Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Tweeting About Sexism Motivates Further Activism: A Social Identity Perspective, Mindi Foster, Adrianna Tassone, Kimberly Matheson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Women, more so than men, are using social media activism to respond to sexism. However, when they do, they are also faced with gendered criticisms ('hashtag feminism') that may instead serve to silence them. Based in social identity theory, this research examined how women's social media activism, in response to sexism, may be a first step toward further activism. Two studies used a simulated Twitter paradigm to expose women to sexism and randomly assigned them to either tweet in response, or to a no-tweet control condition. Both studies found support for a serial mediation model such that tweeting after sexism …

Can "Slacktivism" Work? Perceived Power Differences Moderate The Relationship Between Social Media Activism And Collective Action Intentions Through Positive Affect, Mindi D. Foster, Eden J.V. Hennessey, Benjamin T. Blankenship, Abigail Stewart

Psychology Faculty Publications

We argue that the often-used critique of social media activism as merely a ‘feel-good’ mechanism can be countered by conceptualizing social media activism as a necessary type of collective action (i.e., consensus mobilization), incorporating theory on the benefits of positive feelings for activism, and by examining how power may affect these relationships. Women from two different samples (MTurk and university) were randomly assigned to recall a high- versus low-power experience, view real-world events of sexism, and then complete questionnaires assessing endorsement of social media activism, positive affect, and collective action intentions. A dual moderated mediation analyses at the second stage …

"Use It Or Lose It": How Online Activism Moderates The Protective Properties Of Gender Identity For Well-Being, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Regardless of criticisms that online activism does nothing but increase positive feelings, there is merit to understanding the role of online activism for well-being. This research sought to integrate two separate but complimentary lines of research (the well-being effects of activism and social identity) by suggesting that online activism may enhance the ability of social identity to protect against the negative well-being consequences of pervasive discrimination. Three studies, each with different operational definitions of online activism, showed a similar pattern: online activism enhanced the relationship between gender identity and well-being. Consistent with theory on activism’s role as a dynamic predictor …

Exploratory Study Of The Use Of Community Treatment Orders With Clients Of An Ontario Act Team, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Cara Grosset, Carol Stalker, Irene Dullaart, Linda Mccoll Dr.

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) have raised questions about coercion, lack of autonomy, and effectiveness in reducing hospitalizations and improving service users’ quality of life. This study examined the experiences of clients and clinicians when CTOs are used in combination with Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) in a recovery oriented approach. Eleven clients who were or had previously been on a CTO and eight ACT clinicians were interviewed. Although most clients had negative feelings about CTOs, some acknowledged their lives had improved. Clinicians reported that the decision to employ a CTO is sometimes debated within the team but they agreed that combining …

The Walk-In Counselling Model Of Service Delivery: Who Benefits Most?, Manuel Riemer, Carol A. Stalker, Livia D. Dittmer, Cheryl-Anne Cait, Susan Horton, Narges Kermany, Jocelyn Booton

Psychology Faculty Publications

The walk-in counselling (WIC) model of service delivery has been found to reduce psychological distress more quickly than a traditional model of service delivery involving a wait list. A question remains, however, as to the relative benefit of the WIC model for different client groups. The present study uses graphical inspection and multilevel modeling to conduct moderator analyses comparing two agencies, one with a WIC clinic and the other with a traditional wait list approach, and their relative impact on psychological distress. Key findings regarding the differential benefits for different types of presenting problems as well as clients at different …

‘Self As Instrument’ – Safe And Effective Use Of Self In Music Psychotherapy: Canadian Music Therapists’ Perceptions, Heidi Ahonen

Music Faculty Publications

This article introduces the results of a pilot survey conducted with accredited Canadian music therapists investigating their perceptions of personal psychotherapy and the concept of Safe and Effective Use of Self (SEUS) in the music therapy relationship. An emailed survey questionnaire covered both closed and openended questions on SEUS-related topics. The open-ended questions were analysed using the qualitative data analysis software Nvivo. Simple percentages were calculated to analyse the results of the closed-ended questions. The results suggest that music therapists engaging in psychotherapy seem to work with similar client populations, use similar theoretical approaches and techniques, and hold very similar …

Picture This: Using Photo-Research Exhibits As Science Outreach, Eden J.V. Hennessey, Mindi D. Foster, Shohini Ghose

Psychology Faculty Publications

Is a picture worth a thousand words? This paper discusses a unique science outreach initiative–provocative photo-research exhibits on sexism in science.

Gender imbalance in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is not only a concern from a social justice perspective, but also has negative consequences for scientific innovation and the economy, given that lack of workplace gender diversity is associated with lower revenue and returns. Science outreach (i.e., public outreach by scientists) could be particularly impactful in Waterloo, Ontario – a region known as ‘Canada’s Silicon Valley’ that contributes over $30-billion annually to the global economy. Portraying complex social issues …

Prosecutors’ Perceptions On Questioning Children About Repeated Abuse, Kim Roberts, Martine Powell, Kimberlee S. Burrows, Sonja P. Brubacher

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of the present study was to elicit guidance from prosecutors across Australia on questioning children about repeated events. Two focus groups were conducted; the first sought broad feedback concerning questioning children about repeated events. The second focused more specifically on eliciting feedback about techniques for aiding children in describing specific instances of repeated events. These techniques were derived either from empirical research, best practice interview guidelines, or both. Data from both focus groups were compiled because themes were highly similar. Thematic analysis of the focus group discussions revealed three broad themes in prosecutors’ perceptions about questioning children about …

Why Be Moral? Moral Identity Motivation And Age, Tobias Krettenauer, Rosemary Victor

Psychology Faculty Publications

Moral identity research up to date has largely failed to provide evidence for developmental trends in moral identity presumably because of restrictions in the age range of studies and the use of moral identity measures that are insensitive to age-related change. The present study investigated moral identity motivation across a broad age range (14-65 years, N = 252, M = 33.48 years) using a modified version of the Good-Self Assessment Interview (Arnold, 1993). Individuals' moral identity motivation was coded and categorized as external, internal or relationship-oriented. It was found that with age external moral identity motivation decreased, whereas internal moral …

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Alters Auditory-Motor Integration For Voice Control, Weifeng Li, Ziyi Chen, Nan Yan, Jeffery A. Jones, Zhiqiang Guo, Xiyan Huang, Shaozhen Chen, Peng Liu, Hanjun Liu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common drug-refractory focal epilepsy in adults. Previous research has shown that patients with TLE exhibit decreased performance in listening to speech sounds and deficits in the cortical processing of auditory information. Whether TLE compromises auditory-motor integration for voice control, however, remains largely unknown. To address this question, event-related potentials (ERPs) and vocal responses to vocal pitch errors (1/2 or 2 semitones upward) heard in auditory feedback were compared across 28 patients with TLE and 28 healthy controls. Patients with TLE produced significantly larger vocal responses but smaller P2 responses than healthy controls. Moreover, …

Binding An Event To Its Source At Encoding Improves Children's Source Monitoring, Kim Roberts, Angela Evans, Sara Duncanson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children learn information from a variety of sources and often remember the content but forget the source. While the majority of research has focused on retrieval mechanisms for such difficulties, the present investigation examines whether the way in which sources are encoded influences future source monitoring. In Study 1, 86 children aged 3 to 8 years participated in two photography sessions on different days. Children were randomly assigned to either the Difference condition (they were asked to pay attention to differences between the two events), the Memory control condition (asked to pay attention with no reference to differences), or the …

Challenges Facing East Asian Immigrant Children In Sexual Abuse Cases, Kim Roberts, Hongyuan Qi, Huan Zhang

Psychology Faculty Publications

Immigrants from East Asia make up 14.21% of the total number of immigrants in Canada. These families face many challenges as they acculturate to North America but, sadly, some of these children may be at risk for sexual abuse. In this position paper, we outline the ways in which East Asian children are at a particular disadvantage when considering prosecution of those who perpetrate abuse compared to Western non-immigrant children. We focus specifically on two areas of concern: 1) Cultural differences that can impact the disclosure of sexual abuse; and, 2) Language differences which reduce the chances that perpetrators will …

Narratives Of Resistance: (Re) Telling The Story Of The Hiv/Aids Movement – Because The Lives And Legacies Of Black, Indigenous, And People Of Colour Communities Depend On It, Ciann L. Wilson, Sarah Flicker, Jean-Paul Restoule, Ellis Furman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Centering the narratives of the intersectional struggles within the HIV movement for Indigenous sovereignty, Black and People of Colour liberation, and LGBTQ rights tirelessly fought for by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities legitimates their lives and legacies within the movement; and the relevance of a focused response to the HIV epidemic that continues to wreak devastation in these communities. The recent political push for a post-HIV era solely centers the realities of middle-class white, gay men and has genocidal implications for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities.

Training Of Working Memory Impacts Neural Processing Of Vocal Pitch Regulation, Weifeng Li, Xiangqian Guo, Jeffery A. Jones, Xiyan Huang, Xi Chen, Peng Liu, Shaozhen Chen, Hanjun Liu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Working memory training can improve the performance of tasks that were not trained. Whether auditory-motor integration for voice control can benefit from working memory training, however, remains unclear. The present event-related potential (ERP) study examined the impact of working memory training on the auditory-motor processing of vocal pitch. Trained participants underwent adaptive working memory training using a digit span backwards paradigm, while control participants did not receive any training. Before and after training, both trained and control participants were exposed to frequency-altered auditory feedback while producing vocalizations. After training, trained participants exhibited significantly decreased N1 amplitudes and increased P2 amplitudes …

Transfer Effect Of Speech-Sound Learning On Auditory-Motor Processing Of Perceived Vocal Pitch Errors, Zhaocong Chen, Francis C.K. Wong, Jeffery A. Jones, Weifeng Li, Peng Liu, Xi Chen, Hanjun Liu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Speech perception and production are intimately linked. There is evidence that speech motor learning results in changes to auditory processing of speech. Whether speech motor control benefits from perceptual learning in speech, however, remains unclear. This event-related potential study investigated whether speech-sound learning can modulate the processing of feedback errors during vocal pitch regulation. Mandarin speakers were trained to perceive five Thai lexical tones while learning to associate pictures with spoken words over 5 days. Before and after training, participants produced sustained vowel sounds while they heard their vocal pitch feedback unexpectedly perturbed. As compared to the pre-training session, the …

Beyond The Colonial Divide: African Diasporic And Indigenous Youth Alliance Building For Hiv Prevention, Ciann L. Wilson

Psychology Faculty Publications

African diasporic and North American Indigenous communities have both been greatly impacted by the colonization of the Americas. Historic and contemporary relations between these communities have been fraught with complex commonalities, contradictions and conflicts. These communities have remained connected across time and space through their shared and distinct histories of resistance and oppression. Both communities have suffered the embodiment of systemic violence in the form of elevated rates of communicable and chronic diseases such as HIV. This paper examines the decolonizing potential of collaboration between these two communities in their response to HIV. It begins by unpacking the history of …

Tweeting About Sexism: The Well-Being Benefits Of A Social Media Collective Action., Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although collective action has psychological benefits in non-gendered contexts (e.g., Drury et al., 2005), the benefits for women taking action against gender discrimination are unclear. This study examined how a popular, yet unexplored potential form of collective action, namely tweeting about sexism, affects women’s well-being. Women read about sexism and were randomly assigned to tweet, or to one of three control groups. Content analyses showed tweets exhibited collective intent and action. Analyses of linguistic markers suggested public tweeters used more cognitive complexity in their language than private tweeters. Profile analyses showed that compared to controls, only public tweeters showed decreasing …

Developmental Differences In The Ability To Provide Temporal Information About Repeated Events, Kim P. Roberts, Sonja P. Brubacher, Donna M. Drohan-Jennings, Una Glisic, Martine B. Powell, William J. Friedman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children (n = 372) aged 4 - 8 years participated in 1 or 4 occurrences of a similar event and were interviewed 1 week later. Compared to 85% of children who participated once, less than 25% with repeated experience gave the exact number of times they participated, although all knew they participated more than once. Children with repeated experience were asked additional temporal questions and there were clear developmental differences. Older children were more able than younger children to judge relative order and temporal position of the four occurrences. They also demonstrated improved temporal memory for the first and …

Observations From Canadian Practitioners About The Investigation And Prosecution Of Crimes Involving Child And Adult Witnesses, Sean Curtis Cameron, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

Hundreds of scientific studies on the competencies and limitations of eyewitnesses have been published, but few have sought input from front-line forensic interviewers. In the current study, a research agenda was established with in-depth input from 13 forensic interviewers. Interviewers indicated which techniques they use most often, rated the usefulness of various interview techniques, and disclosed common challenges when interviewing. Although many recommended techniques were used (e.g., the Cognitive Interview and Rapport Building), some techniques shown to be effective in eliciting quality testimony in scientific studies were not always used or considered useful by front-line interviewers (e.g., permission to correct …

The Nichd Protocol: A Review Of An Internationally-Used Evidence-Based Tool For Training Child Forensic Interviewers, David La Rooy, Sonja P. Brubacher, Anu Aromäki-Stratos, Mireille Cyr, Irit Hershkowitz, Julia Korkman, Trond Myklebust, Makiko Naka, Carlos E. Peixoto, Kim Roberts, Heather Stewart, Michael E. Lamb

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article reviews an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the NICHD Protocol, and the relevant research on: children’s memory development; communication; suggestibility; the importance of open-prompts, and challenges associated with interview training. We include international contributions from experienced trainers, practitioners, and scientists, who are already using the Protocol or whose national or regional procedures have been directly influenced by the NICHD Protocol research (Canada, Finland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and United States). Throughout the review, these experts comment on: how and when the Protocol was adopted in their country; who uses it; challenges to implementation …

The Role Of Executive Function In Children's Source Monitoring With Varying Retrieval Strategies, Kim P. Roberts, Becky Earhart

Psychology Faculty Publications

Previous research on the relationship between executive function and source monitoring in young children has been inconclusive, with studies finding conflicting results about whether working memory and inhibitory control are related to source-monitoring ability. In this study, the role of working memory and inhibitory control in recognition memory and source monitoring with two different retrieval strategies were examined. Children (N = 263) aged 4–8 participated in science activities with two sources. They were later given a recognition and source-monitoring test, and completed measures of working memory and inhibitory control. During the source-monitoring test, half of the participants were asked …

Tms-Induced Neural Noise In Sensory Cortex Interferes With Short-Term Memory Storage In Prefrontal Cortex, Tyler D. Bancroft, Jeremy Hogeveen, William E. Hockley, Philip Servos

Psychology Faculty Publications

In a previous study, Harris et al. (2002) found disruption of vibrotactile short-term memory after applying single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to primary somatosensory cortex (SI) early in the maintenance period, and suggested that this demonstrated a role for SI in vibrotactile memory storage. While such a role is compatible with recent suggestions that sensory cortex is the storage substrate for working memory, it stands in contrast to a relatively large body of evidence from human EEG and single-cell recording in primates that instead points to prefrontal cortex as the storage substrate for vibrotactile memory. In the present study, we …

-Heroines’ Journey- Emerging Story By Refugee Women During Group Analytic Music Therapy, Heidi Ahonen, Antoinetta Mongillo Desideri

Music Faculty Publications

There has been some evidence of the benefits of participating in group analytic music therapy with traumatized people. This pilot clinical project investigates the impact of a combination of narrative therapy and group analytic music therapy on refugee/newcomer women in Canada. An ongoing therapy group met for a period of 8 sessions, to share stories and feelings of past experiences and of resettlement. The focus of this group was emotional expression (verbal and musical). Musical listening, improvisation, art, writing, clay-work, and relaxation techniques were used. Several consistent themes re-emerged, including feelings around loneliness, fear guilt, and loss.

The analysis of …

Children’S Use Of A ‘Time Line’ To Indicate When Events Occurred, Leanne L. Gosse, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children who allege abuse are often asked to provide temporal information such as when the events occurred. Yet, young children often have difficulty recalling temporal information due to their limited knowledge of temporal patterns and linguistic capabilities. As time is an abstract concept (we cannot see it), some investigators have begun to use ‘time-lines’ or pictorial representations of time to aid children. Yet, there is no published research testing whether children are able to use time-lines and whether they can provide adequate temporal information using them. We tested whether children could indicate the time-of-day of events using a pictorial time-line …

Recommendations For Interviewing Children About Repeated Experiences, Martine B. Powell, Sonja P. Brubacher, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

For just over two decades, researchers have been conducting empirical studies devoted to understanding children’s memory for, and ability to describe, individual occurrences of events they have experienced repeatedly. This knowledge is critical because children making allegations of repeated abuse are required to provide details particular to an individual incident in many jurisdictions internationally. Based on this theoretical foundation, we provide specific suggestions to practitioners to assist children in reporting as much information as possible about individual occurrences and techniques that may assist them in doing so accurately. These recommendations cover both presubstantive (i.e., “practice”) and substantive phases of the …

Condoms And Contradictions: Assessing Sexual Health Knowledge In Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, And Queer Youth Labelled With Intellectual Disabilities, Ciann L. Wilson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Accessible, culturally relevant data collection tools to assess the sexual health knowledge of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) young people labelled with intellectual disabilities are sparse.

Materials and Methods: Using community-based participatory research (CBPR) we piloted a variety of interactive activities designed to assess the sexual health knowledge and decision making skills of LGBTQ young people with intellectual disabilities.

Results: Posters created by youth participants suggested substantial sexual health knowledge and empowerment, while individual knowledge assessment scores indicated a range in understanding of risks and strategies to avoid pregnancy, HIV and herpes.

Conclusions: These findings reinforce …

The Relationship Between Collective Action And Well-Being And Its Moderators: Pervasiveness Of Discrimination And Dimensions Of Action, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Given the negative impact of perceiving gender discrimination on health (e.g., Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009), there is a need to develop interventions to attenuate this effect; collective action may be one such intervention. Study 1 (N = 185) used an experimental paradigm to investigate whether undergraduate women in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada perceived pervasiveness of discrimination would interact with their collective action-taking to predict negative mood and well-being. Results showed that among those perceiving pervasive gender discrimination, informing friends/family and informing the media led to greater well-being than doing nothing, whereas among those perceiving gender discrimination as isolated, doing nothing …

Subjective And Non-Subjective Information In Children’S Allegations Of Abuse, Jennifer E. Newman, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

In this study, we were interested in how interviewers elicit subjective information in investigations of child abuse (e.g., descriptions of thoughts, emotions, opinions). Sixty-one interviews of children aged 4-12 years old were analyzed to determine the amount of subjective information versus non-subjective event details reported, and the type of question that elicited the information. Interviewers elicited more non-subjective than subjective information, although there was more focus on subjective information in the rapport-building phase than in the substantive phase when the allegations were elicited. Interviewer prompts and child responsiveness was congruent such that non-subjective questions elicited more non-subjective information, and subjective …

Auditory-Motor Adaptation To Frequency-Altered Auditory Feedback Occurs When Participants Ignore Feedback, Dwayne Nicholas Keough, Colin Hawco, Jeffery A. Jones

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

Auditory feedback is important for accurate control of voice fundamental frequency (F0). The purpose of this study was to address whether task instructions could influence the compensatory responding and sensorimotor adaptation that has been previously found when participants are presented with a series of frequency-altered feedback (FAF) trials. Trained singers and musically untrained participants (nonsingers) were informed that their auditory feedback would be manipulated in pitch while they sang the target vowel [/ɑ /]. Participants were instructed to either ‘compensate’ for, or ‘ignore’ the changes in auditory feedback. Whole utterance auditory feedback manipulations were either gradually presented …

Dynamics Of Vocalization-Induced Modulation Of Auditory Cortical Activity At Mid-Utterance, Zhaocong Chen, Jeffery A. Jones, Peng Liu, Weifeng Li, Dongfeng Huang, Hanjun Liu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Recent research has addressed the suppression of cortical sensory responses to altered auditory feedback that occurs at utterance onset regarding speech. However, there is reason to assume that the mechanisms underlying sensorimotor processing at mid-utterance are different than those involved in sensorimotor control at utterance onset. The present study attempted to examine the dynamics of event-related potentials (ERPs) to different acoustic versions of auditory feedback at mid-utterance.

Methodology/Principal findings: Subjects produced a vowel sound while hearing their pitch-shifted voice (100 cents), a sum of their vocalization and pure tones, or a sum of their vocalization and white noise at …