Reducing Anticipatory Anxiety: Does Values-Affirmation Increase Self-Compassion?, Elena Harwood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions for social anxiety incorporate techniques such as self-compassion and values articulations. Self-compassion has been shown to reduce anticipatory anxiety in students with high social anxiety but the impact of values-affirmation has not yet been explored. Additionally, past research suggests that values-affirmation may foster self-compassion. Three studies were conducted to explore whether values-affirmation, too, reduces anticipatory anxiety (related to an upcoming speech task) and to evaluate whether self-compassion is a mechanism of change. In study one, participants (N = 93) were randomly assigned to a self-compassion manipulation, a values-affirmation condition, or a control condition. After controlling …

How Do You Talk To Yourself? – The Effects Of Pronoun Usage And Interpersonal Qualities Of Self-Talk, Sonya M. Bisol

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Self-talk is defined as an inner voice that addresses the self, usually silently but sometimes aloud, with content that is self-relevant. In two studies, this work investigates the pronouns people use within their self-talk, classified by a newly developed pronoun coding scheme, and the interpersonal qualities of self-talk, characterized by an interpersonal framework. For each study we also explore how pronoun usage and interpersonal self-talk styles relate to each other, and to other important variables that pertain to the possible causes and effects of self-talk. In our first study, 131 participants completed a structured interview in which they provided …

Attained And Retained Employment Of Employees With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities In Ontario, Michelle Willson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Employment is a critical component of health and well-being as it has been shown to increase income, reduce poverty, establish social networks, and provide a greater sense of purpose and value within society. People with disabilities have higher rates of unemployment as compared to non-disabled people and experience many barriers to employment, including stigma, attitudes towards disabilities, and perceived costs of accommodation. There is limited research that looks at what has helped to facilitate employment, particularly retained employment, for this population. Therefore, understanding factors that have served to facilitate retained employment for those with disabilities is critical in understanding how …

Invisible Wounds: Assessing The Awareness Of Moral Injury Among Toronto Police, Daniel Saugh

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Moral injury is believed to exist within the Canadian Police Services though it is difficult to recognize and is usually ignored. The research data emerging from military and first responders (i.e., police, firefighters, and EMS personnel) reveal the effects of moral injury and its implications for mental and spiritual health as it persists throughout the life and career of those affected.

This study investigates how moral injury may emerge from a potentially traumatic event(s) and/or psychological trauma and/or independent from such trauma and how moral injury may come to exist in members of the Toronto Police Service, as well as …

Constructively Deviant: Examining The Positive Employee Consequences Of Pro-Social Rule Breaking, Su Kyung (Irene) Kim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conceptualized as a form of constructive deviance, pro-social rule breaking (PSRB) refers to employees’ intentional violation of a formal organizational policy, regulation, or prohibition with the primary intention of promoting the welfare of organization or one of its stakeholders. The extant research primarily focused on the antecedents of PSRB, and research on the consequences of the behavior is limited. In my dissertation, I adopt a combination of correlational and experimental designs to examine various employee outcomes of PSRB, including employee well-being and behavioral outcomes, as well as evaluative outcomes rated by others. The first manuscript focuses on rule breaking for …

Exploring Body Image Through The Injury And Rehabilitation Process Of Female Intercollegiate Gymnasts: A Multi-Case Study, Morgan Miller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Injury is a known inherent risk when participating in any physical activity. In particular, gymnasts exhibit high overuse and traumatic injury rates, attributed to the nature and volume of their training. The resulting injury and rehabilitation process can present many challenges, which are unique to each individual. During this time, body image perceptions may change which could potentially lead to unique cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore body image throughout the injured female gymnasts’ rehabilitation experience and their return to intercollegiate sport. Participants included three National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division …

Decipher The Effect Of Gamification In Harnessing Boredom And Improving Performance, Zhuoyi Zhao

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

My thesis investigates the effectiveness of gamification in harnessing boredom and improving performance in a repetitive work process. In video games, “loot” rewards are unpredictable, intermittent gains used to motivate players to repeat boring actions. In a 2 X 2 experiment, I examine how loot rewards in point form may impact 1) disengagement, which is an immediate outcome of boredom, and 2) performance in settings where the points have and do not have cash value, respectively. More specifically, I manipulate the level of point reward unpredictability (fixed versus loot) and whether point rewards have cash value (absent versus present).

In …

Rainbow Writes: Peer-Led Creative Writing Groups’ Potential For Promoting 2slgbtq+ Youth Wellbeing, Ceilidh Harrison

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Though mainstream acceptance for the 2SLGBTQ+ community is on the rise, elevated risks of mental health challenges still pervade this community, particularly for youth growing up in this changing environment. Based on previous literature citing the benefits of creative interventions and youth autonomy, the current study sought to explore the implementation of an online, peer-led creative writing program as a possible means to increase emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing in 2SLGBTQ+ youth. Twenty self-identifying 2SLGBTQ+ youth from across Canada were recruited to form two 10-week, online peer-led creative writing groups titled “Rainbow Writes”. Based on Lerner et al.’s (2003) “Five …

Second Generation Christian Korean Canadians: Exploring Their Lived Experiences Of Mental Health Issues And Services, Kyoung Jung Kim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

This study explores the lived experiences of second-generation Christian Korean Canadian young adults with mental health issues (MHI) and their use of health services (MHS). In addition, this study asked this cohort to discuss their beliefs about the views their parents held about MHI and MHS. All research participants were born and raised in Canada by Korean born immigrant parents. This study was descriptive, phenomenological, and qualitative in nature; it consisted of in-depth interviews with six male and six female participants. In their experience with MHI, seven participants experienced fear and sadness (depression and anxiety) and three of them …

Microaggressions And Microaffirmations Experienced By Lgbtq2s+ People With Disabilities, Kathleen Mckee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study explored the indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination (i.e., microaggressions) and positive identity-affirming actions (i.e., microaffirmations) that gender and sexually diverse (LGBTQ2S+) people with disabilities (PWD) experience in multiple life contexts. Previous literature has tended to focus solely on negative experiences, and little research has been conducted to understand their possible experiences of microaffirmations and how they may promote resilience and well-being. Intersectionality theory, minority stress theory, and Crip theory guided the study. The objectives were to explore microaggressions and microaffirmations experienced by LGBTQ2S+ PWD, as well as these individuals’ responses to microaggressions and microaffirmations. Semi structured qualitative interviews …

Investigating The Use Of Mental-State Talk In Parent-Child Joint Reminiscing And Storytelling On Children’S Source Monitoring, Holly Autumn Nelson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Source monitoring is the process of identifying and analyzing sources of information (Johnson et al., 1993). The ability to monitor source improves with age which places children at a greater risk for blending and misattributing information from different sources. Experiencing source confusions has academic, legal, and social implications, and thus understanding how source monitoring develops is important. Research exploring factors that impact source monitoring have predominantly focused on maturational aspects such as at which ages children learn to monitor source and neurological factors such as executive functioning. However, the impact of age and executive functioning may vary across the type …

A Low Self-Esteem Perspective On Support Provision, Alexandra Hirniak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social support is an essential part of personal and relationship well-being. However, not all relationship partners may be equally willing to provide social support to close others. Due to their tendencies toward pessimism (Baumeister et al., 2003) and self-protective biases (Murray et al., 2003, 2008) individuals with lower (vs. higher) self-esteem may have biased perceptions about their own efficacy when it comes to providing support, as well as the consequences and benefits of support provision. These biased beliefs could mediate the relationship between provider self-esteem and support provision. In the present research, I examine how self-esteem affects social support provision. …

Mother-Child Shared Story Telling Of Wordless And Worded Picture Books: A Within-Subject Design Study Of Preschool Children, Katherine Reid, Alexandra Gottardo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Issues pertinent to developmental psychology and education often intersect. For example, both literatures can inform the assessment of differences in early literacy and school readiness, as well as how to bridge the literacy gap for children coming from different backgrounds. In times of COVID-19, it is especially important that we research the impact of strategies that are accessible to all, and can be utilized both in the home, and in more formal learning environments. This study assessed how the use of wordless picture books impacted the quality and quantity of language output, and engagement in dialogue between mother and child. …

The Perceived Deservingness Of Narcissistic Individuals, Danielle Lynch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous research has explored how narcissism relates to empathy and deservingness. It has been suggested that not only do narcissistic individuals lack empathy for others, but also that others lack empathy for narcissists when they experience misfortunes. It is not clear if this is because the narcissists’ own behaviour is believed to have contributed to the misfortune or because of their over-arching personality. The present research aimed to explore how narcissism affects empathy and perceptions of deservingness. Study 1 (N=962) investigated whether the target person’s amount of control over the negative outcome influenced how deserving they were perceived …

Investigating The Inhibition Of The Return Of Attention In The Tactile Domain, Robert Plax

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Purpose: The time-course needed to elicit tactile inhibition of return (IOR) has not been well-defined due to the paucity of research in this area especially studies investigating spatial discrimination. Reportedly tactile IOR uses higher-order mental representations to orient attention spatially yet the properties of low-level dermatomal maps may better account for how IOR orients tactile attention in space although its contribution is unclear. The present study sought to establish a time-course that evokes IOR in a unimodal tactile spatial discrimination task and decouples the contribution of the dermatome from higher-order representations. Methods: Two conditions containing distinct tactile cue-target paradigms designed …

Cambridge-North Dumfries Ontario Health Team: An Exploratory Evaluation Of Service Integration Planning, Megan Strazds-Esenbergs

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Introduction: Approaches to health care have shifted from individual treatment delivered by one health care provider, to an integrated care approach across health and social sectors involving multiple health care providers who are collaborating across sectors. A main focus of this research was to investigate the planning and development of the Cambridge-North Dumfries Ontario Health Team (CND-OHT). The CND-OHT is currently one of 42 Ontario Health Teams that are being implemented in the province according to integrated care (IC) principles.

The exploratory evaluation addressed a gap related to exploring initial planning and development of the CND-OHT IC team. In …

Is It Just A Dream? How Attributions For Successful And Unsuccessful Social Mobility Attempts Maintain The Myth Of The American Dream, Erin Shanahan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite rising inequality making upward social mobility difficult, faith in the American Dream persists. Why is this the case? In six studies (five pre-registered), we demonstrate that in scenarios where hard work and ability are held constant, people praise the hard work and talent of individuals who successfully move up the social ladder while derogating these same characteristics among individuals who do not; a pattern of attributions which is likely to reinforce the American Dream. Further, conservatives explain mobility failure particularly in terms of personal shortcomings whereas liberals look to systemic disadvantages, attributions that in turn predicted lowered and heightened …

"Learning" To Feel Valued: Exploring The Impact Of Community Service Learning On Student Mattering And Mental Health, Emily Weatherhead

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Post-secondary students are facing an unprecedented level of mental health concerns. While treating mental illness has traditionally been prioritized, mental health promotion strategies are also essential. Existing research has shown that mattering, one’s ability to feel valued by and add value to their community, can promote positive mental health in post-secondary students. Using mixed methods, the goal of this research was to explore the potential of community service learning (CSL), which allows students to participate in community placements in exchange for course credit, to increase student mattering and positive mental health. Pre- and post-online surveys were administered to a sample …

Visual Perception And Action In Reaching During Upper Limb Obstacle Avoidance, Nondon Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During everyday activities, people reach to specific objects with their hands and avoid obstacles. For people to move successfully through an obstacle gap, it is necessary to be able to accurately perceive the actions that the surroundings afford and adjust hand movements accordingly. Reaching behaviours, including planning (perception) and execution (action), depend on visual information. This study aimed to understand and detect the differences between perceptual judgment and actual performance of both hands during a reaching task at the time of obstacle avoidance by using a hand-scaled approach. Participants were young adults (male (n=7) and female (n=10) aged 18 to …

How Did We Learn About Sex? —— Sex Education And Sexual Health In Chinese Youth, Yujuan Liu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Attitudes toward sexuality among Chinese youth have become more liberal in recent generations, but sex education remains controversial and limited. Due to the lack of awareness of sexual risks, many Chinese youth engage in unprotected sexual activities resulting in unintended pregnancy, abortions, and STIs. Therefore, understanding successful pathways and unique challenges are crucial to develop adequate sex education for youth’s sexual health in China. The current study used semi-structured in-depth interviews and investigated 28 Chinese youths’ experiences of sex education and sexual health. The results mapped out youth’s sex education experiences by age and sources and demonstrated the impacts of …

Who Is The Stranger Really? A Reluctant Autoethnography Of The Strange Situation Procedure, Tara Yazdani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper aims to review the cross-cultural application of attachment theory as a western model of thought and practice. That is, this research aimed to recognize and question how embedded attachment theory has become in programming and education within North American academic and practical arenas. In applying the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to a limited sample of Eritrean dyads, important considerations and questions arose regarding the cross-cultural application of this protocol. The aims of this research shifted toward further exploring these considerations and questions, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the new research aim emphasized how to inform future …

To Like Or To Want? Exploring The Psychobiological Processes Of Human Food Reward, Angela Mastroianni

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Incentive Salience Theory (IST; Berridge and Robinson, 1998; 2016) has shown that wanting (craving) and liking (affective) processes can affect eating behaviour differently in animals. These processes often correlate but can dissociate (change differently) under certain circumstances as they rely on separate neural mechanisms (Berridge, 1996). More recently, work has been testing the IST in people by comparing broad food categories (Finlayson et al. 2007a; 2008). The results have been inconsistent, sparking debate about the theory's value for studying human feeding (Havermans, 2011; 2012).

This dissertation's aim was to explore if IST wanting and liking are independent processes controlling …

Moral Identity As A Goal Of Moral Action: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective, Tobias Krettenauer

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper aims at connecting Self-Determination Theory (SDT) with research on moral identity. It is argued that SDT provides a unique and integrative framework for addressing important questions that have guided research on moral identity for many years: What is a moral identity? How is it linked to moral action? How do moral identities develop? In the present paper, moral identity is conceptualized as a goal of moral action. Individuals want to maintain their moral identity, which in turn motivates them to act morally. Yet, moral identity motivation is not uniform. In line with SDT, it is possible to differentiate …

Connectedness With Nature And The Decline Of Pro-Environmental Behavior In Adolescence: A Comparison Of Canada And China, Tobias Krettenauer, Wan Wang, Fanli Jia, Ying Yao

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present research investigated whether age-related differences in connectedness with nature in adolescence are associated with pro-environmental behavior across two cultures, Canada (N = 325) and China (N = 363). While older adolescents demonstrated lower connectedness with nature in both countries, pro-environmental behavior was inversely associated with age only in Canada but not in China. To investigate this cultural difference, we conducted a moderated mediation analysis. Positive self-evaluative emotion expectancies (pride/satisfaction) for engaging in pro-environmental behavior were found to mediate the interaction effect of culture and age when predicting pro-environmental behavior for Chinese but not for Canadian adolescents. …

Temporal Observations Of Role Clarity And Cohesion Perceptions, Erica Mclean

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Two important aspects of sport group functioning that influence both individual and group outcomes (e.g., athlete satisfaction, team performance; Eys et al., in press) are cohesion and role clarity. Despite evidence surrounding the role clarity-cohesion relationship (e.g., Bosselut, McLaren, Eys, et al., 2012), the dynamism of these variables over time remains unclear. The purpose of this thesis was to explore cohesion and role clarity perceptions over the course of a youth ringette season through a longitudinal study design. Female ringette athletes (N = 86, Mage = 15.3, SD = 1.6) were surveyed every three weeks throughout the ringette sport season, …

Picture This: The Effect Of Imagery Perspective On Affective Forecasting, Giselle Durand

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis examines whether or not the perspective that one takes when visualizing a future event influences one’s affective forecasts about that target event. When imagining a future event, people can adopt a first person perspective (as they would see it through their own eyes as it was actually occurring) or a third person perspective (as an observer would see it). I ran five studies to test the hypothesis that the perspective adopted while visualizing a future event has a differential effect on the forecasts of self-conscious vs. hedonic emotions. Specifically, I hypothesized that people forecast stronger self-conscious emotions when …

Reducing Meat Consumption: Drawing On Participatory Action Research To Explore Ways Of Engaging In A Process Of Meat Consumption Reduction, Brittany Spadafore

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With growing attention to climate change and human impacts on the environment, an emerging body of literature is exploring the impacts of global reliance on meat consumption. Research is increasingly supporting the feasibility of reducing meat consumption to address the environmental pressures of the global food system. However, recommended strategies to promote a reduction in meat consumption have been limited due to narrowly focusing on individual rational decision-making models. Centralizing a Social Practice theoretical lens, the present study utilized an approach to participatory action research to explore the experiences of seven (N = 7) green-building tenants reducing their meat consumption …

Well-Being, Discrimination, And Self-Management Among Racialized Lgbq+ Newcomers Living In Waterloo Region, Ontario, Emily Cox

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Racism and homo/biphobia may negatively impact the well-being of racialized LGBTQ+ newcomers. While current research focuses predominantly on negative aspects of well-being (e.g., distress, exclusion), research on resilience and positive aspects of well-being (e.g., positive affect) is limited. Although self-management strategies (i.e., activities and attitudes to improve one’s well-being) could be a key factor in promoting well-being, previous research has not addressed how racialized LGBTQ+ newcomers use self-management strategies. Further, there is limited research about the role service providers (e.g., settlement services, mental and physical health services) play in supporting these strategies. In this study, eight racialized LGBQ+ newcomers and …

Narcissistic Worldview: How Narcissism Relates To Perceptions Of Conflict And Exploitative Behaviour, Nicola Urquhart

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Narcissism is associated with highly competitive and exploitative behaviour. This thesis examines the possibility that these behaviours may be, in part, due to a bias to perceive a high amount of social conflict, thus promoting exploitative behaviour through greed or to avoid being taken advantage of. Two studies tested this possibility through a game format – one a novel anagram task, and the other a Commons Dilemma task. Results across both studies suggest that individuals high in grandiose narcissism perceive a higher amount of conflict than individuals low in grandiose narcissism, regardless of the degree of conflict inherently present. Study …

The Nature Of Informal Roles In Interdependent Sport Teams, Jeemin Kim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The degree to which athletes understand and execute their formal role responsibilities (i.e., prescribed by coaches) is important for individual and group functioning (Eys, Schinke, Surya, & Benson, 2014). Recent literature suggested that informal roles can emerge within sport teams more naturally without coaches’ explicit assignments (e.g., team comedians, distracters), and have significant influences on team functioning (Cope, Eys, Beauchamp, Schinke, & Bosselut, 2011). This doctoral dissertation examined the nature of informal roles within interdependent sport teams, focusing on their antecedents and outcomes. Three separate projects were conducted. Project One examined athletes’ personality in the big five dimensions (McCrae & …