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Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Conjunction Search Onset Following Single-Feature Preview: Equating Visual Transients, Wafa Saoud
Conjunction Search Onset Following Single-Feature Preview: Equating Visual Transients, Wafa Saoud
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
What happens to visual selection if the features of objects in a scene are viewed incrementally rather than simultaneously? According to Olds et al. (2009), it depends upon which feature is presented first. Olds et al. (2009) used the feature-preview search paradigm to cue conjunction search items by presenting observers with a preview display that contained 1 of 2 features for all of the search items. Prior exposure to some features facilitated subsequent visual selection more than prior exposure to others; overall, size-preview offered the greatest search facilitation, followed by color-preview, and lastly, orientation-preview. Some feature-preview conditions, however, contained luminance …
Supporting University Students With Mental Health Issues: A Needs Assessment, Amanda Celeste Weckwerth
Supporting University Students With Mental Health Issues: A Needs Assessment, Amanda Celeste Weckwerth
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
This study was conducted to obtain an understanding of the post-secondary educational experiences of students with mental health issues (MHI’s) at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), to examine the needs of these students, to identify specific types of supports and accommodations available to these students, and to determine how improvements could be made by removing any identified barriers and putting in their place needed supports and accommodations. Study components included forming an advisory committee, administering a needs assessment questionnaire to WLU students (n = 78) and a campus service assessment tool to service managers (n = 3), and conducting …
Interviewing Children About Repeated Events: Does Mental Context Reinstatement Improve Young Children’S Narratives?, Donna M. Drohan-Jennings
Interviewing Children About Repeated Events: Does Mental Context Reinstatement Improve Young Children’S Narratives?, Donna M. Drohan-Jennings
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
This study examined mental context reinstatement (MCR) as a technique to increase the quantity and accuracy of information provided by children during repeated-event narratives. Children (N = 46, 4-, 5- and 6-year olds) participated in four repeated laboratory activities and were interviewed 4-7 days later about the last occurrence with a control or MCR interview, including both a free narrative and specific questions about the events. Older children (6-year olds) provided a greater number of accurate instantiations (specific details) compared to 4-year olds. Five and 6-year olds reported a greater number of instantiations than 4-year olds, but this effect …
Administration Of A Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonist Following Chronic ∆9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Induces Physical Withdrawal In The Absence Of A Dysphoric State, Brittany Ford
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The selective cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716 has been shown to precipitate physical signs of withdrawal in ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-dependent rats; however, the affective state associated with this withdrawal state has not yet been well characterized. Thus, the aim of present study was to examine the physical and affective consequences of SR141716-precipitated THC withdrawal in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats were injected with THC (5 mg/kg, i.p.) or its vehicle twice daily for 13 consecutive days, and challenged with SRI 41716 (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or its vehicle 1 h later on days 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. Consistent …
An Evaluation Of A Dialogic Book-Reading Program For At Risk Children, Daniel Anthony Colangelo
An Evaluation Of A Dialogic Book-Reading Program For At Risk Children, Daniel Anthony Colangelo
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Children from low-income backgrounds are at a higher risk for reading difficulties partly because they are read to less frequently in the home (Adams, 1990). When shared reading does occur in low-income homes, it is usually of poorer quality when compared to reading in middle- or upper-income homes (Arnold, Lonigan, Whitehurst, Epstein, 1994). Dialogic reading, a form of enhanced discussion and structured questioning during shared-book reading, can be a cost effective way of improving the language and literacy skills of young children. The current research examines the effectiveness of a community-based, four-month dialogic reading intervention called the Dialogic Reading Club …
What Pushes Your Buttons? How Knowledge About If-Then Personality Profiles Can Benefit Relationships, Charity A. Friesen
What Pushes Your Buttons? How Knowledge About If-Then Personality Profiles Can Benefit Relationships, Charity A. Friesen
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Past research has debated the benefits of having accurate knowledge about a close other’s personality. However, this research has examined personality knowledge solely in terms of trait knowledge. We hypothesize that within close relationships, accuracy about personality profiles—a person’s “if-then” pattern of responses to situations—may often be more useful than accuracy about personality traits. We provide the first studies of if-then accuracy in close relationships, investigating trigger profiles, which describe a person’s unique pattern of reactivity to various potentially aversive interpersonal situations. For our studies, we first developed the Trigger Profile Questionnaire, consisting of 72 descriptions of potentially bothersome interpersonal …
Understanding Academic Success For Onkwehonwe (Indigenous) Students Through The Use Of An Onkwehonwe'neha (Indigenous Methodology), Ashley Victoria Dorothy Johnson
Understanding Academic Success For Onkwehonwe (Indigenous) Students Through The Use Of An Onkwehonwe'neha (Indigenous Methodology), Ashley Victoria Dorothy Johnson
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
School-retention rates for Indigenous (Onkwehonwe) students are disproportionately lower than the non-Indigenous population in Canada (Mendelson, 2006). Currently, few studies on Native education acquire the perspectives and knowledge from successful OS. Many nonpersistence factors for OS have been uncovered, but few studies have offered solutions. Additionally, there is minimal (re)search using an Indigenous methodology (Onkwehonwe’neha) in the exploration Onkwehonwe education. This search (study) focused on the perspectives and experiences of six successful OS (i.e., five graduate students and one entering a graduate program). Two of the six participants were Aboriginal student-services coordinators at accredited universities within Ontario, Canada. Through the …
Age And Amount Of Experience On Children’S Representations Of Repeated Events, Una Glisic
Age And Amount Of Experience On Children’S Representations Of Repeated Events, Una Glisic
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The current study examined how children’s event representations changed with increasing experience with an event. There were 81 children (40 4-to-5-year-olds, and 41 7-to-8-year-olds) who participated in either 2 (n = 41) or 4 (n = 40) repeated event sessions, which consisted of activities such as playing a counting game, and/or doing a puzzle. Event sessions included three different item types; variable items (which changed at every occurrence), fixed items (which stayed constant throughout the event), and new items (which only occurred once throughout the series). Children were interviewed 5-7- days following their last event session using free-recall, …
Investigating The Relationship Between Motor Resonance And Nonconscious Mimicry, Jeremy Hogeveen
Investigating The Relationship Between Motor Resonance And Nonconscious Mimicry, Jeremy Hogeveen
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Motor resonance refers to the mirroring of observed actions in one’s own motor system. It is possible that motor resonance is the neural mechanism underlying nonconscious mimicry (NCM)—the ubiquitous phenomenon wherein people mimic the behaviour of interaction partners (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). Previous research has shown that priming interdependent selfconstrual (interSC) increases mimicry (van Baaren et al., 2003). If motor resonance is the mechanism underlying NCM, then a manipulation known to facilitate mimicry (i.e. interSC) should increase motor resonance. In experiment one, we variably primed independent selfconstrual (indSC)—known to inhibit mimicryv—and interSC in a motor priming paradigm. Participants observed videos …
Towards A Seamless Support Sysetm For Federally Sentenced Women Returning To The Community, Jessica Hutchison
Towards A Seamless Support Sysetm For Federally Sentenced Women Returning To The Community, Jessica Hutchison
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Women are the fastest growing prison population in the world. Furthermore, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of federally sentenced women identified as having a mental health problem. The goal of this study was to determine how the Waterloo Region can create a seamless support system for women with mental health issues leaving Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI). An anti-oppressive framework was used, which emphasizes issues of power and oppression within the lives of individuals who have been marginalized and oppressed. Three participant groups took part in this research: (a) 12 women with mental health issues …
Predicting Resilience In Young Adult Turning Point Stories: A Narrative Approach To Understanding Well-Being, Norah Love
Predicting Resilience In Young Adult Turning Point Stories: A Narrative Approach To Understanding Well-Being, Norah Love
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
One way to understand well-being is through the examination of narrative turning point stories, which are stories about an event or episode that represents an important change in one’s life. To better understand what contributes to the well-being of young adults, this study examined predictors in adolescence of dimensions of turning point stories in young adulthood. Standardized measures of youth’s prosocial behaviour, hyperactivity, selfesteem, family functioning and sense of community in Grade 9 were used to predict the following narrative dimensions of Grade 12 youths’ (n=96) turning point stories: affect transformation, specificity, ending resolution, personal growth, meaning-making and …
The Problem Of Causal/Explanatory Exclusion, Dwayne Moore
The Problem Of Causal/Explanatory Exclusion, Dwayne Moore
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The problem of mental causation, at least in one of its most basic forms, is how to reconcile two plausible but potentially incompatible intuitions. The first intuition is that the mind makes a difference in the world. For example, I am writing this paragraph for certain reasons, and before long I will stop to eat something because of certain desires for food. Seemingly, these reasons and desires play a role in what happens. The second intuition is that the physical world is causally complete, so everything that happens is the result of the movement of physical particles. For example, the …
Young, Working And Black: A Study Of Empowerment, Oppression, Race And Gender In Community Settings, Julian Hasford
Young, Working And Black: A Study Of Empowerment, Oppression, Race And Gender In Community Settings, Julian Hasford
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
This purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between race, gender, and power in community settings. Taking the experiences of young Black Canadians within the workplace as an exemplar, the study sought to answer three main research questions: (a) How does oppression influence the psychological empowerment of Black youth and young adults in the workplace? (b) How do workplace characteristics promote Black youths’ and young adults’ psychological empowerment?, and (c) How does gender influence Black youths’ and young adults’ experiences of oppression and empowerment in the workplace? To answer these questions I conducted narrative interviews with 24 Black …
Intentionality, Responsibility, And Social Grouphood, Sherisse Webb
Intentionality, Responsibility, And Social Grouphood, Sherisse Webb
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
This dissertation examines the theories of collectivity or social grouphood presupposed by accounts of collective intentionality, collective action and collective moral responsibility. I consider the intentionalist theories of social grouphood proposed by John Searle and Margaret Gilbert, Larry May’s conceptual account of social grouphood, and Paul Sheehy’s realist conception of social grouphoood. All three approaches are found to be problematic. The theories of Searle and Gilbert fail to adequately explain the causal relationship between collectives and their members, the heterogeneity of social groups and non-voluntary social groups; May’s theory is problematic insofar as it relies on sameness among individual group …
The “Budget Fallacy”: Sources Of Accuracy And Bias In Personal Spending Predictions, Johanna Peetz
The “Budget Fallacy”: Sources Of Accuracy And Bias In Personal Spending Predictions, Johanna Peetz
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
In everyday life, people frequently estimate their spending for projects and time periods. In the present research, I extend previous work on self prediction into the realm of personal financial behavior. Seven studies examine people’s ability to predict their future personal spending and processes underlying spending predictions. I found that people tended to underestimate their future personal spending when predicting next week's spending (Studies 1-3), predicting that they would spend substantially less money during an upcoming week than they actually did. On average, participants underestimated their weekly expenditures by about 27&. However, spending predictions for concrete events appeared to be …
Spiritual Empowerment Through Buddhist Practice, Adam Mckenzie Hodgins
Spiritual Empowerment Through Buddhist Practice, Adam Mckenzie Hodgins
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The Buddhist practice of eight Waterloo, Ontario residents are explored in this study, highlighting the relationship between the reported outcomes of Buddhist practice and individual empowerment. By employing a heuristic research methodology, as described by Moustakas (1994), I use my own experience as a Buddhist practitioner to contribute to the research data and elicit detailed descriptions from the participants. The findings of the interviews reveal four common themes of the participants’ Buddhist practice: 1) increased awareness of unconscious habits; 2) peace from letting go of control; 3) a change in their perspective of self; and 4) enhanced connection with others. …
Poverty And Disability: The Need For Inclusion, Alexis Buettgen
Poverty And Disability: The Need For Inclusion, Alexis Buettgen
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Despite the fact that people with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the world’s poorest, they have been marginalized in poverty research and have had minimal involvement in poverty reduction strategies. The current study addresses this issue, by providing an opportunity for people with developmental disabilities to control and direct the research agenda, and to have an active voice on the topic of poverty and disability. Thus, the present study aims to support the development of poverty reduction strategies by raising key issues and breaking down barriers to participation for people with developmental disabilities. This study utilized a social power framework …
A Qualitative Exploration Of The Needs Of (Pre)Parenting: Women Parenting With Women In Southern Ontario, Krystal Lee Kellington
A Qualitative Exploration Of The Needs Of (Pre)Parenting: Women Parenting With Women In Southern Ontario, Krystal Lee Kellington
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Over the years research has examined various aspects of Women Parenting with Women (WPW) and their families. The focus of the research on these families has to an extent, been influenced by the social and political debates throughout the years that saw these families struggle through one challenge to the next. Through these challenges, research has examined the claims and accusations for and against these families, generating information on the mental health and suitability of same-sex parents, the well-being of their children, and how these families function without a nuclear family structure. As the social and political climate continues to …
Raising An Issue In A Relationship: I’Ll Tell You What’S Wrong, But Only If I Think It Will Help, Megan H. Mccarthy
Raising An Issue In A Relationship: I’Ll Tell You What’S Wrong, But Only If I Think It Will Help, Megan H. Mccarthy
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
When we become dissatisfied with the actions of a close partner, we face a decision: to disclose our concerns to the other person (voice), or to instead remain silent. Past research suggests that degree of dissatisfaction and issue importance are not important predictors of this decision, however, research on communication in relationships points to the potential importance of outcome expectancies. Previous research has primarily focused on expectancies for relationship outcomes, however, and has yet to consider the relative contribution of expectancies for instrumental outcomes. Four studies assessed the hypothesis that instrumental expectancies are most important for how much a person …
Vocabulary And Phonological Awareness In 3- To 4-Year-Old Children: Effects Of A Training Program, Iuliana Elena Baciu
Vocabulary And Phonological Awareness In 3- To 4-Year-Old Children: Effects Of A Training Program, Iuliana Elena Baciu
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The impact of a preschool training program that combined a vocabulary instruction strategy with phonological awareness activities and instruction in the alphabetic principle, as well as incidental teaching of basic vocabulary items was evaluated using a pretest-posttest design with a control group. This language and literacy (LL) training targeted three to four year-old English as a second language (L2) learners and monolingual (L1) English speakers (n = 63) and was conducted twice a week for two hours, for a total of 24 weeks. Both language groups contained a low socioeconomic status (SES) and a middle SES groups. The children …
The Role Of Choice And Control In Women’S Childbirth Experiences, Katie M. Cook
The Role Of Choice And Control In Women’S Childbirth Experiences, Katie M. Cook
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The current study seeks to understand the role of choice and control in both planning and giving birth. This study explores three research questions: 1) What are the key influences on women’s birth plan decisions? 2) How do changes to a woman’s initial birth plan impact her overall birth experience? 3) What is the role of choice and control in women’s childbirth experiences? Narrative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 16 women who had given birth in Waterloo Region within the two years preceding data collection. The findings of this study cover five categories. The first category …
A Participatory Study Of The Nature Of Touch At L’Arche: Understanding Protective And Risk Factors To Develop And Approach To Safe And Respectful Touch For People With Developmental Disabilities, Lindsay Paige Buckingham-Rivard
A Participatory Study Of The Nature Of Touch At L’Arche: Understanding Protective And Risk Factors To Develop And Approach To Safe And Respectful Touch For People With Developmental Disabilities, Lindsay Paige Buckingham-Rivard
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
This study explored the use of touch in the L’Arche approach to care-giving for people with developmental disabilities. The intent was to explore the nature of touch, and the protective and risk factors of this alternative care setting, to promote a safe and respectful environment that enhanced protective factors and minimized risk. The author was interested in the scientific research on the value of touch, ethics in relationships with power differences, the prevention of abuse, and the prevalence of respectful expressive/affectionate touch between people with disabilities and their caregivers. The study engaged one L’Arche community in Ontario, Canada, through a …
Working Against Youth Violence Everywhere: Evaluating A Peer-Led Approach To Bullying Prevention, Rebecca L. Pister
Working Against Youth Violence Everywhere: Evaluating A Peer-Led Approach To Bullying Prevention, Rebecca L. Pister
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
After the 2001 murder of a locai Black youth at the hands of more than 50 White youth, community organizations in the Kitchener-Waterloo area came together to develop the Working against Youth Violence Everywhere (WAYVE) program—a program created by and for local youth that would work towards eliminating bullying and violence in area high schools. WAYVE combines interactive workshops and presentations with a whole-school approach and peer-led principles. In-school teams work at maintaining an anti-bullying message within their school over the course of the year, while Regional team members develop a presentation which acts as a booster to the In-school …
Moral Emotion Expectancies In Adolescence: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Fanli Jia
Moral Emotion Expectancies In Adolescence: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Fanli Jia
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Cross-cultural research on moral development has documented reliable cultural differences in people’s evaluations of moral and immoral actions. Prosocial actions are typically viewed as more obligatory and less discretionary in collectivistic cultures relative to individualistic cultures. While past research mostly focused on moral judgments, it largely neglected moral emotions. The present study was aimed at investigating self- and other-evaluative emotions following (im) moral actions in different situational and cultural contexts. It investigated moral emotion expectancies of Canadian and Chinese adolescents and young adults across different situational contexts. For each culture, 179 Canadian and 193 Chinese adolescents from grade levels 7-8, …
Attentional Biases In Social Anxiety: An Investigation Of Rumination, Katie L. Walters
Attentional Biases In Social Anxiety: An Investigation Of Rumination, Katie L. Walters
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Cognitive models of anxiety posit that socially anxious individuals’ attention is disproportionally biased for threatening information in the environment. One component in the cognitive model of social anxiety that has not been examined, in terms of the attentional bias, is rumination (i.e., the dwelling on perceived inadequacies). The purpose of the present research was to examine the impact that rumination had on attentional biases in social anxiety as measured through the use of a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) stream. When two target stimuli (T1 and T2) are presented amongst distractor stimuli in rapid succession it is hard to process …
Training Children Where They Learned Information: A Test Of Two Techniques, Justine Renner
Training Children Where They Learned Information: A Test Of Two Techniques, Justine Renner
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Source-monitoring abilities are crucial skills for children’s social and cognitive development, thus, source-monitoring training (SMT) has the potential to benefit children in many practical settings. While some previous research reported that older (7- to 8-years-old) but not younger children (3- to 4-year-olds) benefitted from SMT (Poole & Lindsay, 2002), other studies have found training effects with younger children (Thierry & Spence, 2002; 2004). The current study examined younger and older children's source monitoring trainability by comparing the two different training used in these previous studies: training to a criterion versus a set amount of training. 158 children (aged 3-4 and …
“Just What Were You Expecting From Your Experience Anyway?” University Expectations And Subsequent Adjustment In Visible Minority Students, Wisam Al-Dabbagh
“Just What Were You Expecting From Your Experience Anyway?” University Expectations And Subsequent Adjustment In Visible Minority Students, Wisam Al-Dabbagh
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Pre-enrollment university expectations can influence subsequent adjustment levels during the first year of postsecondary studies (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1992). There is very limited literature studying the expectation levels of visible minority students in the U.S., and no literature at all in a Canadian context. We were interested in examining expectation differences between visible minority students and majority students attending Canadian universities, as well as exploring the influence of residence status and campuswide diversity on these expectation levels. We further used regression analyses to predict subsequent university adjustment using pre-enrollment expectations as predictor variables, and used structural equation modeling (SEM) to …
Individual Responsibility For Collective Harms, Melany Lorraine Banks
Individual Responsibility For Collective Harms, Melany Lorraine Banks
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
The aim of the dissertation is to propose a new theory of collective responsibility that will be able to determine individual responsibility for collective harms from small collectives to large, unstructured collectives. Theories of collective responsibility seek to address the harms that are caused when agents work collectively, and then to determine where responsibility will he in such cases. In the dissertation I show that these theories cannot address large, unstructured harms while being reducible to the individual. The key case for this dissertation is climate change, and I propose a theory of collective responsibility that will both identify this …
Reconstructing Sex: Women Having Sex With Women, Alixandra Holtby
Reconstructing Sex: Women Having Sex With Women, Alixandra Holtby
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
This study examines the experience of exclusion from the dominant understandings of sex for women who have sex with women, including queer, pansexual, bisexual, and lesbian women. Using ideas of the constructed nature of sex, particularly the use of sexual scripts (Simon & Gagnon, 1973), as well as the (hetero)sexist context in which these scripts are formed, qualitative interviews with 11 queer, pansexual, bisexual, and lesbian women were analyzed regarding their development of their understandings of what constitutes sex, their expectations and experiences of sex, their negotiation of desire and sexual identity, and their perspectives on sex between women and …
Two Sides To Every Trauma: The Role Of Posttraumatic Growth And Decline In Well-Being, Danay C. Novoa
Two Sides To Every Trauma: The Role Of Posttraumatic Growth And Decline In Well-Being, Danay C. Novoa
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Research clearly demonstrates how traumatic events can damage psychological and physical health (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). However, Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004) argue that posttraumatic growth can also occur following adversity. Although largely well-received, their theory and the posttraumatic growth inventory (PTGI) have been critiqued as well. For instance, Wortman (2004) argues that Tedeschi and Calhoun give insufficient consideration to the negative consequences of traumatic events. Concurring with Wortman, we contend that the PTGI, constructed to measure only growth, does not allow participants the opportunity to report decline in any domain. This scale design may artificially inflate the apparent occurrence of posttraumatic growth …