Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Energy Crisis: The Case Of The Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), With Special Reference To Nigeria, Ghana And Burkina Faso, Francis Bliss Lagbo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The energy crisis of West African countries has assumed major importance over the past few decades. The oil price increases of the 1970s have posed innumerable problems to these countries. But that is hardly the entire story. The vegetation cover of most places have been stripped so bare that people must walk for hours to find the day's supply of firewood, the traditional energy source. Doing something about the problem involves, first of all, understanding what the situation really is. This study provides an analysis of the spatial, sectoral and social inequalities in energy production and consumption in BCOWAS. Scrutiny …

Is Conservatism An Artifact Caused By Dissimilarities Between The Laboratory And The Real World?, Stuart B. Kamenetsky

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Human revision of opinion has often been described as a list of heuristics and cognitive biases. The following study examined the possibility that one of these biases, conservatism, is a result of dissimilarities between the laboratory and the real world. In two experiments, participants ranked problems on a psychological scale of realism, solved several realistic and artificial problems and completed a questionnaire to assess their probability knowledge base. Results showed that participants classified problems into different groups according to their level of realism. Whereas their responses to the artificial problems were conservative, their responses to the realistic problems were very …

An Investigation Of Complexity Of Reasoning And Transactive Dialogue Behaviour In Parents' And Adolescents' Socio-Political Discussions, Silvana Santolupo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

There has been no observational investigation of parental socialization of adolescent political thinking reported in the developmental literature to date. Following Berkowitz and Gibbs‘ (1983) work on moral development and dialogue, the techniques of integrative complexity of reasoning and transactive dialogue analysis were applied to mother-adolescent political discussions. Adolescent’s age and gender, family parenting styles, and family communication patterns were expected to affect the quality or nature of these discussions. In turn, variations in the discussions were anticipated to influence adolescents’ subsequent integrative complexity of reasoning (IC) scores on a post-test. An equal number of male and female younger adolescents …

The Impact Of Hierarchical Relationship Quality On The Content And Timing Of Evaluative Feedback: An Affectively-Driven Process Model, Peter Lawrence Egan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A review of the literature revealed that interpersonal affect has been relatively neglected as a potential moderator of the performance feedback process. In an attempt to ameliorate this oversight, a model was proposed which views supervisors’ feedback behavior as being the product of a set of social cognitive operations, all of which may be regarded as having their basis in affective responses. A laboratory study was undertaken to assess the validity of the proposed linkages in the model. While all of the connections did not receive empirical support, affect. was found to influence certain aspects of supervisors’ feedback and evaluative …

Mothers And Others Making Change: Empowerment Through Self-Help And Social Action (Ontario), Susan M. Morrison

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative research study is an evaluation of the organization, Mothers and Others Making Change (MOMC), a self-help/social action, anti-poverty organization in Kitchener-Waterloo. The research was developed a, both an action and a theoretical investigation designed to answer the questions: Is MOMC an empowering organization? and Is MOMC an empowered organization? Members of MOMC, local and provincial human service representatives and local and provincial politicians were interviewed to obtain their opinions about these questions. The results indicate that both the self-help arid the social action components of the organization are important factors in empowering the members to take control of …

Living On The Edge: Families' Experience Of Developmental Disability And Mental Illness Across The Life Cycle, Don R. Roth

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative research document provides an in-depth description of families’ experience of both developmental disability and mental illness (i.e., "dual diagnosis") across the life cycle. This thesis is devoted to listening to family members as they tell their story beginning with the early years of family life, then through childhood and adolescence, and into young adulthood with their family member. This research describes the process of how families developed a framework to interpret and make sense of the world around them. Then, the research integrates these families’ experience over the life cycle with models of family stress and coping in …

Multiple Hazard Research In Kananaskis Country, Alberta: A Geographical Information System Approach, Alastair J. Small

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research is concerned with the application of Geographical Information System techniques to multiple hazard research in Kananaskis Country Recreation Area, southern Alberta. The study is focused on Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, a high mountain environment in the front range Rockies. Increasing human activity in the area is putting more and more people at risk from natural hazards, thus the need for more efficient land use planning is evident. This research attempts to map and predict avalanche, forest fire, rockslide/rockfall, and flood hazard occurrence, and estimate the degree of risk associated with each. Data relating to the physical characteristics and …

The Benefits Trickled Up: The Political Geography Of Water Provision In Paris, Ontario, 1882-1924, John Solomon Hagopian

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The social and political factors which affected nineteenth-century waterworks development have been relatively well researched in the United States. The few Canadian studies have found inequities in the systems of water provision. Using Paris, Ontario as a case study, an attempt is made to fill this research gap in Canada. The research centres on the identification of the social classes which paid for the Paris waterworks and which received the benefits. The spatial distribution of these social classes is determined and then compared to the spatial pattern of waterworks development. A similar comparison is done between the functional zonation of …

Rapid Population Growth And Its Impact On Residential Land Use In Ghana: The Case Of Madina-Adenta In The Accra Metropolitan Area, Louis Awanyo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Rapid population growth rates coupled with low levels of economic development in developing countries have created among others immense obstacles to the provision of adequate housing to the majority of residents. Population growth rates are growing faster than the provision of new housing and housing infrastructure. This has resulted in intensive usage of the existing stock of housing and deterioration of housing environments. Some of the manifestations of housing and residential land use intensification are increasing room occupancy levels, in—situ housing adjustments involving physical changes in housing space and housing space conversions. Intensification of residential land use also has environmental …

Processing Effects On A Context-Sensitive Fragment Completion Test, Brenda Darlene Nash

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present research examined the effects of conceptual processing on the implicit test of fragment completion. At study, subjects either generated a sentence to a word pair, solved a fragment (this fragment was paired with another word), or counted the number of vowels in a word pair. Subjects were tested on either a standard fragment completion test or a test in which the fragment was embedded in a meaningful sentence. This sentence also contained the other member of the studied pair. The fragment could be completed with the studied word or with another reasonable alternative. The results revealed functional independence …

Base Rates, Individuating Information, Expertise, And Transfer Of Knowledge In Judgment Under Uncertainty, Owen Helmkay

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Numerous studies suggest that in judging an individual’s category membership, people largely ignore the population frequency membership in the category (base rate information) in favour of the individuating information about that particular individual (more commonly referred to as the “Base Rate Fallcy”: Bar-Hillel, 1980). One particularly interesting strategy that has been shown to increase the use of base rate information is what Ginossar and Trope (1987) refer to as the Prior Activation Assumption. The purpose of this thesis was to extend the boundaries of Ginossar and Trope’s (1987) findings by enhancing participants’ use of base rate information through the manipulation …

The Campus Map: The Case Of Wilfrid Laurier University, Tanya Dykshoorn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

University campus maps are not generally designed for navigational purposes. However, they are often employed by universities for image-building purposes. A collection of campus maps of universities across Canada have been examined with regards to navigation and image-building. The final focus of this thesis is on the Wilfrid Laurier University campus map.

In order to understand the importance of the navigational process on the campus, it is necessary to examine the professions that depend upon maps to navigate through the environment. Children, orienteers and marine navigators provide us with the basic foundations and some of the finer details of employing …

Kitchener-Waterloo Immigrant Settlement And Adaptation Program (Isap): A Process And Outcome Evaluation (Ontario), Charity Sylvia Akotia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research is an evaluation of the processes and outcomes of an Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP) in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. ISAP was established to facilitate quick and easy adaptation of newcomers in the region. The study utilized the stakeholder approach to evaluation, where I worked in collaboration with the program staff and a client in defining the stages of the research process. The study also explored other areas which were considered central to settlement and adaptation. These include client-counsellor relationship, family experiences, clients’ self-esteem, and moral support provided by counsellors. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, I conducted personal …

Authoritarianism And Integrative Complexity, Susan Michele Alisat

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The relationship between Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and cognitive style was examined. Consistent with social learning theory, it was hypothesized that the development of authoritarian attitudes may be accompanied by the development of certain ways of thinking about the objects of these attitudes. High and low RWAs provided solutions for social conflicts which involved authoritarian and nonauthoritarian issues. After having provided their initial solutions, students were encouraged to increase the complexity of their reasoning by means of "prodding" questions. Results suggested that, instead of thinking less complexly for only authoritarian issues, high RWAs displayed lower integrative complexity scores than low RWAs …

Working For Work: A Program Evaluation, Rich P. Janzen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Working for Work: Intercultural Job Support Groups is a new program in the Waterloo Region of Southern Ontario providing immigrants and refugees to Canada assistance in finding employment. Having started in October of 1991, Working for Work operates within a support group setting and encourages participation from group members. The program also advocates on behalf of immigrants and refugees. This is most notably demonstrated through the organization of work placements which offer group members direct contact with Canadian employers. There are two general goals of the program: (1) to increase the employability of group members, and (2) to increase group …

The Impact Of The Bruce Nuclear Power Development Planned Workforce Increase On Kincardine, Ontario, Robert Mark Flesch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigates the underlying dimensions of public attitudes toward the impact of the Bruce Nuclear Power Development planned workforce increase on Kincardine, Ontario. Kincardine, a small rural community of approximately 5900 inhabitants (Statistics Canada, 1986), is located in the southwestern portion of Bruce County. Much of the current landscape, demographic composition, and industrial structure can directly be attributed to the locality’s function as a residential nucleation for the Bruce Nuclear Power Development workforce and their families (Hecht and Sharpe, 1990; Chalk, 1990). Two propositions form the basis for this study of community response. The first states that the underlying …