two-choice conditional discrimination was not enhanced if Response 1 (R1) in the presence of Stimulus 1 (S1) produced food plus a light flash, and R2 during S2 produced only food. Next, 2/3 of the animals were then trained to make two new responses (R3 and R4), one earning light plus food and the other earning food only. There was no …

Evidence For Common Coding Of Temporal And Nontemporal Information In Pigeons, Stephen Bridson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Two experiments found evidence that pigeons commonly code temporal and visual samples that are associated with the same comparisons in many-to-one matching. In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained to match temporal (2-sec and 8-sec keylight durations) and color (red and green) samples to line tilt comparisons (vertical and horizontal). Similar rates of forgetting were found for all samples. Furthermore, retention of sample information appeared more similar for samples which shared common comparisons than those that did not. In Experiment 2, pigeons learned new comparison (circle and triangle) associations with either temporal or visual samples from Experiment 1. When tested on …

A Mental Health Needs Assessment Of The Industrial Area Of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, James R.D. Ross

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A mental health needs assessment of the industrial area of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia was conducted between September and December, 1989. The study was sponsored by the Cape Breton Mental Health Association. A collaborative approach which emphasized community involvement was utilized to design and implement the study. The study used a convergent analysis of the data to elicit a comprehensive and multidimensional perspective on mental health needs from four sub-sample, including the administrators of mental health services, socio-mental health professionals, consumers of mental health services, and the general public. Data were also obtained from five groups (i.e., youth, those …

Understanding Context And Process: The First Step In Building Communities, Dia Mamatis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

First, this study documents the context and process of community development by using the Southwood Neighbourhood Association (SWNA) within the Southwest Cambridge community in Cambridge, Ontario as an illustration. The community context is defined and described in terms of its physical and demographic characteristics, its social-relational features, and the psychological sense of community. Five key stages in the process of community development are identified and illustrated in the development of the SWNA. Second, this study documents the process of development of an inter-agency, community-based primary prevention research project proposal. This research is viewed as part of the community development process …

Housing And Social Support For Current And Former Psychiatric Patients: A Process And Outcome Evaluation Of Supportive Community Living, Janice E. Mccarthy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the current era of deinstitutionalization, community-based residential programs for people with chronic psychiatric disabilities have mushroomed in Canada and the United States. While many researchers have documented the beneficial effects of supportive housing programs on resident’s work productivity and length of community tenure, few evaluations have included an examination of resident’s housing environment and the quality of life in the community, particularly from the perspective of the residents themselves. This paper describes such an evaluation. The study’s first objective was to ascertain those housing environment characteristics that are most strongly related to residents’ perceived quality of life. To accomplish …

Turkey's Experience With Corporatism, Nilgun Onder

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study is to explore Turkey’s experience with corporatism from the founding of the Republic in 1923 onwards. In this study, corporatism is defined as a particular political structure within the capitalist system which acts as a linkage mechanism between the state and society. It is basically related to labour and capital organizations, and their relationship to the state.

The analysis of the Turkish case remains loyal to the traditional authoritarian/liberal corporatism classification. It is asked whether Turkey exhibits the characteristics of authoritarian corporatism or liberal corporatism, or both? Was there a transition from one type to …

Leisure Lifestyle And Perceived Social Support Of Older Adults In A Rural Environment, Elizabeth Dow Pittaway

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the leisure lifestyles of rural older adults and specifically to determine whether a relationship existed among leisure lifestyle, perceived social support, and well-being. Control variables included socio-demographic factors, value of leisure, satisfaction with life domains, length of residency, ethnicity, religion, and personal and structural barriers. The theoretical framework included social exchange theory and social support perspectives. A descriptive correlational research design was utilized and a mail survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to people 55 and older. Rural older adults spent more time on indoor leisure compared to outdoor …