Psychology Commons^™

Exploring How Parents Influence Role Acceptance Of Youth Athletes Through Multiple Perspectives, Michael J. Godfrey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Role acceptance refers to the willingness of an athlete to fulfill expected role responsibilities (Benson, Eys, Surya, Dawson, & Schneider, 2013). Researchers have proposed several potential antecedents of role acceptance, one of which emphasized the influence of parents in this process (Eys et al., in preparation). With this in mind, the general purpose of the present study was to examine how parents influence the role acceptance process through multiple perspectives (e.g., parents, athletes, and coaches). To achieve this objective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 participants (7 parents, 7 athletes, and 5 coaches) from four different types of interdependent team …

The Influence Of Freedom And Choice In Action Selection And The Valence Of Action-Outcomes On The Sense Of Agency, Zeynep Barlas Wilfrid Laurier University

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Sense of agency (SoA) refers to the subjective experience that one is the author of their actions and the ensuing outcomes of these actions. Previous research have suggested that both sensorimotor processes and high level inferences can contribute to the SoA. In five experiments, the present thesis examined the effects of action selection processes and the valence of action-outcomes on the SoA. The majority of these experiments measured the SoA by obtaining both subjective feeling of control (FoC) judgments over the action-outcomes, and assessing the size of intentional binding. Intentional binding refers to the perceived temporal attraction between actions and …

Investigating Grandiose Narcissism As A Personality Process, Miranda Giacomin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Though grandiose subclinical narcissism has predominantly been studied in structural terms—focused on individuals’ general tendencies to be more or less narcissistic—narcissism may also function as a personality process (i.e., narcissism fluctuates within-individuals across contexts or situations). Narcissism has also been conceptualized as a dynamic self-regulatory system, a set of coherent, mutually-reinforcing attributes, which orients individuals toward positive self-feelings (e.g., Campbell & Foster, 2007). In this dissertation, I empirically examine the possibility that narcissism has a meaningful process or state component and is more context-dependent than previously assumed. Manuscript 1 found that making people feel more connected to others (by increasing …

How Perceptions Of A Relationship Partner’S Self-Esteem Influence Support Seeking, Alexandra Hirniak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Receiving effective social support is beneficial (Cohen & Wills, 1985); unfortunately people do not always seek support when they need it (Collins & Feeney, 2000). I hypothesized that perceptions of a partner’s self-esteem affect social support processes, such that people will be less willing to solicit support from low self-esteem partners for stressful events because they assume that low self-esteem partners will be unable to provide effective support. Results from four studies (Study 1A: N=116; Study 1B: N=201; Study 2: N=194; Study 3: N=196) demonstrated that perceptions of a romantic partner’s self-esteem were positively associated with people’s willingness to share …

The Effects Of Altered Auditory Feedback On Speech Production In Adults: A Comparison Of Perturbation And Sensorimotor Adaptation Paradigms, Danielle S. Jacobson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Auditory feedback (AF) plays a crucial role in the acquisition and maintenance of fluent speech. AF allows speakers to monitor and correct for errors in their speech production and also plays an important role to create and maintain the sensorimotor relationships that support vocal motor control. To investigate the importance of AF for these functions, participants are typically exposed to brief, unexpected changes to their AF as part of a frequency altered feedback (FAF) perturbation paradigm, or persistent and predictable changes to their AF as part of a FAF adaptation paradigm. Although responses elicited from both the FAF perturbation and …

Holding Canada Accountable: An Evaluation Of Canada's Compliance To The United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Jackson A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Compliance of human rights norms requires the application of pressure from a multitude of directions and levels. It takes individual advocacy, micro-system/organizational/community-level pressure, and macro-level pressure from other nation-states and international organizations and governance bodies. This MA study focuses on the mechanisms employed by the United Nations to monitor the compliance of signatory nation-states to the standards established in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), with particular focus on Canada. A crucial goal of this study is to translate the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNSRRIP), James Anaya’s, findings on the …

Stigma, Community Connectedness, And Social Support Among Trans Women Living With Hiv In Ontario: Findings From The Trans Pulse Project, Tanya D'Amours

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Trans (transgender, transsexual, transitioned) individuals face numerous challenges to their health and well-being (Bauer, Hammond, Travers, Kaay, Hohenadel & Boyce, 2009). Trans women in particular face disproportionately high rates of negative health outcomes, including HIV. Trans women face intersecting stigmas, which result in transphobia, trans erasure, isolation, and other systemic barriers to their well-being (Logie, James, Tharao, & Loutfy, 2012a). Despite their elevated risk, trans women, particularly those living with HIV, are invisible, neglected or underrepresented in research (Logie, et al., 2012a). Research suggests that community connectedness and social support are factors that impact the wellness of marginalized people (Kertzner, …

Experiences Of Victimization And Health Care Access Among Non-Metropolitan Lgbtq+ Individuals, Ashley-Ann Marcotte

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals report substantial rates of violence, discrimination, and negative life events due to homophobia and transphobia and these experiences impact access to health care services and programs (Bauer et al, 2009; Grant, Mottet, Tanis, Harrison, & Keisling, 2010) These experiences result in LGBTQ+ communities needing services, programs, and social supports to provide safer spaces. Although it is well recognized that health care services are not a major determinant of health outcomes and yet use more than 60% of health spending (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2014; Muzyka, Hodgson, & Prada, 2012). As such, …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Rent Assistance On Individuals Experiencing Chronic Homelessness In Waterloo Region, Courtney Pankratz Ms.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The main objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the addition of rent assistance to Waterloo Region’s existing housing and support services. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent comparison group design was used to compare the outcomes between two groups: (a) participants selected to receive rent assistance plus intensive support services (n = 26) and (b) participants receiving support services only (n = 25). Participants were interviewed at baseline and again six months later. It was hypothesized that participants receiving rent assistance would show significantly greater improvement on housing outcomes compared to the comparison group, including greater number of days …

Age-Related Changes In Hippocampal Arc Expression Following Minimal Behavioural Induction, Irina V. Odintsova

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Normal ageing is associated with significant changes in cognitive function, including the decline of some forms of memory. The hippocampal formation is critical to learning and memory function, and plasticity in this region declines with age. Additionally, age-related differences in plasticity are greatest at lower levels of stimulation, thus peri-threshold plasticity may be of the greatest relevance for age-related changes in cognition. Moreover, the hippocampus is prone to changes in the expression of gene products that mediate plasticity with age. The current thesis attempts to link these observations by measuring hippocampal expression of Arc, an immediate-early gene that is critical …

Moral Identity From Cross- And Bi-Cultural Perspectives, Fanli Jia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Researchers in moral psychology have initiated projects to investigate moral identity; however, they agreed that a precise definition and methodology of moral identity has been lacking in establishing the value of this new area. One of the challenges is that cultural explorations of moral identity are absent. Moral identity may take different forms in different cultures, or play an important role in morality in some cultures but not in others (Hardy & Carlo, 2005). The present dissertation was aimed at investigating how Western Canadian and Eastern Chinese cultural orientations relate to moral identities. Three studies were conducted.

In the first …

Evaluating A Skills-Based Approach To Bullying Prevention, Rebecca Pister

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the following paper, I present an evaluation of the bullying prevention program designed and delivered by the John Howard Society of Waterloo-Wellington (JHS WW). A mixed-methods approach involving both quantitative and qualitative data collection was used to assess the program impacts on children receiving the primary stream of the program (Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 3), and the junior stream of the program (Grades 4 through 6). A case study was also conducted to assess the impacts of the program one year after program delivery and after two consecutive years of programming. Finally, all school staff members were invited to respond …

An Examination Of Newcomer Integration Processes In Sport Teams: A Socialization Perspective, Alex J. Benson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In highly interdependent groups, the ability to swiftly and successfully integrate newcomers is an important component to maintaining functional team dynamics. The current dissertation explored how sport teams structure the nature and timing of events that newcomers are put through by implementing specific socialization tactics. In the first manuscript, a qualitative study was initiated to garner descriptive insights into the tactics that are used to socialize athletes into sport teams. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with coaches, veteran athletes, and newcomer athletes (i.e., individuals in their first year as a team member). Participant insights were thematically analyzed and compared to existing …

Social Problems, Biomedical Answers? How Causes Of Social Problems Affect Choice Of Solutions, Bianca C. Dreyer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With rapid advances in behavioural genetics, scientists are identifying an increasing array of genetic influences on human behaviour. Public misconceptions about the function of genes often lead to the oversimplification of the role of genes in behaviour (Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2011). To date, no study has systematically investigated whether simply learning about genetic causes of behaviour affects people’s preferred solutions to problematic behaviours. The present research program includes three studies that were designed to examine the psychological effects of exposure to genetic etiology for problematic behaviour, in particular aggression, and investigated how this information influences endorsement of solutions, rating of …

Hiv Testing In The Context Of Hiv Stigma And Minority Stress, Mallory C. Harrigan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The HIV test is highly valued for its role in promoting personal health, aiding in HIV prevention, and enabling the epidemiological tracking of the virus. However, relatively few scholars have critically examined the social and cultural implications of testing practices (Scott, 2003). These implications are of particular concern because the groups targeted for testing (referred to as service priority groups) are marginalized communities, and have historically been further marginalized by many public health HIV prevention efforts (Waldby, 1996). This thesis examines the experience of receiving an HIV test from the perspective of individuals in service priority groups, which include gay, …

The 2d:4d Ratio, Handedness, And Sex Across The Age Span, Helen A M Protopapas Ms.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The ratio of the difference between the 2nd and 4th digits of the hand (2D:4D ratio) has been demonstrated to be an indirect indicator of prenatal testosterone levels. Prenatal testosterone has been found to play a role in brain development in utero, and thus may influence lateral asymmetries, such as handedness. Consequently, one of the aims of the current study was to examine relationships between the 2D:4D ratio, hand preference, and hand performance with the factors of sex (males and females), handedness (right handers and left handers), and age considered. A total of 104 participants were tested, 90 right handers …

Children’S Ability To Identify An Unusual Occurrence Of A Repeated Event, Mckenzie K. Vanderloon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Research on script memory shows that individuals have a difficult time isolating single instances of a repeated event because a generic script (e.g., one has a generic script for typical grocery shopping; grab a cart, gather items, then pay) has formed over time. Scripts capture the “gist” of what usually happens and allow individuals to predict what probably occurred based on the robustness of the script. Thus, individuals are able to identify details of what occurs; however, piecing which details came from a particular incident poses its challenges, especially for children. Source monitoring is the ability to accurately differentiate …

Social Justice And Worker Cooperatives, Gurveer Shaan Dhillon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social Justice (SJ) is an organizing principle of contemporary community psychology (CP); however, the concept and understanding of social justice in community psychology is undertheorized and narrow. Specifically, the concept of distributive justice, which has been a popular notion of social justice in community psychology discourse, does not translate well into transformative action. In order to address this issue, the research uses a qualitative approach to explore the understanding of social justice from the perspectives of worker-members of 5 worker cooperatives in Ontario, with the aim to contribute to an understanding of SJ that has transformative implications. A worker cooperative …

An Examination Of The Factors That Dictate The Relative Weighting Of Feedback And Feedforward Input For Speech Motor Control, Nichole E. Scheerer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Speech is arguably the most important form of human communication. Fluent speech production relies on auditory feedback for the planning, execution, and monitoring of speech movements. Auditory feedback is particularly important during the acquisition of speech, however, it has been suggested that over time speakers rely less on auditory feedback as they develop robust sensorimotor representations that allow speech motor commands to be executed in a feedforward manner. The studies reported in this thesis recorded speaker’s vocal and neural responses to altered auditory feedback in order to explore the factors that dictate the relative importance of auditory feedback for speech …

Sugar For Sale: Constructions Of Intimacy In The Sugar Bowl, Emily Zimmermann

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Do Cyberbullies Really Want To Hurt Others?, Danielle Law

Clear Language Summaries

Cyberbullying occurs when computer and mobile technologies are used to intentionally harm others. When communicating online there are two basic motivations for online aggression: whether they are posting mean things with intention to harm, or whether they are engaging in these behaviours to defend themselves. This research found that the majority of teenagers are not intentionally mean; rather, they are navigating a world of miscommunication that lends itself to retaliation that spirals out of control in aggressive ways. A small percentage of teens are deliberately malicious and require special intervention. When educating teens about cyberbullying it is important to understand …

What Develops In Moral Identities? A Critical Review, Tobias Krettenauer, Steven Hertz

Psychology Faculty Publications

According to the standard model of moral identity development, moral identities emerge during adolescence and early adulthood. Contrary to this assumption, however, moral identity research has consistently failed to demonstrate any age-related change in this developmental period. The present paper discusses implications of this non-finding. It is argued that researchers need to broaden the scope of inquiry and include developmental aspects of the moral identity construct that have been neglected in the past. Three areas are identified where moral identity development likely occurs in adolescence and beyond: (1) context-dependent differentiation and integration of the self-importance of moral values, (2) growth …

Moral Identity Development And Positive Moral Emotions: Differences Involving Authentic And Hubristic Pride, Tobias Krettenauer, Victoria Casey

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research repeatedly documented associations between moral identity and negative moral emotions (e.g., guilt), whereas the relationship between moral identity and positive moral emotions (e.g., pride) has been rarely investigated. The present study examined relationships between moral identity and two forms of positive moral emotions, authentic and hubristic moral pride. For a sample of 216 Canadian adolescents and young adults (M = 17.72 years, SD = 3.65; 107 females), it was demonstrated that authentic and hubristic moral pride define two distinct aspects of positive moral emotions, which are differentially related to moral identity, moral motivation, as well as prosocial and …

Tweeting About Sexism: The Well-Being Benefits Of A Social Media Collective Action., Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although collective action has psychological benefits in non-gendered contexts (e.g., Drury et al., 2005), the benefits for women taking action against gender discrimination are unclear. This study examined how a popular, yet unexplored potential form of collective action, namely tweeting about sexism, affects women’s well-being. Women read about sexism and were randomly assigned to tweet, or to one of three control groups. Content analyses showed tweets exhibited collective intent and action. Analyses of linguistic markers suggested public tweeters used more cognitive complexity in their language than private tweeters. Profile analyses showed that compared to controls, only public tweeters showed decreasing …

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 …

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 …

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 …

“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 …

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 …

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 …