Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Foster Parents' Experiences And Withdrawal Considerations: Comparing Treatment And Regular Foster Care, Jessica N. Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The current study investigated differences between the experiences of foster parents providing regular and treatment foster care, and their consideration to withdraw from their position. Survey responses from 852 foster parents were analyzed subsequent to separating the participants into two groups based on the type of care they provided (regular N = 454; treatment N = 398). Results from a chi-square test for independence revealed a treatment foster care parents considered withdrawing more than regular foster care parents. Cross-tabulations and independent samples t-tests revealed numerous differences between the two groups regarding foster parents reasons to withdraw and experiences fostering. The …

Structural Variation And Local Service Delivery: Comparing Municipal Governments And Special Purpose Bodies, Joseph R. Lyons

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the debate over the governance of metropolitan areas, consolidationists favour single, area-wide, general purpose jurisdictions, while polycentrists make arguments in support of multiple, scale-specific, specialized jurisdictions. This dissertation contributes to this debate through comparisons of municipal and specialized service delivery in two Ontario cities. The cities of London and Hamilton represent positions along a continuum of fragmentation and consolidation, with London being more fragmented and Hamilton more consolidated. Comparisons are undertaken for three local government services: public health, economic development, and watershed management. In London, independent special purpose bodies deliver all three of these services, while in Hamilton the …

Examining Children's Perceptions And Use Of Their Neighbourhood Built Environments: A Novel Participatory Mapping Approach, Stephen Fitzpatrick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to contribute towards a more complete understanding of the relationship between the built environment and children’s active school travel. It is argued that active travel –human powered transportation – to and from school provides regular physical activity that can help reverse rising rates of overweight or obese Canadian children. The built environment of a child’s school neighbourhood has been shown to influence travel decisions. To achieve higher rates of children’s active travel, a comprehensive understanding of the built environment is required.

This study uses child-led perceptual mapping (CLPM) and GIS analysis in a …

Essays On Innovation And Consumer Credit, David E. Fieldhouse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the first chapter, I show that the economy’s production structure plays an important role in determining innovation. In particular, using patent data I document a set of empirical facts that are initially puzzling, but can be explained by recognizing that innovation decisions are related between sectors. A model is developed to explain the empirical findings, but it also has an important finding for the current debate on U.S. patent policy. I use the model to demonstrate that a perceived long-run decline could be explained by increased innovative opportunities in certain industries and the responses of inventors in other sectors …

Dowsing For Potential Temporary Autonomous Zones: A Psychotopology Of The Alternative Lifestyles Of Nomadic Artisans In Mexico, Annaliese M. Pope

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

By using qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this study performs a psychotopological investigation of the lifestyles of nomadic artisans in Mexico in order to determine if the spaces created through the performance of such lifestyles are conducive to the germination of Temporary Autonomous Zones (Bey, 1990). In so doing, it analyzes these artisans' understandings and performances of time, space and mobility and the ways in which they lend themselves to free demonstrations of creative activity. It also examines whether or not such free expressions of creative activity, which are a fundamental part of these alternative lifestyles, …

Challenging Essentialized Representations Of Romani Identities In Canada, Julianna Beaudoin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Roma are one of the world’s most marginalized and exoticized ethnic groups, and they are currently the targets of increasing violence and exclusionary polices in Europe. In Canada, immigration and refugee policies have increasingly dismissed Roma as illegitimate or ‘bogus’ refugee claimants, in large part because they come from ‘safe’ European countries. These policies are reinforced through Canadian media discourse that primarily situates Roma as abusers of the refugee system. This dissertation on Romani identity challenges these demeaning and essentializing representations by focusing on three areas most relevant to Romani identities: first, historical representations; second, the role of media in …

Executive Dysfunction: A Contributor To Subtypes Of Violence Or General Criminality?, Megan B. Hancock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Purpose: The adverse consequences of violence on society are tremendous. Several factors have been identified as potential contributors to violent crime, including deficits in executive functioning. Executive functioning is a term used to a describe number of higher-order cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory, inhibition) that are thought to be essential for appropriate, socially desirable behavior. The extent to which executive functions influence the occurrence of general criminality versus specific subtypes of crime is largely unknown. Of particular interest is the ability of executive functioning to distinguish between reactive and instrumental subtypes of violence. Whereas reactive violence is committed with the …

The Perfectionism-Psychological Outcome Link: The Mediating Effect Of Personal Resiliency, Martin M. Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Perfectionism is a multidimensional personality trait encompassing two higher-order dimensions: perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. People high in perfectionistic strivings rigidly and ceaselessly demand perfection of the self and hold unrealistically high personal standards. People high in perfectionistic concerns have overly negative reactions to perceived failures, nagging self-doubts, and excessive concerns over other’s expectations. Research suggests perfectionistic strivings are predominantly associated with positive psychological outcomes, whereas perfectionistic concerns are predominantly associated with negative psychological outcomes. Theory suggests differences in personal resiliency may account for the divergent psychological outcomes associated with perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. However, this contention has yet …

Children's Mental Health, Yvonne A. Asare-Bediako

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study of children’s mental health has largely been the domain of developmental psychologists and psychiatrists. These studies focus on parental mental health, and examine its direct and indirect effects, through a family’s psychosocial environment. Relatively little attention is given to socio-structural factors. By contrast, the sociology of mental health focuses on such structural factors as poverty and income, examining the extent to which stressors and strains may pattern the effects of these factors on children’s psychopathology. Adding to the divergence in research is the use of maternal reports in the assessment of children’s mental health. These reports often reflect …

Rooted Cosmopolitanism, Robert Maciel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis considers the relationship between global obligations and particular duties. I argue that there is a core tension in our moral thought that both cosmopolitans and particularists must confront. This tension is between our ability to fulfill obligations to particular others with whom we stand in a meaningful relationship (e.g. family, friends, co-nationals) and our global obligations. It is argued in the literature that strong moral cosmopolitanism is neither tenable nor desirable, as it requires us to forgo these special duties. This is seen as problematic as it does not resonate with our lived moral experience – we desire …

Essays On Portfolio Optimization, Simulation And Option Pricing, Zhibo Jia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of three papers which cover the efficient Monte Carlo simulation in option pricing, the application of realized volatility in trading strategies and geometrical analysis of a four asset mean variance portfolio optimization problem. The first paper studies different efficient simulation methods to price options with different characters such as moneyness and maturity times. The incomplete market environments are also been considered. The second paper uses realized volatility based on high frequency data to improve the volatility trading strategy. The performance is compared with that using the implied volatility. The last paper re-examines the Markowitz's portfolio optimization problem …

Theorizing 'Transitional Justice', David Anton Hoogenboom

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Early literature in the field of transitional justice was dominated by debates over the meaning of justice, with retributivists arguing for the need for criminal prosecutions following mass human rights violations and advocates of restorative justice claiming that non-prosecutorial forms of justice like truth-telling are better suited for post-conflict societies. This debate was eventually settled, at least in the field, by a belief that post-conflict societies require both criminal prosecutions and truth-telling. More recently, the debate over justice has centred on the question of whether the field and practice of transitional justice has prioritized civil and political rights over economic …

A Bayesian Model Of Stress Assignment In Reading, Olessia Jouravlev

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goal of the present thesis was to introduce a Bayesian model of stress assignment in reading. According to this model, readers compute probabilities of stress patterns by assessing prior beliefs about the likelihoods of stress patterns in a language and combining that information with non-lexical evidence for stress patterns provided by the word. The choice of a response is thought of as a random walk-type process which takes the system from a starting point to a response boundary. The calculated Bayesian probabilities determine the drift rate towards each boundary such that the probability of an error and the response …

Statecraft In The Virú Valley, Peru, In The First Millennium A.D., Jordan T. Downey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is an archaeological study of statecraft in the Virú Valley, Peru, during the Early Intermediate Period (ca. 400 B.C. – A.D. 800). Virú was the subject of an influential research program in the 1940s (the Virú Valley Project), which produced important datasets for studying early complex societies in the region. But recent work has begun to upend many of the original conclusions, pointing to the need for a thorough review of the chronological foundation on which they rested, and calling for the re-analysis of ancient settlement patterns and infrastructure projects as proxies of the increasing centralization of authority …

The Promise And Problematic Of The Virtual Eucharist Mass According To The Roman Catholic Church’S Position In “The Church And The Internet”, Andrew W. Labenek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study is concerned with articulating a valid community-building role that the virtual Eucharistic Mass could play within the Roman Catholic Church. I undertake this task in view of those unable to attend a real world Mass because of physical and geographical impediments or for fear of violence. According to the Pontifical Council of Social Communications’ document, “The Church and the Internet,” Eucharistic Mass celebrated through the internet is invalid. The first chapter of this study contextualizes and explains the Church’s stance in this document. The remaining two chapters are framed by the Pontifical study’s two main objections to virtual …