Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Rohingya Muslims’ Crisis In The Rakhine State Of Myanmar: ‘Recognition As Toleration’ And ‘Religious Toleration’, Md. Ishrat Ibne Ismail, Md. Ishrat Ibne Ismail

Western Research Forum

Title:

The Rohingya Muslims’ Crisis in the Rakhine State of Myanmar: ‘Recognition as Toleration’ and ‘Religious Toleration’

Abstract:

The inhuman annihilation of the Rohingya people from the Rakhine state by the Myanmar military and the Buddhist majority, which is supported by the Myanmar government as they watched the massacre silently, could be considered as genocide. Ashley Kinseth claims: “in terms of rate of escalation, this is the greatest mass exodus - and has the makings to become the most significant humanitarian catastrophe - since the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when over 800,000 Hutus and moderate Tutsis were slaughtered.” The main reason …

Public Policy Advocacy In The Canadian Context: A Review Of The Current Literature, Amy Lewis, Abram Oudshoorn, Helene Berman

Western Research Forum

Public Policy Advocacy in the Canadian Context: A Review of the Current Literature

Background: Public policy advocacy is an important competency for students from healthcare and social service programs to develop; however, integration of policy advocacy within university curricula remains inconsistent. Identifying the knowledge and skills that healthcare and social service professionals use in policy advocacy supports the development of educational competencies to achieve entry-to-practice objectives. A review of the literature published on the topic of public policy advocacy in higher education was undertaken to determine the current state of this evidence.

Methods: For this scoping review, CINAHL, Scopus, and …

An Empirical Examination Of Contemporary American Spiritualism And Mediumship At Lily Dale, New York, Diana Ali

Western Research Forum

American Spiritualism is an American religion that was born in 1848 in Hydesville, New York. Its central principles state that there is life after death and that mediums have the capability to communicate with discarnate beings. Mediums are persons who claim they can communicate with the dead. Today, Lily Dale, New York is the largest surviving community of American Spiritualism, with a population of mediums that host an annual festival that draws large crowds from around the world upwards of 20,000-30,000 visitors. The author of the present interdisciplinary study outlined a historical overview of American Spiritualism and conducted empirical research …

Does Self-Regulation Mediate The Relationship Between Locus Of Control And Resiliency Related Outcomes?, Alexander J. Mcgregor 6971928

Western Research Forum

Locus of control (LOC) has been implicated in predicting mental wellbeing outcomes in a variety of theories and empirical studies, however the mediating mechanisms between the trait and mental wellbeing are not well known. The King and Rothstein (2010) model of resiliency posits self-regulation as the active mechanism that leads to recovery in resiliency related outcomes following significant adversity. This study investigated the mediating role of affective, behavioral, and cognitive self-regulation between locus of control, depression, and anxiety using mediation analysis. The results showed LOC significantly predicted all three self-regulation components, as well both depression and anxiety. behavioral and cognitive …

The Fear And Biopolitical Control Of The ‘Terrorist Other’, Percy Percy Sherwood

Western Research Forum

“I think Islam hates us,” Donald Trump said as a presidential candidate in a CNN interview in March 2016, conflating the religion with ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ Trump’s statement exemplifies the prevailing fabricated enemy and resulting Islamophobia in the context of the ‘global war on terror.’ Since 9/11, powerful actors are using abstractions, ideologies, and narratives—that are usually defined along racial lines—to conjure up a fear so permeable that it serves to legitimize massive levels of violence in the name of self-righteousness. How do the racist abstractions, ideologies, and narratives that are associated with Islam and Muslims produce fear and insecurity …

The Dissociable Impact Of Auditory Vs. Visual Emotional Cues On Visual Processing, Emma K. Stewart Bsc, Derek Gv Mitchell Phd

Western Research Forum

Background: Emotional information has privileged access to processing resources, which can cause it to have a distracting or facilitating effect on task performance for reasons that are poorly understood. The sensory modality through which it is presented may be one determining factor. Some findings suggest that auditory stimuli facilitate visual task performance while visual stimuli interfere with it, but there are conflicting findings.

Hypothesis: We hypothesize that emotional content of a different sensory modality from the task improves task-related performance via a general alerting and arousing effect for all stimuli, while emotional content of the same modality disrupts performance when …

Cross-Linguistic Effects Of Intention Recognition In Malay Bilinguals, Maziyah Mohamed, Debra Jared

Western Research Forum

Does the language we speak influence the way we interpret intentions of others? Prior literature has shown that obligatory markers in a language may influence the way we think. In Malay texts, accidental actions are marked using a prefix. Malay speakers are, thus, quick to identify the accidental actions of others. Conversely, it may be that Malay speakers often interpret intentions as deliberate given a more ambiguous context where the prefix is absent. The goal of the current study was to determine whether this way of interpreting one’s intentions of others extends to English texts for Malay-English bilinguals. In Study …

Trauma And Violence Informed Care Workshop For Teachers, Christina Amico, Michelle Philippe

Western Research Forum

Teachers play an integral role in the healthy growth and development of their students. Students that have experienced traumatic events, chronic adversity, and structural violence are vulnerable to a myriad of biological, social, emotional, and behavioural impairments (Blaustein, 2013). Problematic classroom behaviour, therefore, could be a reflection of exposure to trauma and violence. As teachers play an important front-line role in the lives of their students (Brunzell, Waters, & Stokes, 2015), it is important that teachers receive relevant and high-quality professional development, particularly in the area of trauma and violence-informed teaching practices. There is a gap in research on effective …

Mouse Performance On A Novel Touchscreen Continuous Performance Task Is Dependent On Signaling In The Prelimbic Cortex, Tyler D. Dexter, Daniel Palmer, Amy C. Reichelt, Anita Taksokhan, Lisa M. Saksida, Tim J. Bussey

Western Research Forum

Attention is the cognitive processing that facilitates the ability to target and attend to relevant environmental stimuli, while filtering out irrelevant or distracting stimuli. Control over selective attention is theorized to be dependent on organized neural communication that stems from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). To evaluate selective and sustained attention, mice were trained on the novel touchscreen rodent continuous performance task (rCPT), a task designed to emulate the human CPT. In the rodent version, images are continuously presented on a touchscreen, where mice have been trained to selectively respond to one image type while suppressing responses to all others. …

Cycle Of Suffering: Exploring The Final Thoughts Of Creative Minds Who Died By Suicide, Carolina Patryluk, Paul F. Tremblay

Western Research Forum

It is difficult to study the final thoughts of people who die by suicide. To compensate for this gap in knowledge, this study explored the life stories found in the suicide notes of well-known creative individuals. A 6-phase thematic analysis was used to explore the phenomenon of final thoughts. This study presents the narrative trends across entries, which consisted primarily of the artists communicating their suffering and expressing their coping strategies. The artists circled back to the same themes of suffering, mainly the negative view of themselves, the striving to be better, and the paradox of choice. This cycle of …

Spontaneous Mimicry Of Emotional Facial Expressions As A Function Of Trait Sadism, Cathleen Fleury, Mary Ritchie, Derek Mitchell

Western Research Forum

Using electromyography (EMG), it has been shown that facial muscles imperceptibly mirror the facial expressions of others, a phenomenon referred to as spontaneous facial mimicry. Facial mimicry may be involved in empathy processing, and is impaired in several empathy deficit disorders. It was previously believed to follow the direct-matching principle, a theory postulating that spontaneous facial mimicry involves the observer mirroring their partner’s expression exactly. However, several recent studies have demonstrated that context and individual differences may be influencing factors of spontaneous facial mimicry. In the present study, we propose to investigate the relationship between facial mimicry and empathy through …

The Combinative Role Of Traits Cheerfulness And Seriousness In Predicting Resiliency And Well-Being: A Moderated Mediation Model, Chloe Lau, Fransceca Chiesi, Lital Yosopov, Don Saklofske

Western Research Forum

Cheerfulness can be defined as the habitual tendency to possess a cheerful composure both alone and in social interactions (Ruch, Köhler, and van Thriel, 1996; 1997). While the construct of cheerfulness has been of significant interest to researchers, little attention has been given to trait seriousness. Both cheerfulness and seriousness have important clinical implications; for instance, depressed patients have reported lower cheerfulness and higher seriousness compared to healthy controls (Falkenberg, Jarmuzel, Bartels, & Wild, 2011). Thus, the present study seeks to address these traits collectively, providing a more comprehensive understanding of their roles in predicting resiliency and well-being. It was …

Homelessness In London, Ontario: Assessing The Sustainability Of Housing First In Light Of A Shift To Models Of Prevention, Kayla May

Western Research Forum

Background: Housing First (HF) is internationally recognized as an evidence-based model for the development of programs that target homelessness. In London, Ontario, there are a handful of HF programs and research has investigated their efficacy. However, HF is only effective for "managing" homelessness, whereas prevention is also needed. Through a recent update of Canada’s national funding for homelessness, municipalities are seeing an increase in resources to prevent homelessness. With additional funding on offer, research needs to move beyond questions of HF efficacy and instead ask how to fully evolve a system of both responsive and preventative models.

Objectives: (1) Assess …

In Search Of The “Prosocial Personality”: Disentangling Empathy, Compassion, And Altruism, Laura K.D. Johnson B.A., Don H. Saklofske Ph.D.

Western Research Forum

Background: Although considerable research has examined situational factors inprosocial behaviour,prosocial traitsare poorly defined. The same labelsare appliedto different constructs, and different labels are applied to the same construct (e.g., “empathy,” “sympathy,” “compassion”).Furthermore, trait altruism lacks both a solid theoretical definition and adequate measures. The goal of this study is to semantically and statistically distinguish betweenprosocial constructs by developing a personality scale assessingprosocial tendencies.

Method: A review of literature, drawing from various domains, revealed three constructs that may compriseprosocial personality: empathy (recognizing, understanding, and sharing in others’ emotions), compassion (expressing concern for others, seeking toalleviate their suffering), and altruism (selflessly giving/helping). …

Graduate Keynote. The Online Predator: Cyberbullies As The Hunters Of The Online World, Molly-Gloria R. Harper

Western Research Forum

Abstract: Seeking out prey, laying traps, targeting the ‘weak’, and being proud of their ‘latest kill’ are some of the behaviours that are often associated with hunters. However, through this research, it can be argued there is a new type of predatorthat society, mainly youth, ought to consider – the cyberbully. Cyberbullies are a distinct subculture associated with the youth phenomenon of cyberbullying. Through this research, cyberbullying is constructed as a deviant youth internet phenomenon that emerges and affects youth as a result of increased usage and reliance on social media platforms, technology, and the Internet. As a result …

Statistical Learning Across Visual And Auditory Modalities, Christine Moreau, Marc Joanisse, Laura Batterink

Western Research Forum

Our ability to learn language is accomplished by using structural patterns found in everyday language. We use these structural patterns in language through a process of Statistical Learning (SL) to implicitly predict sequences in speech and visual input. Our research explored how SL predicts patterns of auditory and visual learning in adults (N = 40; M = 27.1 years) to provide a more complete picture of SL.

For the auditory task, participants were tested on whether they learned a novel language that they passively listened to for 6 minutes. Implicit and explicit learning were assessed after the exposure phase. …

Enhanced Explicit Vocabulary Learning Compared To Implicit Grammar Learning In Adults, Leah Brainin, Marc Joanisse

Western Research Forum

Compared to young children, the language learning process is much more difficult and less successful in adulthood. Little is known about how non-linguistic cognitive processes contribute to these age-dependent differences. We argue that language learning involves both explicit declarative memory processes to learn vocabulary and implicit procedural memory processes to learn grammatical patterns. In this preliminary study, we aimed to quantify the relative contribution of declarative versus procedural learning in adults via an artificial language learning task. Participants ages 18 to 29 heard novel singular and plural words associated with images of common objects. The grammar of the language consisted …

The Spy Next Door: Intentional Misuse Of Access To Information, Data Security & Society’S Diminishing Ideology Of Privacy, Anjeli Leamen

Western Research Forum

Much has been written regarding the vulnerability of privacy in the current age of big data. However, little has been written about the actions of individuals, and the intentional misuse of access to friends and family members’ private information (i.e snooping). In contrast to government or corporate misuse of information, these kinds of privacy breaches are not for financial gain, surveillance or identity theft. Rather this misuse of information is purely out of curiosity about the personal lives of friends, family and acquaintances. The purpose of this paper is to not only examine the realm of snooping, but also …

Assessing Levels Of Stigma And Accessing Mental Health Services, Kristina Giacobbe, Mike Morrison, Carrie Arnold

Western Research Forum

Assessing Levels of Stigma and Accessing Mental Health Services

Post-secondary students report high levels of anxiety and depression along with a host of other mental health issues (Fink, 2014). The present study focused on predictors of use of counselling services as well as strategies that would make the service easier to use by undergraduate students. Theoretical rationale included Astin’s Input-Environment-Outcome (I-E-O) (Fink, 2014), Theory of Planned Behaviour (Marsh, 2011), and Self-Regulatory Model (Oexle, 2015). The sample included 153 male and female students at a large research intensive university in Ontario. Participants ranged from ages 18-24 who completed the Satisfaction with …

Organizational Behaviour During Instability: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Shared Mental Model Through Various Forms Of Acute Care Learning Using Mixed Methods, Adam Morse, Ryan Chan

Western Research Forum

Background: The purpose of this study is to better understand nurses' performance based on training processes. This will determine if group training will increase performance compared to independent training through a shared mental model in a contextual setting of unpredictability mediated by the effects of nurses’ perceptions of patient safety climate. A mixed methods study is conducted using critical discourse analysis of organizational documentation and semi-structured interviews to determine measures of contextual setting when identifying and treating sex trade workers.

Methods: Pragmatic study will analyze two groups of 125 nurses each determining the impact of group and individual …

Critical Citizen Engagement: The Black Pete Controversy, Anti-Racism Activism, And Limits To Citizenship In The Netherlands, Lianne M.A. Mulder

Western Research Forum

Background

This research analyses the engagement of Dutch citizens with a migration background in anti-racism activism, specifically activism against the blackface caricature Black Pete. It aims to answer how and why their citizenship is questioned when they become critical participants of civil society, and how this relates to the history of Dutch colonialism, the denial of racism, and the self-image of white Dutch people as ‘good, tolerant, and innocent’ despite evidence to the contrary.

Methods

The research is based on literature and field research and uses a theoretical framework based on critical race theory, citizenship studies, and decolonial theory.

Results …

Multisensory Integration And Autistic Traits Using Non-Sociolinguistic Information, Sébastien A. Lauzon, Samantha E. Schulz, Zack I. Cohen, Ryan A. Stevenson

Western Research Forum

Background: Sensory processing issues are one of the most common complaints in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One area of sensory difficulties in ASD that has been the focus of intense research in recent years is multisensory integration (MSI), or the ability to bind auditory and visual information into a single, unified percept. While integration of social or linguistic information is consistently shown to be an area of difficulty in ASD, results are less clear with simple, non-sociolinguistic stimuli. This study aims to address this ambiguity by determining whether MSI of non-sociolinguistic sensory information is related to traits and symptomatology …

Empathy In Inclusive Classrooms: Exploring Prosocial Behaviour Through Children’S Academic Writing Skills, Erica J. Partridge

Western Research Forum

Background. Empathy is a crucial means through which diversity is appreciated. Students who are more empathic may be more willing to help other students, subsequently creating a successful inclusive classroom. Applying inclusivity at a young age and throughout the curriculum is optimal for social and emotional development in children. Often, increased development is found by using interactive methods. Narrative writing can improve affective dimension in their writing skills, but it is still unclear if writing skills translates into prosocial behaviour. Method. This study looked at 19 students in Grade 5 whose teacher implemented a language arts curriculum program. The Shakespeare …

Improving Canadian Indigenous Health: Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease, Sukhmeet S. Sachal

Western Research Forum

Background:

This abstract explores improving health outcomes for Canada’s Indigenous peoples. The increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes in this population makes this a public health problem because diabetes has long-term complications that affect the cardiovascular system and can result in disability and premature death.

Methods:

A literature review using specific search terms was performed to find 36 relevant articles. Search databases for the primary and secondary information were CINAHL and PubMED, respectively.

Results:

The results were classified into five groups: (1) Previous Genetic Protection; (2) Current Day Risk; (3) Diet; (4) Barriers in Developing and Maintaining …

P04. Settlement Information Needs And Services: A Pilot Study With Bangladeshi Immigrant Women In Canada, Nafiz Zaman Shuva

Western Research Forum

Background: This study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the information seeking behaviour of Bangladeshi immigrant women in Canada.

Methods: In February 2015, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-two women residing in the Greater Toronto Area to investigate the everyday life information practices, settlement information needs, and barriers faced accessing and using various information.

Results: Participants needed various pre-arrival and post-arrival information including information about important documents to bring, mental preparedness, employment information, childcare, and health. There was evidence of a high dependency on informal information networks (e.g., family members, friends) to meet diverse information needs. The study …

P25. Psychological Well-Being In Sport: Examining The Construct Validity Of A Modified Version Of The Scales Of Psychological Well-Being, Despina Kouali, Craig Hall, Paige Pope

Western Research Forum

Background: Participation in sport can contribute in individuals' physical health, psychological well-being (PWB), and general quality of life (Coakley, 2007). In the sport literature, the majority of studies have failed to distinguish between general well-being and well-being specific to the sport context (Lundqvist, 2011). This is partly because of a lack of sport specific PWB measurement tools; thus the purpose of the present study was to adapt an existing PWB global instrument (i.e., Scales of Psychological Well-Being; Ryff, 1989) for the sport context and examine the construct validity of the modified version of the instrument.

Methods: Nine experts assessed the …

P06. The Western Archive Of Dialects And Languages, Michael Iannozzi

Western Research Forum

Traditionally, once fieldwork in a community was complete, the researcher left, and the participants never saw what became of those recordings and digitized materials. The Western Archive of Dialects and Languages (WADL) is a new project between the author and Western Libraries to ensure that the community of research directly benefits from sharing their stories, materials, and time.

The materials, dialect, and stories are preserved in a permanent and accessible, online archive. This ensures that future generations, wherever they live, will be able to access the heritage and history their family members shared with researchers.

I have already digitized, and …

P10. Road Cracking Area Percentage Evaluation Using Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery, Boyu Feng

Western Research Forum

Background:

Although the airborne platform is efficient and economic compared to the popular ground vehicles in road condition survey (RCS), studies on applying it in RCS are limited. A former study on airborne hyperspectral imagery (AHI) tried to tie a band ratio to pavement condition index. Its result proved the value in AHI, yet pointed out the difficulty in quantitative evaluation.

Methods:

This study further explored the application of AHI in RCS, and fully took advantage of the entire spectrum shape, rather than a ratio. Aiming at the cracking area percentage (CAP) on the asphalt paved arterial road system in …

P14. Estimating The Effects Of File-Sharing On Movie Box-Office, Zhuang Liu

Western Research Forum

Background:

File-sharing and on-line piracy have caught great public attention. There is a public debate on whether or not we should close torrenting sites like Piratedbay.com. Copyright holders argue yes and claim substantial loss due to filesharing while Pirates claim that file-sharing is welfare-improving and the effects on sale are negligible. Right now no consensus has been reached on how file-sharing affects industry revenue in economics literature.

Methods:

Using a novel dataset of downloads from Bit-Torrent network, this paper quantifies the effects of file-sharing on movie box-office revenue. I estimate a random coefficient demand model of movies to …

P24. The Birds And The Beats: Perception Of A Beat In An Avian Model, Brendon Samuels

Western Research Forum

Background: Beat perception is a complex cognitive skill that enables humans to “feel” the beat in music, and is an essential component of synchronization of behavior and dance. The mechanisms in the human brain that facilitate beat perception are not entirely understood, and have only been studied thus far using non-invasive techniques. Some animals, such as songbirds, also seem to be able to detect a beat in rhythms, though this has never been formally tested independent of motor synchronization.

Methods: An operant experiment is used to assess if European starlings, a type of songbird, are capable of categorizing …