Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Use Of Capacity As An Indicator Of Automatic Processing: Is Smoking Automatic?, Agnes A. Massak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It has been suggested that substance use transitions from a controlled to an automatic process (Tiffany, 1990). In particular, smoking has been found to appear automatic (Baxter & Hinson, 2001). Experienced smokers were able to attend to a reaction time task with minimal interference while smoking. Novice smokers’ performances were impaired when smoking. These results were based on differences in mean reaction times using analysis of variance. Another analytic approach to test the hypothesis that smoking is an automatic process is through the use of capacity coefficients and ratios. These mathematical tools allow for the direct testing of mental processing. …

Contributions Of Signal-Detection Mechanisms And Semantic Memory Representations To Famous Name Recognition, Ben P. Bowles

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In past research, investigators have often used the recognition memory paradigm to study the cognitive and neural processes that permit the ability to accurately assess whether or not stimuli are familiar. This paradigm involves presenting stimuli to participants in a study phase, and examining their later recognition of them when these stimuli are subsequently presented again in a later test phase. It is not well understood, however, whether the same mechanisms that support familiarity assessment in recognition memory also support familiarity based on general life experience (e.g., recognizing a famous celebrity in daily life). To address this, I implemented modified …

A Model, Leah K. Hamilton

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to be released at conclusion of embargo.

An Investigation Of Masked Priming Mechanisms In Binary Classification Tasks, Jason Perry

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The goal of the present research was to examine the nature of masked priming with an emphasis on the influence of stimulus-response (S-R) associations. In Chapter 2, both the magnitude of the category congruence (priming) effect and the nature of the priming distance effect were assessed in two number classification tasks. Participants made either magnitude (i.e., is the target larger or smaller than ‘5’?) or identification judgments (i.e., press one button if the target is a ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ or ‘4’ or the other button if the target is a ‘6’, ‘7’, ‘8’ or ‘9’). Priming distance effects in …

The Prejudice Paradox (Or Discrimination Is Not Dead): Systematic Discrimination In Forced Choice Employment Decisions, Paula M. Brochu

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This research examined discriminatory responding in a forced choice employment decision paradigm, using a justification-suppression perspective to interpret the findings. In this paradigm, participants play the role of employers and make employment choices between two excellent and similarly qualified individuals that differ only on one dimension. In the first three studies, participants chose between two individuals who were described as differing only in ethnicity (European vs. Middle Eastern), gender (Male vs. Female), religion (Christian vs. Muslim), age (Young vs. Old), height (Tall vs. Short), weight (Average Weight vs. Overweight), nationality (Canadian vs. Immigrant), or sexual orientation (Heterosexual vs. Homosexual). Patterns …

Judging Covers By Their Books: Malleable Attractiveness Appraisals In Response To Belongingness Feedback, Christopher J. Wilbur

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The present research examined biases in appraisals of target attractiveness in response to belongingness feedback. Specifically, I hypothesized that individuals would provide favorable attractiveness appraisals of targets who accept them, and would provide unfavorable attractiveness appraisals of targets who reject them. I hypothesized further that biased appraisals would be most pronounced when people received feedback from opposite-sex targets. Two literatures guided the development of the present research. The first literature underscores the power of reciprocal liking – people like those who like them. In mirror fashion, people are highly critical of targets who deny opportunities for social affiliation. The second …

Mechanisms Behind The Success Of Exercise As An Adjunct Quit Smoking Aid, Therese M. Harper

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It is well documented that temporarily abstinent smokers who undergo an acute bout of moderate intensity exercise experience a reduction in nicotine craving and withdrawal. Conversely, available research in chronic exercise and smoking cessation does not reliably demonstrate that combining exercise with well established treatments increases smoking abstinence rates. The overall aim of this dissertation was to investigate mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of exercise in a group of female smokers taking part in a 14 week exercise plus nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) patch programme. Determining how smokers may benefit from exercise has important implications for designing effective interventions. Three …

The Importance Of Self-Efficacy And Basic Psychological Needs In Children’S Physical Activity: Measurement, Prediction And Intervention, Casey E. Gray

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The importance of physical activity in the overall health promotion and primary prevention of cardiovascular disease risk factors and metabolic diseases in children is well established. Nonetheless, interventions to increase physical activity among this population have been largely unsuccessful. The main objective of the research in this dissertation was to explore the suitability of self-efficacy and basic psychological needs for physical activity prediction and intervention in children. Item generation and psychometric evaluation of psychological questionnaires occurred in study 1 (Chapter 2). Using a prospective design, study 2 (Chapter 3) established task efficacy, barriers efficacy, competence, and autonomy as significant predictors …

Temporalidades Múltiples En La Encrucijada: Representaciones Artísticas De Lo Afro En Latinoamérica Y El Mundo Hispánico Durante La Actual Etapa De Globalización, Eduard Arriaga

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Nowadays talking about national, racial or gender identities and its representations is quite difficult due to current global-local dynamics of cultural formation. In that sense, approaching to these issues requires the use of comprehensive theories and complex tools in order to forge a better understanding. My dissertation explores the artistic representation of ‘afro’ in the Hispanic world (or the culture built upon the legacies of Africans and African-descendants in the New World and especially in the Caribbean) during the current stage of globalization. In my dissertation, I argue that afro-artistic contemporary representations are overcoming traditional ones -bound to race as …

Welfare Regimes: The Welfare Of The Old In Comparative Perspective, Mehmet Fatih Aysan

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Populations have faced significant challenges due to globalization, demographic ageing, and new social risks. These challenges have brought noteworthy pressures for pension systems, particularly as the large baby boom cohorts begin to exit the labour market. This thesis considers the recent developments in pension systems in OECD countries in light path dependency associated with four-fold welfare regime typology—namely the Social Democratic, the Liberal, Continental, and Southern European. Thesis research shows that pension regimes mainly follow a welfare regime typology based on differential responsibility for welfare distribution on the part of the market, the state, the family, and local actors.

This …

Carving Cognition At Its Joints: Insights From The Interaction Between Explicit And Implicit Social Cognition, Kurt R. Peters

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The distinction of cognition into kinds of cognitive process has proven theoretically fruitful and empirically compelling, but there remain significant challenges in deciding how best to carve cognition. First, it is unclear how to design measurement procedures that select distinct kinds of cognitive processing as exclusively as possible and, conversely, how to interpret the results of different kinds of measurement procedure. Second, the distinction between kinds of cognition must be specified with enough precision to derive empirically testable and falsifiable predictions. Third, there must be a reasonable explanation, ultimately compatible with phylogenetic evidence, for the existence of the specified distinction …

The Utility And Feasibility Of Metric Calibration For Basic Psychological Research, Etienne Lebel

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Inspired by the history of the development of instruments in the physical sciences, and by past psychology giants, the following dissertation aimed to advance basic psychological science by investigating the metric calibration of psychological instruments. The over-arching goal of the dissertation was to demonstrate that it is both useful and feasible to calibrate the metric of psychological instruments so as to render their metrics non-arbitrary. Concerning utility, a conceptual analysis was executed delineating four categories of proposed benefits of non-arbitrary metrics including (a) help in the interpretation of data, (b) facilitation of construct validity research, (c) contribution to theory development, …

A Social Relations Analysis Of Transactive Memory In Groups, Sarah J. Ross

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Transactive memory is the knowledge of what others in a group know and the exchange of that knowledge. In groups with effective transactive memory systems, members know “who knows what”, send knowledge to the appropriate individuals, and develop strategies for retrieving that information (Mohammed & Dumville, 2001; Wegner, 1995). Transactive memory studies tend to focus on the group as a whole, but useful information might be gathered by investigating transactive memory in dyads within groups. The purpose of this research was to use the social relations model (Kenny & LaVoie, 1984) as the basis for operationalizing transactive memory and …

An Observational Assessment Of Peer Group Contributions To Adolescent Identity Development, Tara M. Dumas

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The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that interaction-based peer groups play an important role in adolescents’ identity development. Peer group members’ current identity development and peer group interaction processes were examined as predictors of teens’ later identity exploration and commitment. Participants (n = 1070; 522 girls; M_age = 15.45 years) reported on their identity development and a subset of participants took part in an interactive group decision task within peer triads (n = 258; 86 triads). Task-related interactions were coded for support (openness to opinions) or discouragement (teasing of opinions and controlling behaviours) of …

Dissociable And Dynamic Components Of Cognitive Control: A Developmental Electrophysiological Investigation, Matthew Waxer

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One standard task used to investigate the development of cognitive control is the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Performance and patterns of brain activity associated with the DCCS show continued age-related advances into early adolescence. According to many theoretical accounts, the DCCS places demands on a single underlying executive control process. Three experiments examined the possibility that the DCCS places demands on multiple control processes that follow distinct developmental trajectories. In Experiment 1, rule switching and conflict processing made orthogonal contributions to DCCS performance. Rule switching was associated with a cue-locked late frontal negativity (LFN) event-related potential (ERP) and conflict …

Exemplary Practice: Inscribing Conduct Along Upper Canada's Early Frontier, Tim Bisha

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This dissertation studies exemplary conduct along Upper Canada's early frontier. Presuming that exemplars reproduce core ideas of conduct for those who construct them, it is no surprise that exemplars by which authorities sought to make Upper Canada in Britain‟s image appeared in multiple arenas including legal discourse, newspaper publication, writings on conduct, informal notions of gender and domesticity, and travel writing. At the overlap of these different spaces, through special attention to an early burglary trial, the private dwelling house emerges in this dissertation as the moral core of Upper Canada. This claim interprets British legal definitions of human rights …

Critically Exploring The Challenges Of Successful Integration For French-Speaking Newcomers From Visible Minority Groups Within London, Ontario’S Francophone Minority Community, Suzanne N. Huot

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This critical ethnography examines the experiences of French-speaking immigrants from visible minority groups within the London, Ontario Francophone minority community (FMC). It challenges assumptions embedded within understandings of ‘successful’ integration, and highlights barriers faced by immigrants in enacting occupation and negotiating identity. The study draws on occupational science and migration studies, and the theoretical framework incorporates key concepts from Goffman and Bourdieu’s theories of performance and practice and anti-racist and postcolonial feminist literature. Eight immigrants participated in up to five sessions consisting of narrative and in-depth interviews, creating a mental map, and engaging in routine occupations. Six respondents from local …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Embodied Nature Of Occupation At End-Of-Life, Anna Park Lala

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There is limited understanding of what occupation at end-of-life entails. Terminally ill individuals have articulated the inability to engage in activities that make life enjoyable as a factor influencing their decision to hasten death. Given the growing demographic of aging Canadians in need of end-of-life support, research that considers the potential for occupation to facilitate meaningful end-of-life experiences is pressing. The purpose of this work was to examine the embodied nature of occupation at end-of-life, from the perspectives of Canadians 60 years of age or older and diagnosed with a terminal illness. A phenomenological methodology was used. Data collection included …

Essays On Entrepreneurial Financing, Ye Jia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of three chapters on the impact of different government policies on entrepreneurial financing. In the first chapter, by quantitatively evaluating the impact of different personal bankruptcy regimes on entrepreneurship in a life-cycle model with occupational choices, I conclude that personal bankruptcy law affect entrepreneurship mainly through the insurance effect rather than the borrowing cost effect. In addition, I find that variations in bankruptcy regimes have very different impacts on households with different abilities, and changes in the length of post-bankruptcy punishments have the largest impact on entrepreneurship compared to variations in other dimensions of the bankruptcy regime. …

Exploring Process Dissociation As A Tool For Investigating Discrimination In Hiring Situations, Rhys J. Lewis

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Process dissociation is introduced as a way to overcome methodological limitations currently hindering sexism research. Researchers have identified two main types of sexism in hiring contexts. Meta-analyses confirm that men are traditionally advantaged over women (Tosi & Einbender, 1985), and that both genders encounter discrimination when applying to a job typically associated with the other gender (Davison & Burke, 2000). One problem is that these two biases are often confounded. As a result, researchers have hitherto been limited to showing that the two biases exist, but are largely unable to quantify them.

A possible solution might be process dissociation. It …

Does Anyone Really Like Horror Movies? Personality And Automatic Affective Reactions To Frightening Films, Michael E. Battista

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I sought to explain why many people willingly expose themselves to apparently unpleasant media, such as horror movies. Participants (N = 133) completed a modified version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP; Payne et al., 2005), which assessed initial affective reactions to screenshots from movies that were either frightening or neutral. The time between exposure to the screenshots and assessment of affect was either short (100 ms) or long (1000 ms). Explicit attitudes about the movies and about the horror genre were also assessed, in addition to the following personality variables: The Big Five, Machiavellianism (from the Supernumerary Personality …

Sexual Differentiation In The Auditory System: An Investigation Into Prenatal And Adult Sex Steroid Influences On Otoacoustic Emissions, Adrian W.K. Snihur

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Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are a naturally occurring by-product of the outer hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear. A sexual dimorphism in OAE production favouring females has been reported in both human and non-human species. The broad objective of the present set of studies is to explore how the sexual dimorphism originates and the degree to which it reflects the organizational and activational influences of sex steroid hormones.

Most previous studies of sex differences in OAEs have been based on neonatal, infant, or broad adult samples, Study 1 of the present work was done to verify the reported …

Constructing Categories, Imagining A Nation: A Critical Qualitative Analysis Of Canadian Immigration Discourse, Andrea R. Flynn

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Immigration and population diversity are hot topics in Canadian society. Canadian immigration discourses include widespread debates over the value of immigration to Canada, the structure of the immigration program, and the impact of immigrants with ‘non-Canadian’ traditions and practices on Canadian society. Representations deployed in these discourses operate to socially construct the Canadian nation, and symbolically define immigrants’ place in Canada’s national imagined community. The present thesis elaborates on theoretical understandings of the social construction of the Canadian national community in the contemporary era of international migration by providing a qualitative critical discourse analysis of three types of Canadian immigration …

Parenting At Midnight: Measuring Parents' Thoughts And Strategies To Help Young Children Sleep Through The Night, Aimee J. Coulombe

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Throughout the night, brief periods of arousal are common and not necessarily indicative of problematic sleep. Awakening without an easy return to sleep (“night-waking”), however, can be problematic for parents and children alike. Approximately 30% of preschool-aged children wake at least once per night and require parental intervention (“help or assistance”). Although parents’ responses to children’s night-waking (i.e., parents’ night-waking strategies) can determine the course of night-waking over time, very little is known about night-waking strategy use among parents of preschool-aged children. The purpose of the present dissertation was to lay the foundation upon which a better understanding of the …

Cross-Sectional Morphology And Mechanical Loading In Plio-Pleistocene Hominins: Implications For Locomotion And Taxonomy, Michele M. Bleuze Ms.

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This study explores locomotion and locomotor variability in Plio-Pleistocene hominins by examining cross-sectional properties and mechanical loading patterns in the proximal and midshaft femur of Paranthropus, fossil Homo sp. and H. erectus. Modern human and Pan models are used for comparative purposes. Cross-sectional properties in the proximal and midshaft femur of fossil hominins are examined to test the hypothesis that members of the same genus should exhibit similar locomotor behavior. In the proximal femur, fossil Homo sp. cluster with modern humans to the exclusion of Paranthropus, and East and South African Paranthropus cluster together. Group differences are primarily due to …

The Evolution Of The Retail Landscape, Mathew Novak

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If the city is a theatre of social interaction (Mumford 1996), then one of the principle stage sets is the retail landscape. Retail districts are generally where people congregate, making places of shopping among the liveliest areas the city. In addition to being social settings, retail areas are also where a large component of the city’s economy is transacted, and they are implicated in the political dramas of the city, particularly those dealing with issues of growth and development. Retail shops are highly visible elements of the urban landscape, lining principle arteries and clustering at major transit nodes. Retailing is …

Social Determinants Of Mental Health And Well-Being Among Aboriginal Peoples In Canada, Susan Wingert

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The articles in this volume address the question: How do social determinants structure the health and well-being of the Aboriginal population in Canada? The first article uses bivariate statistical tests to assess whether First Nations residents’ subjective assessments of personal and community well-being correspond to scores from the Community Well-Being (CWB) Index, which is a measure of socioeconomic conditions in the community. The second article uses path analysis to test the extent to which the stress process model explains the social distribution of psychological distress and well-being in the off-reserve Aboriginal population. Specifically, it investigates whether stress, mastery, and social …

Mental Blocks: The Behavioural Effects And Neural Encoding Of Obstacles When Reaching And Grasping, Craig S. Chapman

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The ability to adeptly interact with a cluttered and dynamic world requires that the brain simultaneously encode multiple objects. Theoretical frameworks of selective visuomotor attention provide evidence for parallel encoding (Baldauf & Deubel, 2010; Cisek & Kalaska, 2010; Duncan, 2006) where concurrent object processing results in neural competition. Since the end goal of object representation is usually action, these frameworks argue that the competitive activity is best characterized as the development of visuomotor biases. While some behavioural and neural evidence has been accumulated in favour of this explanation, one of the most striking, yet deceptively common, demonstrations of this capacity …

Causality And Similarity In Autobiographical Event Structure: An Investigation Using Event Cueing And Latent Semantic Analysis, Christopher M. O'Connor

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The influence of similarity- and causally-based relations on the organization of autobiographical events was investigated using extended strings of related event memories. These strings were elicited using an event cueing paradigm in which participants generated descriptions of memories from their life, which were then presented as cues to subsequent event memories. In Experiment 1, similarity between generated events was investigated using participants’ similarity ratings, Latent Semantic Analysis, and experimenter judgements of shared event properties. For events close together in a string, event owners’ similarity ratings were higher than non-owners’, and non-owners’ ratings were comparable to similarity calculated using LSA. In …

The Information Practices Of People Living With Depression: Constructing Credibility And Authority, Tami Oliphant

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Depressive episodes and chronic depression often provide the impetus for both online and offline everyday life information-seeking and sharing and the seeking of support. While allopathic medication, psychiatric, and other biomedical services are the standard treatments for depression, people often use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to supplement or supplant biomedical treatments. Depression is a nebulous disorder with varying causes, illness trajectories, and a wide variety of potentially effective treatments. Often, treating and managing depression forms a project for life (Wikgren, 2001) where the need for information is continuous.

In the present study, I have used a constructionist, discourse analytic …