Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

"It's A Very Silent Pain": A Phenomenological Study Of Women Who Are In A Relationship With A Sexually Addicted Spouse, Jacqueline S. Thibodeau

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Being in a relationship with someone who is sexually addicted has been recognized as disorienting and painful. What is lacking in the literature is inclusion of the voices of those individuals who have been affected by his behaviour. This study attempts to capture the phenomenon experienced by those individuals who are in a relationship with a person who is sexually addicted. Twelve women, who identified being in a current or past relationship with a person who is sexually addicted, participated in qualitative interviews where they were encouraged to share their experiences. The interviews were analyzed within the transcendental phenomenological framework. …

Promoting Fairness In The Workplace: Identifying And Overcoming The Barriers To Managerial Fairness In Organizations, David B. Whiteside

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Research examining “justice as a dependent variable” has largely focused on examining the factors that can promote fairness in the workplace whereas significantly less attention has been devoted to understanding the barriers and obstacles that can exist throughout the fairness process. This is an important gap in the literature because the absence of fairness can also have considerable implications for organizations. In this dissertation, I argue that it is important to adopt a “barriers to fairness” approach that sheds more light on how these obstacles can affect managers’ fair behavior. Specifically, I present a typology of the different barriers to …

Pushing The Limits: International Land Acquisitions In Comparative Perspective, Ariane Goetz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The role of investor countries in large-scale land acquisitions is poorly understood in the contemporary “land grab” literature. Orthodox explanations largely build on deductive analyses that deviate from the emerging empirical evidence, and/or face analytical difficulties when trying to capture why large-scale land acquisitions happen. This thesis investigates the global phenomenon of “land grabbing” from the comparative perspective of two major investor countries: the UK and China. The regional focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa, a major target of land-consuming investments since 2000.

The dissertation advances three arguments: Firstly, the specific details of the home country’s industrial set-up, development challenges, ideological …

Youth Athlete Leaders' Use Of Transformational Behaviours And Relations To Trust In The Leader And Sport Outcomes, Amy M. Cubitt, Mark Eys

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Leadership is one of the most crucial factors determining whether a group succeeds or fails (Bass, 1990). Furthermore, leaders displaying transformational behaviours are thought to lift followers to higher levels of motivation to get them to perform beyond expectations (Bass, 1985), and they tend to have followers who are more committed and satisfied (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Another outcome of transformational leadership in organizations is that followers are more willing to trust leaders who show care and concern for the follower (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). The purpose of the present study was to determine if the use of full range …

Once A Thief, Always A Thief? How Time, Implicit Theories, And Race Affect Moral Judgments, Sarah L. Williams

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

How can a person judge another individual’s moral character? One way may be to look to their moral and immoral actions. However, should all actions be weighed equally, whether they occurred in the near or distant past? Moral actions do not occur in a temporal vacuum, yet relatively little research has examined the role of time in moral judgment. We expected that people would weigh a previous immoral act differently depending on when it occurred and on their beliefs about personal malleability. Individuals differ in their implicit theories about the degree to which human characteristics, such as moral character or …

Positive Parenting In Adolescence And Its Association With Future Hopes And Fears In Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis, Harmanpreet Chauhan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During young adulthood (ages 20-39), individuals begin to develop a future orientation by thinking about their possible selves. In this longitudinal study, young adults’ future hopes and fears were examined in relation to their perceptions of the parenting style they experienced in adolescence. An interview was conducted with participants at age 26 and 32 to assess their future possible selves. Participants discussed both hoped-for and feared selves. The long-term impact of parenting on future hopes and fears was examined by exploring the possible impact of perceived parenting styles experienced in adolescence. Interviews were conducted in 2005 and 2011 with 26 …

Affective Migration: The Role Of Food Preparation And Visceral Experience For Egyptian Migrant Women Settling In The Region Of Waterloo, Mary Neil

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examining Egyptian migrants settling in Canada is exploratory in nature and is intended to initiate a conversation about the personal experience of transnationalism and the value of the body as an instrument of research. A semi-structured interview approach was designed to prompt the evocation of deep personal thoughts, experiences, and sensations in response to questions surrounding migration to Canada through the shared performative act of cooking and the visceral experience of eating in the private space of the migrant kitchen. Using a grounded theory approach, several adaptive mechanisms were identified such as the creation of manageable daily routines, …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of Suicide Stigma, Amanda L. Demmer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Suicide is a stigmatized phenomenon within our society, and the stigma felt by individuals who struggle with suicide (suicide stigma) must be reduced if society aims at lowering suicide rates. Research on mental health stigma indicates that stigma can reduce help-seeking, lead to low self efficacy or negative self-talk, and can be detrimental to the recovery process. Suicide stigma research has focused on the perpetrators of the stigma, but research on those who are stigmatized has not been conducted. Research objectives for the current study are to explore public stigma, self stigma, and recommendations for reducing stigma giving voice to …

Reproductive (In)Justice: Exploring Young Women’S Experiences Of Reproductive Saliency In An Oppressive Environment, Angele D. Desroches

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Young North American women are currently coming of age in a sociopolitical context governed by neoliberal ideology, post-feminist assumptions, agentic femininities, and demographic trends that have lengthened pathways to adulthood. Consequently, the avoidance of early reproductive experiences has become a key requisite governing the success of the young female subject. This project explores the diverse reproductive experiences of eleven young (≤ 24 years of age) women residing in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Prince Edward Island’s conservative community culture, anti-choice policies, and limited youth focused sexual-reproductive health services produces a unique experiential setting for young women who encounter reproductive events. Through …

Embracing The Grey Zone: Navigating Flexible Boundaries At Welcome Inn Community Centre, Carly H. Gaylor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis is an exploration of relationships and issues of professional boundaries at Welcome Inn Community Centre, a faith-based community centre offering programs and services to address issues of poverty in Hamilton, Ontario. Data was gathered through semi-structured qualitative interviews with fifteen staff members, volunteers, and participants at Welcome Inn. A strengths-based perspective combined with mutual relationships and flexible boundaries were found to foster inclusion, acceptance, community building, and personal transformation at Welcome Inn Community Centre; Welcome Inn staff, volunteers, and program participants described these qualities positively. Mixed positive and negative comments were used to describe decision-making and boundaries at …

Motivations To Gamble In Younger And Older Adults, John Bryan R. E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Gambling is a form of entertainment that is enjoyed by many adults, ranging from university students to older adults. A small subset of gambling research focuses on the motivations to pursue gambling, and very little research has investigated if age differences exist in motivation. Older adults typically experience decreased sense of control compared to university students (Mirowsky 1995, 2013), and it was hypothesized that this would be a key motivational difference. Through two experiments, this research aimed to investigate if different motivation models for gambling should be used for different age groups. Two competing models are tested: Loroz’s (2004) model …

The Development And Application Of A Measure To Assess The Interpersonal Qualities Of Self-Talk, Elizabeth L. Price

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In three studies, this research describes the development and potential application of a new self-report measure, the Interpersonal Self-Talk Scale (IPSTS). Based on Kiesler’s (1983) Interpersonal Circle: Acts Version, and the Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS-R; Wiggins et al., 1988) the IPSTS was designed to measure the distinct interpersonal qualities of self-talk. In Study 1 (N = 316), a principal components analysis of the IPSTS items yielded two underlying dimensions of dominance and affiliation. The preliminary octant subscales displayed good internal consistency reliability and circumplex structure, and the IPSTS was shown to measure a construct that is reasonably …

An Exploration Of The Wheel-Induced Feeding-Suppression, Stephen Benjamin Peckham

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Anorexia nervosa is an enigmatic human condition typified by food-restriction that is often accompanied by extensive exercise. This has been modeled in rats in the wheel-induced feeding-suppression (WIFS) model. In this model, animals are given access to a running-wheel, which induces a volitional drop in food-consumption. Short periods of wheel access have induced a feeding-suppression which is effectively reversed by chlorpromazine administration (Adams et al., 2009). Recent attempts at replicating Adams et al.’s (2009) feeding-suppression have, however, been unsuccessful (Peckham et al., 2013). These attempts raised questions as to whether or not the existing methodology is most effective at suppressing …

Influence Of Planning Resources On Gait Control In Parkinson’S Disease, Frederico P. Faria

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Movement disturbances in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been associated with difficulties to plan complex actions. Performance of simple and complex actions overloads resources for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, it is unclear if central resources required to plan gait adjustments while walking exacerbate gait disturbances of patients with PD. More specifically, it is unclear how gait impairments, sensory processing, and the dopaminergic system influence the load on processing resources (e.g. cognitive load) during the planning of step modifications. In order to investigate the relative influence of these factors on cognitive load and its impact on gait control, …

Gender Differences In Pay Equity: An Examination Of The Working Adolescent, Melanie L. Saari

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study was conducted to determine whether adult gender-based wage inequities are mirrored in the adolescent population. A developmental perspective was taken while examining this topic, so as to pinpoint stages when divergences based on gender might occur. In order to ascertain this, 157 pre-and young adolescents ranging in age from 12-15 years old participated in our survey and a subset of this group (n=89) participated in the follow-up interview. Contained in both the survey and interview were questions pertaining to remuneration, employment, negotiation, gender stereotypes and attitudes about money. Results indicated that young females seem to receive a better …

Perceptions Of Determining Factors: A Case Study Of Eviction Risks Of People Who Hoard In Waterloo Region, Emily J. Gibson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Recently distinguished as a distinct disorder in the DSM-V, hoarding remains a behaviour about which we have only a cursory understanding. Hoarding behaviours can lead to a variety of health and safety risks, not only for the person who hoards, but for others who live with them, and their neighbouring community. Many studies make reference to the vulnerability of people who hoard as a result of these health and safety risks However, there has been little written about eviction specifically due to hoarding. This study explores the research question: what factors enable individuals who hoard to maintain their housing when …

“Where Did I Learn That?” Exploring The Similarity Effect And Children’S Use Of Memory Cues For Source Monitoring, Leanne E. Bird

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

An individual’s ability to accurately monitor source (attribute known or remembered information to its particular source or origin) develops gradually throughout childhood. Along with task difficulty (i.e., delay between encoding and retrieval), source similarity is among the utmost hindrance to individuals’ ability to accurately monitor source; specifically, the greater the similarity between sources the more difficult source monitoring judgments have been found to be, and the smaller similarity between sources (i.e., the greater number of differences between sources) the more accurate source monitoring judgments have been found to be. The similarity effect has been said to apply to all age …

A Living Wage For All Manitobans?: Perspectives From The Private Sector, Paul Campbell Sheridan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In response to the growing problem of working poverty around the world, a grassroots movement has emerged and spread internationally in the last two decades. This movement proposes the adoption of living wage policies and practice as part of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy in the context of the neoliberal retrenchment of social safety nets. While successful at the local government level in the USA and the U. K., the movement has struggled to make inroads into the private sector, which is where the bulk of sub-living-wage jobs are situated. Using a qualitative methodology informed by critical theory, this study …

Neither War, Nor Peace: Everyday Politics, Peacebuilding And The Liminal Condition Of Bosnia-Herzegovina And Northern Ireland, Branka Marijan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis focuses on cultural and everyday practices of local populations in post-conflict peacebuilding. It builds on the “everyday” turn in critical peacebuilding literature by recognizing the everyday as political. Rather than examining the practices of political elites this thesis is concerned with the ordinary citizens of these societies. In other words, I show that it is through practices and cultural forms of expression that local populations enact their agency, at times supporting and at times contesting the broader peacebuilding project. Moreover, rather than viewing the everyday acts as hidden or as evidence of resistance to the dominant peacebuilding approaches …

An Exploration Of Employment Services For Survivors Of Domestic Violence In The Region Of Waterloo, Alishau Diebold Mrs.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The ability of survivors of domestic violence to secure employment once they leave their vulnerable situations has been identified in the existing knowledge base as a significant issue, and one that urgently needed to be addressed. This qualitative applied social policy research study was undertaken to derive recommendations that could improve the current state of employment services available to women who had survived domestic violence residing in the Region of Waterloo. This was accomplished by determining which employment services align with the needs of a survivor as they began to seek employment. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect information from …

The Spirit Of Haudenosaunee Youth: The Transformation Of Identity And Well-Being Through Culture-Based Activism, Bonnie M. Freeman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the connection between Indigenous knowledge and culture-based action, and how this connection facilitates a sense of identity and well-being for Haudenosaunee youth. This study examines the experience of fourteen Haudenosaunee youth and five parents/adults as they ran for four summers (2005-2008) on a youth-led spiritual journey known as the Unity Run. On this journey youth travelled throughout Haudenosaunee traditional territory (Ontario and Quebec, Canada; and New York State, U.S.A.) and beyond (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee) carrying a message of peace, unity and social justice.

The methodology of this research is framed within Haudenosaunee traditional protocols (visiting and …

‘Water Is Life’: Exploring The Relationship Between Place Identity, Water And Adaptive Capacity In Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, Canada, Jennifer A. Fresque-Baxter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Water is recognised as a fundamental human right in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT). However, the current and potential effects of climate change coupled with resource development pressures are leading to concerns about maintaining the health and viability of freshwater in the NWT. These intersecting multiple exposures can have far-reaching impacts for NWT residents who rely on water for cultural, spiritual, economic and social purposes. Ongoing changes (e.g., to water quantity, water quality, weather, precipitation and ice dynamics, for example) will increasingly require NWT residents to adapt, seek ways to plan for the future, identify opportunities, and moderate the effects of …

The Christian Farmers Federation Of Ontario: Integrating Christian Principles With The Practicality Of Farming, Suzanne M. Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis examines the Christian identity and characteristics of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO), a general farm organization active in the diverse agricultural sector of Ontario, Canada. It highlights the intersection of religion and farming that emerged from interviews and participant observation within this group. The thesis probes what it means for them to be responsible Christian farmers in contemporary agriculture. Christian and secular scholars from three key areas of scholarship—Dutch immigration to Canada, agriculture of the middle or family farming, and Christian stewardship—help to contextualize their responses.

The CFFO was founded as a Dutch neo-Calvinist organization within …

Maps Of Marginalization: Exploring The Healthcare Experiences Of Men And Women With Fibromyalgia, Michelle J. Skop

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative study explored the retrospective and ongoing healthcare experiences of men and women who have a diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM), a contested, chronic, and gendered condition of unknown origin. The research question was: "How do men and women who have a diagnosis of FM experience interactions with healthcare providers?" The study, which was epistemologically rooted in the critical theories of feminist poststructuralism and intersectionality, blended constructivist grounded theory with a participatory component, an arts-based research methodology called body-map storytelling. Thirty-five participants were recruited from the Greater Toronto Area and Kitchener-Waterloo. Ten participants completed in-depth interviews while 25 participants completed …

Living The Green Life: A Mixed-Methods Examination Of The Relationship Between Generativity And Environmental Engagement In Emerging And Mid-Life Canadian Activists And Nonactivists, Susan Alisat

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examined the role of the personality features of identity and generativity for the composition of personal narratives and engagement in an environmental domain. Although generativity has been highlighted as a key feature of environmentalism, this work extends the understanding of that link by examining its relationship with, and its emergence in, personal narratives of environmental activists and nonactivists. Narratives were analyzed at three distinct levels, in order to develop a thorough understanding of how generativity might intersect with an environmental personal narrative identity.

In the first study, I examined stories in terms of the features of generative commitment …

An Analysis Of Quality For Volunteered Geographic Information, Joel C H Meier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In recent years there has been a growing number of online user communities engaged in the creation, visualization, and use of volunteered geographic information (VGI). These data may represent an untapped resource for researchers analyzing large-area geographic phenomena such as species distributions patterns or land and resource management issues. However very few studies have used VGI for analytic research questions as little is known about the quality of these data. An understanding of the validity of VGI is a prerequisite for further exploitation of these novel data sources in research contexts. This paper looks to identify key issues related to …

Connecting To Others: Studying The Relationship Between Social Exclusion And Imitation, Sarah K. Blyth

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Automatic imitation (AI) refers to the subconscious tendency we have to imitate an observed action, even when that action is irrelevant to or interferes with an action we are attempting to execute (Heyes, 2011; Brass et al., 2000). Human beings display a fundamental need to stay meaningfully connected to others, also known as the need to belong. Previous research shows that an experience of rejection can reduce one’s feelings of connectedness to others (Legate et al., 2013), and that behaviours such as non-conscious mimicry (NCM) increase after being excluded as a possible means of re-affiliation (Lakin et al., 2008). It …

The Effect Of Emotion On Associative And Item Memory, Priyanga Jeyarathnarajah

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Numerous studies to date have demonstrated superior memory for emotional compared to neutral stimuli (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Bennion et al., 2013). This finding, although relatively stable across the item memory literature, becomes less consistent when examined in tasks measuring memory for associative or source information (Chiu et al., 2013). For this reason, the present study set out to examine how emotional content (negative, positive and neutral word pairs) influences memory in two distinct associative and item recognition tasks: associative identification (AI), associative reinstatement (AR), paired-item recognition, and single-item recognition. In measuring the influence of emotion on associations using an …

An Investigation Of The Increased Reliance On Familiarity In Associative Recognition Of Unitized Compound Word Pairs, Fahad Naveed Ahmad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Unitization refers to when two components are integrated or combined into a single unit. So the whole is more familiar than the parts (Graf & Schacter, 1989). Previous researchers have shown unitization of unrelated word pairs can occur by the use of compound definition. As support, they have found unitization to increase reliance on familiarity in associative recognition. The purpose of this PhD dissertation was to examine the effects of unitization of preexperimental associations on associative recognition. The effects of associative recognition of unitized compound word (CW) pairs can serve as a useful benchmark to compare to that of other …

Bill 13 (The Accepting Schools Act): Ontario Legislation Mandating Support For Lgbt Students In Publicly-Funded Schools, Renato M. Liboro Jr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Twenty-six key stakeholders from schools in Waterloo Region, Ontario, participated in semi-structured, open-ended interviews for this dissertation. They included students, teachers, school board representatives in administrator and superintendent roles, trustees, and community service providers. This study explored the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in publicly-funded schools, the effect of those experiences on their mental health and well-being, and the success of strategies, programs, and policies implemented by schools to address LGBT youth issues. It also examined the perspectives of participants on Bill 13, Ontario’s Accepting Schools Act, particularly strengths and weaknesses of the bill in terms …