Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Data-Driven Analysis Of Video Game Culture And The Role Of Let's Plays In Youtube, Ana Ruiz Segarra

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Video games have become an important part of the global popular cultures that are connecting broader audiences of all ages around the world. A recent phenomenon that has lasted almost ten years is the creation and upload of gaming-related videos on YouTube, where Let’s Plays have a considerable presence. Let’s Plays are videos of people playing video games, usually including the game footage and narrated by the players themselves. In this work I use the metadata, of popular channels and their videos to analyze the current state of video game culture in YouTube and what is the role of Let's …

The Effects Of Proficiency And Task Context On L2-L1 Noncognate Masked Translation Priming In Chinese-English Bilinguals, Mark J. Mcphedran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The masked translation priming effect was examined in Chinese-English bilinguals using three experimental paradigms: lexical decision, semantic categorization, and speeded episodic recognition. A machine-learning approach was used to assess the subject- and item-specific factors that contribute to the sizes of translation priming effects across these tasks. The factors that contributed to translation priming effects were found to be task specific. Priming effects in lexical decision were associated with higher self-rated listening and writing abilities in English, especially when primes were high-frequency and targets were low-frequency. Priming effects in semantic categorization were associated with more frequent use of English in daily …

The Uphill Battle Of Environmental Technologies: Analysis Of Local Discourses On The Acceptance And Resistance Of Green Bin Programs, Carrie Warring

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many Canadian municipalities have been looking for alternative sustainable waste management solutions since landfill capacity has been decreasing and siting new facilities often results in vehement local opposition. In Ontario, there is no provincial mandate for organic waste diversion targets, where most large-sized municipalities have implemented a Green Bin program while other jurisdictions of varying size still have not. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore predominant and counter discourses that have resulted in Guelph sustaining a Green Bin program, while London has not implemented a Green Bin. Manuscript one explores the interaction of provincial and local municipal discourses in …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Modified Cystoscopy Technique, Khalil Hetou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Introduction

Pain, anxiety and embarrassment are well documented feelings in patients undergoing ambulatory diagnostic cystoscopy. In this study, we explored utilizing Peak-end theory in improving pain perception in patients undergoing diagnostic cystoscopy.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a randomized clinical trial at the London Health Sciences Center for patients undergoing an ambulatory diagnostic cystoscopy for the first time. Males and females as well as allocation ratios were 1:1. The control arm received a standard cystoscopy. In the intervention arm the cystoscope was left for additional 2 minutes without further manipulation in the bladder before scope removal. The primary outcome was …

The Effects Of Semantic Priming On Lexical Processing, Alexander Taikh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present experiments were designed to investigate the locus of the semantic priming effect, a phenomenon that has received much research attention. Semantically related primes (e.g., cat) might activate the lexical representations of their targets (e.g., DOG) through automatic spreading activation at short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the prime and target, or through generation of words expected to follow the prime at long SOAs. Alternately, semantically related primes might be used strategically to aid responding after target identification. The effects of masked orthographic primes (e.g., judpe-JUDGE), in contrast, are assumed to be strictly lexical and automatic. Lexical processing of …

The Effects Of Emotionally Salient Unimodal And Multimodal Stimuli On Low-Level Visual Perception, Stephen Raymond Pierzchajlo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sensory information can both impair and enhance low-level visual feature processing, and this can be significantly modulated depending on the whether this information matches the visual sensory modality. Emotionally significant visual and auditory stimuli can have opposing effects on attention. While task-irrelevant emotionally salient visual stimuli can often impair task attention, task-irrelevant emotionally salient auditory stimuli have been shown to enhance aspects of attention. To date, no study has directly compared how emotionally salient information presented to different sensory modalities can affect low-level vision. Using Gabor patches of differing contrasts to measure the threshold of visual perception, we hypothesized that …

Tension Analysis In Survivor Interviews: A Computational Approach, Jumayel Islam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tension is an emotional experience that can occur in different contexts. This phenomenon can originate from a conflict of interest or uneasiness during an interview. In some contexts, such experiences are associated with negative emotions such as fear or distress. People tend to adopt different hedging strategies in such situations to avoid criticism or evade questions.

In this thesis, we analyze several survivor interview transcripts to determine different characteristics that play crucial roles during tension situation. We discuss key components of tension experiences and propose a natural language processing model which can effectively combine these components to identify tension points …

True North Strong Canada 150: Canadian Identity And Its Contribution To Doping Free Sport, Helena A. Hlas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis, a reflective piece inspired by “Canada 150” events, explores the psychosocial and sociocultural factors surrounding the ongoing evolution of the clean sport movement in Canada. A literature review recounts the critical events in the history of doping, viz. the Ben Johnson scandal, which resulted in a call to overhaul sport culture and realign it with fair play values. Theories in sports philosophy and psychology provide a further understanding of the meaning of sport, and psychosocial factors that are inextricably linked to doping behavior, respectively. The autoethnographic method provides insight into current Canadian values to compare with those in …

Conceptual Representation In Bilinguals: A Feature-Based Approach, Eriko Matsuki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A challenge for bilinguals is that translation equivalent words often do not convey exactly the same conceptual information. A bilingual exhibits a “semantic accent” when they comprehend or use a word in one language in a way that is influenced by knowledge of its translation equivalent. Semantic accents are well-captured by feature-based models, such as the Distributed Conceptual Feature model and the Shared (Distributed) Asymmetrical model, however, few empirical studies have used semantic features to provide direct evidence for these models. The goal of this thesis is to use a feature-based approach to identify conceptual differences in translation equivalent words …

Examining Climate Change-Health Nexus In Ghana, Lucia Kafui Hussey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Climate change is one of today’s most pressing global issues with its physical, biological and social impacts widely recognized. One area of concern is its potential health consequences. The postulated health effects from climate change are far-reaching that climate change induced health risks are signaled as the most pressing problems to public health in the 21^st century. Although developing countries such as Ghana had been suggested as a vulnerable hotspot for the health consequences of climate change, there is a paucity of empirical research on climate change and its health linkages in the country.

The purpose of this dissertation …

Biopolitics, Risk, And Reproductive Justice: The Governing Of Maternal Health In Canada's Muskoka Initiative, Jacqueline Potvin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I examine how Canada’s Muskoka Initiative discursively constructs and addresses maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) as a global development problem. I evaluate how the Muskoka Initiative aligns with, and departs from feminist articulations of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice. I do this by analyzing how the Muskoka Initiative drew on and reinforced dominant norms of motherhood, and aligned with neoliberal development frameworks. I also examine how the reproductive bodies and lives of women in the Global South were configured as sites of both development intervention and biopolitical governance. My findings are based on a …

Academic Librarians And The Space/Time Of Information Literacy, The Neoliberal University, And The Global Knowledge Economy, Karen P. Nicholson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This qualitative research study explores how academic librarians working in Canadian public research-intensive universities experience the space/time of information literacy, the neoliberal university, and the knowledge economy. Information literacy lies at the intersection of higher education and the knowledge economy: it became a priority for librarians in Anglo-American countries in the 1980s in the context of neoliberal educational reforms intended to better prepare skilled workers for the “information society” (Behrens, 1994; Birdsall, 1994).

The shift from Fordist modes of production to flexible accumulation, characterized by the expansion of capital into new markets, flexible workers, and just-in-time inventories, made possible by …

Understanding And Coping With Possible Depressive Symptoms: An Extension Of The Self-Regulation Model, Melissa N. Mohan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation used Leventhal’s Self-Regulation Model (SRM) as a theoretical framework to examine how undergraduates make sense of and cope with symptoms often associated with depression. Students completed questionnaires about possible depressive symptoms (not labelled as such); as well as other components of the SRM, including demographics, psychosocial context, current psychopathology, cognitive appraisals and emotional reactions. Previous SRM studies have often focused on how people make sense of depression once symptoms have coalesced into a clearer clinical picture. In contrast, Part 1 of this dissertation focused on an earlier application of the SRM to a range of vague, generally mild …

The Differentiation Of Smallholder Farming And Household Food Responsibilities In Northern Ghana, Siera Vercillo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

One of the most urgent problems facing sub-Saharan Africa is that many people lack access to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food, particularly in semi-arid regions such as northern Ghana. An important indication of this problem within Ghana is that stunting rates due to prolonged undernourishment are significantly higher in the northern regions than in other parts of the country, despite claims of an overall increase in the availability of food. Broadly, this dissertation employs qualitative case study research in the Northern Region (interviews N=109 and 12 focus groups) to describe the changes in access to resources, roles and …

Opportunity, Constraint, And Capital In Canadian Ice Hockey, Andrew English

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study explored the potential social benefits and motivations of participation in sport beyond those that pertain solely to healthy active living. Using organized youth ice hockey in Canada, the study also examined how cultural context can be a factor in the facilitation of such benefit, as well as the ways the game can reflect and reproduce inequalities in society more generally. A framework based on Pierre Bourdieu’s assertions on social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital, was used to analyze data from ten semi-structured interviews with men who are former youth hockey players. The interview data revealed that through hockey …

The Cognitive Psychology Of Humour In Written Puns, James Boylan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The primary purpose of this dissertation was to investigate how humour from written puns is produced. Prior models have emphasized that novel or surprising incongruities should be important to humour appreciation­ (Suls, 1972; Topolinski, 2014). In study 1, a new approach to operationalizing incongruity as semantic dissimilarity was developed and tested using Latent Semantic Analysis (Landauer, Foltz & Laham, 1998). “Latent semantic incongruity” was associated with humour ratings, but only for puns with low ratings of familiarity from a prior occasion or for those with a low level of aggressive content. Overall, there was also an unexpected strong positive association …

Factors That Contribute To The Process Of Reporting Concussion Symptoms Experienced By Canadian Football League Players, Daryl W. H. Stephenson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Concussions continue to be at the forefront of research today and are still an ongoing problem for athletes across sporting domains. Further investigation is warranted to achieve a greater understanding of concussions. Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation was to explore research related to sports-related concussions, how concussions affect athletes and those surrounding the athletes at all levels of sport, with a particular focus on Canadian Football League players and the underreporting of concussions. This dissertation also reviews qualitative research methodologies, and how they are applied within concussion research. Research Questions: a) What is my own personal relationship with …

Semantic Processing Of Nominal Metaphor: Figurative Abstraction And Embodied Simulation, Hamad Al-Azary

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a metaphor such as that lawyer is a shark, the concept lawyer, which is the metaphor topic, and the concept shark, which is the metaphor vehicle, interact to produce a figurative meaning such that lawyers are predatory. Some theorists argue that sensorimotor properties of the vehicle are the basis of metaphor comprehension (Gibbs & Matlock, 2008; Paivio, 1979; Wilson & Gibbs, 2007). As such, that lawyer is a shark is processed by an embodied simulation where sensorimotor imagery associated with sharks is simulated (e.g., sharks hunting in deep water). However, the long-standing assumption is that metaphors are …

Developing And Testing A Novel Intervention To Reduce Household Food Waste, Paul Van Der Werf

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The amount of food wasted is a topic of societal and academic interest. As academic research in this area is nascent, there are significant knowledge gaps, which this dissertation seeks to narrow, pertaining to: (1) the measurement of food waste; (2) the human behaviors that lead to wasting of food; and (3) the development of efficacious food waste reduction interventions.

A systematic literature review of 55 food waste estimates showed that on average 114.3 kg/capita/year is wasted from consumption (i.e., household) and 198.9 kg/capita/year across the entire food supply chain. There is considerable uncertainty with this data because of the …

Reconstructing The Social Landscape Of Cerro Arena, Peru, Felipe Gonzalez-Macqueen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis deals with the 2017 archaeological survey of the site of Cerro Arena, in the Moche Valley, Peru. The site belongs to the Salinar phase (c.a 400–0 BCE), known to be a time of increased warfare and cultural fragmentation. During this time, Cerro Arena became the largest settlement in the valley, housing a large number of people in structures densely packed into the elevated terrain of the site. Yet, information on the spatial arrangement of civic and residential architecture was lacking. Using remote sensing techniques—primarily Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) —and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we sought to create high-resolution …

Informing Care: Mapping The Social Organization Of Families’ Information Work In An Aging In Place Climate, Nicole K. Dalmer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Within an institutional ethnography method of inquiry, this dissertation makes visible the information work that permeates the care work of families of people living with dementia who are also aging at home. An institutional ethnography privileges people’s everyday work and acknowledges that local contexts are influenced by translocal, ruling relations. To map out the social organization of family caregivers’ information work, this dissertation details four separate, yet interrelated studies. The first study comprises two sets of interviews: one with 13 family caregivers of older adults to understand their experiences of the information work they do and a second with five …

Canadians Misbehaving: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Factors Contributing To Perceived Frequency Of Organizational Misbehaviour By Employees And Employers, Brendan S.J. Watts

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Individuals do not always follow the rules at work, yet it is not entirely clear what conditions generally contribute to higher rates of misbehaviour. Much of the research on organizational misbehaviour is ethnographic or based on limited sample populations (single organization, single industry, etc.), so there remains a gap in the literature for findings representative of a wider population and comparison across occupational classes. Additionally, there has been an over-emphasis on the study of misbehaviour by employees, while employer misbehaviour remains relatively unexplored within the literature. Organizational misbehaviour is also often treated as an objective act with little recognition for …

An Interventionist Approach To Language Study Abroad: Exploring Metalinguistic Awareness In The Acquisition Of Spanish Through Digital Portfolio Documentation And Expert Mentorship, Meredith Mcgregor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Language study abroad offers the possibility of acquiring a multitude of competencies, linguistic and otherwise. While historically study abroad research has emphasized linguistic gains in isolation, it has gradually moved towards a more sociocultural approach whereby individual factors and intercultural competencies are seen as integral to the process of acquiring knowledge of a language. With remaining gaps in the literature, and as new instruments emerge, so too do new opportunities for tracking and measuring learning outcomes in innovative ways. The present study, framed by the intervention hypothesis and sociocultural theory, utilizes the social media platform Google+ as a space to …

From Accessibility And Exposure To Engagement: A Multi-Scalar Approach To Measuring Environmental Determinants Of Children’S Health Using Geographic Information Systems, Martin Healy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A growing body of research suggests that increasing the accessibility to health-related environmental features and increasing exposure to and engagement in outdoor environments leads to positive benefits for the overall health and well-being of children. Additionally, research over the last twenty-five years has documented a decline in the time children spend outdoors. Outdoor activity in children is associated with increased levels of physical fitness, and cognitive well-being. Despite acknowledging this connection, problems occur for researchers when attempting to identify the child’s location and to measure whether a child has made use of an accessible health-related facility, or where, when and …

An Environmental Scan Of Settlement Services For The Integration Of Refugee Youth In Southwestern Ontario, Aparna Karky

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This environmental scan presents an overview of the settlement services and programs provided to refugee youth in Ontario for their integration and well-being. The settlement experiences of refugee youth, their needs and challenges, represent a burgeoning aspect of refugee integration studies. However, little attention has been paid to available settlement services within refugee integration studies. Since the facilitators and barriers pertaining to the integration of refugee youth are relatively well-documented, this environmental scan gathers and interprets information on the range of available settlement services and programs in respect to the indicators of integration for refugee youth in the cities of …

Searching For Wisdom: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Women's Perspectives Following Participation In An Ovarian Cancer Supportive Care Group, Helen Butlin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study used a novel methodology of hermeneutic-poetic-phenomenology to explore perspectives of women living with ovarian cancer. Each had participated in a supportive care group process Soul-Medicine prior to volunteering. Three women, Beth, Carrie, and Denise contributed to this study. The methodology was grounded in Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy of poetic-phenomenology. Data was analyzed with attention to image-centred knowledge; material imagination; reverie; and horizons of hope to elucidate their implicated aspects of wisdom and the ways participant’s formed their personal wisdom integrating feminist theories of embodiment and bioethics.

Findings are framed through three images of a uniquely formed inner ‘wisdom-compass’, an …

Oral Health, Dental Insurance Coverage, And Preventive Dental Care Utilization: The Case Of Immigrants In Canada, Yujiro Sano

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Oral health is essential for social, economic, and psychological well-being. Yet, we know very little about oral health among adult immigrants in Canada. Framing oral health as determined by a wide range of social, economic, cultural, and political conditions, three integrated articles in this dissertation aim to understand how some adult immigrants potentially experience disadvantages in accessing optimal oral health, dental insurance coverage, and preventive dental care utilization, due to their vulnerable positions in Canada.

Using the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), the first article examines whether the ‘healthy immigrant effect’ extends to self-rated oral health in Ontario, Canada. Findings …

The Governance Of Climate Change Adaptation In Canada: Two Multilevel Case Studies, Daniel J. Bednar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anthropogenic climate change is affecting, and will continue to affect, communities across Canada. From increased average temperatures and alterations of seasonal precipitation patterns, to extreme rainfall and heat events, Canadians face a 21^st century environment significantly different from that of the past. With risks to people and services identified via the global scientific and social science literature, the need to adapt to climate change is pressing. Climate change adaptation includes the identification of climate impacts in order to develop interventions into systems and services so to avoid negative effects and recognize opportunities. The emerging consensus is that climate change …

Internationalization Of Higher Education Within Canada’S Migration Management Framework: Supply Side Of International Student Migration, Alexandra Bozheva

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation offers an integrative look into the supply side of international student migration (ISM) in Canada. Within its scope, supply side of ISM is understood as a space of interactions of the two key involved domains: education industry and migration management.

Drawing from previous empirical and theoretical works, this thesis investigates a set of research questions, starting with: (1) how the institutional domain structures the international student enrolment, and (2) how the pursuit of education suppliers’ collective agenda can influence policies defining ISM. With the neoliberal transformations of the late 1970s in education funding, Canadian higher education institutions (HEIs) …

Ideology Over Evidence? The Place Of Values Within The Safe Streets And Communities Act, Alyssa Holden

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the context of Canadian policymaking, the alleged ‘punitive turn’ demonstrated by the Harper government from 2006-2015 was extraordinary. Under this turn, punitiveness coincided with a rejection of empirical evidence (Kelly and Puddister, 2017; Doob and Webster, 2015 2016; Marshall, 2015; Newell, 2013 Mallea, 2010). The controversial bill, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, has been regarded as one of the most poignant examples of this rhetoric (Marshall, 2015; Newell, 2013). This thesis investigated the role of evidence and penal populism in policymaking through a content analysis of the legislative debates of the SSCA. Drawing on a neo-Weberian framework this …