Psychology Commons^™

Individual Responsibility For Collective Harms, Melany Lorraine Banks

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The aim of the dissertation is to propose a new theory of collective responsibility that will be able to determine individual responsibility for collective harms from small collectives to large, unstructured collectives. Theories of collective responsibility seek to address the harms that are caused when agents work collectively, and then to determine where responsibility will he in such cases. In the dissertation I show that these theories cannot address large, unstructured harms while being reducible to the individual. The key case for this dissertation is climate change, and I propose a theory of collective responsibility that will both identify this …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The Needs Of (Pre)Parenting: Women Parenting With Women In Southern Ontario, Krystal Lee Kellington

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Over the years research has examined various aspects of Women Parenting with Women (WPW) and their families. The focus of the research on these families has to an extent, been influenced by the social and political debates throughout the years that saw these families struggle through one challenge to the next. Through these challenges, research has examined the claims and accusations for and against these families, generating information on the mental health and suitability of same-sex parents, the well-being of their children, and how these families function without a nuclear family structure. As the social and political climate continues to …

It’S Like Jumping Out Of A Plane Without A Parachute: Incarceration And Reintegration Experiences Of Provincially Sentenced Women In Atlantic Canada, Jennifer Robena Bernier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Women are now the fastest rising prison population in the world (Balfour & Comack, 2006). As more and more women are being incarcerated, it becomes increasingly important to understand how they experience imprisonment, as well as their transition back to the community. Scholarly work on women’s incarceration and reintegration is limited. In Canada, the majority of research on reintegration, and otherwise, has focused on the federal correctional system. The goal of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the incarceration and reintegration experiences of women in the provincial correctional system. In order to achieve this goal, I conducted …

The “Budget Fallacy”: Sources Of Accuracy And Bias In Personal Spending Predictions, Johanna Peetz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In everyday life, people frequently estimate their spending for projects and time periods. In the present research, I extend previous work on self prediction into the realm of personal financial behavior. Seven studies examine people’s ability to predict their future personal spending and processes underlying spending predictions. I found that people tended to underestimate their future personal spending when predicting next week's spending (Studies 1-3), predicting that they would spend substantially less money during an upcoming week than they actually did. On average, participants underestimated their weekly expenditures by about 27&. However, spending predictions for concrete events appeared to be …

Young, Working And Black: A Study Of Empowerment, Oppression, Race And Gender In Community Settings, Julian Hasford

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between race, gender, and power in community settings. Taking the experiences of young Black Canadians within the workplace as an exemplar, the study sought to answer three main research questions: (a) How does oppression influence the psychological empowerment of Black youth and young adults in the workplace? (b) How do workplace characteristics promote Black youths’ and young adults’ psychological empowerment?, and (c) How does gender influence Black youths’ and young adults’ experiences of oppression and empowerment in the workplace? To answer these questions I conducted narrative interviews with 24 Black …

Conjunction Search Onset Following Single-Feature Preview: Equating Visual Transients, Wafa Saoud

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

What happens to visual selection if the features of objects in a scene are viewed incrementally rather than simultaneously? According to Olds et al. (2009), it depends upon which feature is presented first. Olds et al. (2009) used the feature-preview search paradigm to cue conjunction search items by presenting observers with a preview display that contained 1 of 2 features for all of the search items. Prior exposure to some features facilitated subsequent visual selection more than prior exposure to others; overall, size-preview offered the greatest search facilitation, followed by color-preview, and lastly, orientation-preview. Some feature-preview conditions, however, contained luminance …

Supporting University Students With Mental Health Issues: A Needs Assessment, Amanda Celeste Weckwerth

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study was conducted to obtain an understanding of the post-secondary educational experiences of students with mental health issues (MHI’s) at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), to examine the needs of these students, to identify specific types of supports and accommodations available to these students, and to determine how improvements could be made by removing any identified barriers and putting in their place needed supports and accommodations. Study components included forming an advisory committee, administering a needs assessment questionnaire to WLU students (n = 78) and a campus service assessment tool to service managers (n = 3), and conducting …

Perceiving Pervasive Discrimination Over Time: Implications For Coping, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study suggests the effects of perceived pervasiveness may be dynamic over time. The hypothesis was that participants who perceived discrimination to be highly pervasive would initially be more likely to engage in inactive coping strategies than those who perceived low pervasiveness. However, those who continued to perceive high pervasiveness over time would ultimately show greater evidence of using active strategies than those perceiving low pervasiveness. Using a 28-day diary, women and ethnic minorities described their daily experiences of discrimination and indicated their appraisals of its pervasiveness as well as their coping strategies. Results showed that participants who initially perceived …

The Dynamic Nature Of Coping With Gender Discrimination: Appraisals, Strategies And Well-Being Over Time, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Female introductory psychology students at a Canadian university (N = 31) participated in a lab simulation of discrimination, completed coping and well-being measures and then an online survey of well-being one year later. Expectations were that active (inactive) coping would initially be related to decreased (increased) well-being. A reverse pattern was expected for relationships between coping and well-being one year later. Results showed that among those perceiving high pervasive discrimination, active and inactive coping was related to decreased well-being immediately after the discrimination was portrayed, but among those perceiving low pervasiveness inactive coping was related to increased well-being. One year …

Handbook On Sensitive Practice For Health Care Practitioners: Lessons From Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Candice L. Schachter, Carol A. Stalker, Eli Teram, Gerri C. Lasiuk, Alanna Danilkewich

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

This handbook is the culmination of a multiphase, multidisciplinary research project that used grounded theory and participatory action research to illuminate ways that healthcare providers can work sensitively (in a trauma-informed way) with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The research identified nine Principles of Sensitive Practice: respect, rapport, taking time, sharing information and control, respecting boundaries, fostering mutual learning, understanding non-linear healing and demonstrating an understanding of trauma to patients. Specific guidelines were developed for a wide variety of issues pertinent to clinical practice such as, removal of clothing, touch, responding to disclosures of abuse, managing triggers among others. …

Moral Emotion Expectancies And Moral Behavior In Adolescence, Megan E. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the present research we extended previous studies examining moral emotion expectancies in childhood to investigate the relationship between moral emotion expectancies and moral behavior in adolescence. A secondary goal was to explore the relationships among moral emotion expectancies, the moral self, and moral action. Two hundred and thirty-five adolescents in grades 7, 9, 11, and first year university completed a structured interview assessing moral emotion expectancies in various situations in which a moral norm is either regarded or disregarded. Participants distributed up to 10 plastic chips on nine emotional expressions to indicate how they expected to feel in each …

Understanding Best Practices For Community Engagement In Municipal Contexts, Sherry Mcgee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Engaging citizens in decision making has long been understood as part of the democratic process, most commonly recognized as electoral votership. In recent decades, the benefits of providing citizens a variety of opportunities for community engagement (CE) have been documented. Currently, few studies have explored the role of municipal government in engagement processes, and how engagement should be contextualized within municipal policy structures and practices. The City of Kitchener, located in Ontario, Canada is in the process of formalizing engagement practices through policy. In partnering with the City of Kitchener, five interviews were conducted with four Canadian municipalities and one …

Made Me Who I Am: An Examination Of Grandparent And Parent Value Teaching And Young Adult Generativity, Identity, And Adjustment, Elise Bisson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Intergenerational value transmission plays an important role in child socialization. Although much research has been done on parent to child value teaching, there is little research on grandparent to grandchild value teaching. The purpose of this study was to explore parent and grandparent value teaching and how it relates to young adult generativity, identity development, and adjustment. This study involved 100 young adults, between the ages of 25 to 29 with a mean age of 26, taken from a longitudinal sample of participants in 2006. Participants were asked to tell parent and grandparent value teaching stories, in which they described …

Event Syntax And Event Semantics As Constraints On Availability Of Discourse, Raymond B. Becker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The understanding of how temporal information constrains situation models is far from complete. In tehse two experiments participants read short stories, where the antecedent sentence was manipulated with respect to varying tense, grammatical and lexical verb aspect (Experiment 1), and then by varying grammatical and lexical verb aspect in conjunction with long and short duration events (Experiment 2). We used electrophysiological measures time-locked to the anaphoric referent to investigate how the brain responds to these temporal constraints. The purpose was to investigate teh possibility that these variables have an influence on the availability of discourse concepts in situation models. In …

Satisfaction With Sexual Health Education Among Recent Graduates Of Ontario High Schools, Glenn J. Meaney

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Satisfaction with sexual health education can be seen as student evaluation of how effectively the sexual health education curriculum meets its goals. First-year university students completed one questionnaire containing measures concerning satisfaction with high school sexual health education, sexuality-related individual difference variables, and intentions to pursue further sexual health education at the university level. Question 1 was whether students were satisfied with their high school sexual health education. Results were examined for differences by gender and type of school attended (i.e., public or Catholic). Participants rated sexual health topics as very important; believed that most sexual health education should occur …

Community Consultation And Environmental Justice In The Regent Park Revitalization, Jacqueline De Schutter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The neighbourhood of Regent Park, located in the east end of downtown Toronto, Ontario, is the oldest and largest public housing development in Canada. In 2002, under its new management by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, the development was announced to undergo a total redevelopment to be completed over 12 years. The revitalization of Regent Park has involved, among other things, an extensive and uniquely designed community consultation process, as well as a redesign for its green space. The community consultation process is examined through a case study method, wherein the use of archival documents, interviews with community staff, and …

An Action Research Study Of The Supporting The University-Ready Through Environment (Sure) Program, Natalie Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current research documented the processes and outcomes of an educational access program for women living in poverty at the individual and organizational level of analysis. The purpose of this study was to understand barriers, strategies to reduce barriers and outcomes achieved by a grassroots program: Supporting the University-Ready through Empowerment (SURE). The 12 participants consisted of three women learners of the SURE program, three SURE co-directors (including myself), three university partners and three community partners. Life narrative interviews were conducted with the learners with structured interviews conducted with all other informants. Additionally, focus groups were run with the SURE …

Computer Integration In Elementary And Secondary Schools: Variables Influencing Educators, Julie Mueller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Given the prevalence of computers in education today, it is critical to understand teachers’ perspectives regarding computer integration in their classrooms. Research identifying stages of implementation, and literature identifying barriers and supports, fall short of explaining what variables impact an educator’s ultimate decision to integrate technology in their instruction. The current research surveyed a heterogeneous sample of 185 elementary and 204 secondary teachers in order to provide a comprehensive summary of teacher characteristics and variables that discriminate teachers who integrate technology from those who do not. Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) identified the following variables as making unique contributions to discriminating …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Short-Duration Reading Intervention On Grade One Phonological Awareness And Word Reading, Carrie Seward

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the influence of a summer intervention for children showing early signs of reading delay. The project evaluated two intervention components: a two week camp for children and two training workshops for parents. Data were collected for five groups of participants. Three groups participated in one or more intervention components: parent workshops only group, child camp only group, and both parent workshops and child camp group. All children who participated in the interventions were identified by teachers as having difficulty in phonological awareness and word reading skills at the end of senior kindergarten. …

The Tactile Motion Aftereffect, Peggy Joanne Planetta

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The tactile motion aftereffect (tMAE) is a perceptual phenomenon in which illusory motion is reported following adaptation to a unidirectionally moving tactile stimulus. Unlike its visual counterpart, relatively little is known about the tMAE. For that reason, the purpose of this dissertation was to gain a better understanding of the tMAE using both psychophysical and neuroimaging techniques. In a series of five experiments the skin was adapted using a plastic cylinder with a square-wave patterned surface. Chapter 2 consists of two experiments, both of which adapted the glabrous surface of the right hand. Experiment 1 showed that the prevalence, duration, …

Implementing Technology In The Classroom: Assessing Teachers’ Needs Through The Use Of A Just-In-Time Support System, Alissa N. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Given the importance of computer technology in classrooms today, it is crucial to identify the types of supports that will facilitate teachers’ effective implementation of technology. Ten teachers (four kindergarten, four grade one, and two grade one/two) received just-in-time support while introducing a reading software program in their class. An additional 12 teachers (four kindergarten, seven grade one, and one grade two) were exposed to the software, but did not receive just-in-time support. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of instructional sessions were conducted in order to determine the kinds of support that teachers required throughout the intervention. Results provided an …

Acknowledging The Skeletons In Our Closet: Collective Guilt And Ingroup-Affirmation, Gregory Roy Gunn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Just as people defend against threats to personal identity, they also defend against threats to social identity. In the context of intergroup transgression, the defensiveness against social identity threat has the effect of undermining collective guilt and its prosocial consequences. However, there may be ways for perpetrator groups to alleviate threat without undermining guilt. Five studies examined whether perpetrator groups are more willing to acknowledge collective guilt once social identity threat has been buffered by ingroup-affirmation. As predicted, Study 1 revealed that men accepted greater collective guilt for the mistreatment of women after affirming their ingroup. Replicating this effect, Study …

Intuition, Rational Analysis And The Relation Between Implicit And Explicit Attitudes, Mervyn Lee Whitfield

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across four experiments, reliance on rational analysis reduced the correspondence between implicit and explicit attitudes relative to reliance on intuition. In each experiment, implicit attitudes were measured, and then participants were induced to rely on either rational analysis or intuition. Following this manipulation, explicit attitudes were measured. We found that participants reported explicit attitudes that were more or less consistent with implicit attitudes depending on whether they relied more on intuitions or rational analysis. Notably, rational analysis only reduced the correspondence between implicit and explicit attitudes when it led participants to consider reasons for their attitudes that were inconsistent with …

Reading Comprehension In Adolescent First And Second Language Learners: A Comparison Of Simple And Multi-Component Models, Adrian Dominic Kenneth Pasquarella

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The underlying components of reading comprehension were examined and compared in adolescents who spoke English as their first (L1) or second (L2) language. One-hundred and nine adolescents (55 L1 and 54 L2) completed measures of reading comprehension, decoding, vocabulary knowledge, working memory, comprehension strategy use, motivation and print exposure in English. Overall English L1 students outperformed English L2 students on measure of reading and language, with English L2 students performing below grade level on measures of comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Examining models of reading comprehension between groups revealed that vocabulary knowledge is the best predictor of reading comprehension for both …

List Composition Effects For Masked Semantic Primes: Evidence Inconsistent With Activation Accounts, Jennifer C. Major

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Priming is the benefit that an event receives when its processing has been preceded by the processing of a related or identical event. Context effects on priming are evident when priming changes as a function of some feature of experimental trials. The most commonly explored context effect is that of relatedness proportion (RP), where it has often been shown that the magnitude of priming (semantic or repetition) is directly related to the proportion of related trials: Increasing the related trials results in greater priming. Although previously thought to depend on strategic processing, recent evidence of context effects from designs using …

The “Both-And” Choice: The Impact Of Informational, Motivational And Behavioural Skill Messages On Adolescent Dual Protection, Tyla Fullerton

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The promotion of simultaneous condom and hormonal contraceptive use is an imperative given increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections and patterns of sexual behaviour in Canada. Previous research has shown that few adolescents engage in dual protection due to a number of barriers including attitudes and beliefs about sexual health risk. These attitudes and beliefs are shaped by key sexual health referents including parents, friends, educators, health care providers, and sexual partners. This study investigated how these sources influence information, motivation and behavioural skills (IMB) that lead to dual protection. Attitudes and beliefs are shaped by information and motivation from …

Asset-Based Community Development: A Case Study, Suzanne Killing Wood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This case describes an effort toward asset-based community development with an ‘underprivileged’ neighbourhood, including the responsive steps taken to deal with the realities and challenges of community change efforts. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including residents and external supports, this paper examines changes in community activity in association with their newly formed community centre. Through analysis of the community’s challenges four ‘enabling conditions’ necessary for community development are identified including: balancing relationships with issues; effective ‘citizen space’; maintenance of relationships and communication; and community readiness. These key lessons include ongoing considerations of patience, flexibility, and responsiveness …

Minimizing A Potential Threat: The Effects Of Closeness On Perceptions Of Teasing, Glen Gorman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Recent research has shown that when teasing occurs between two people, the intentions of the teaser are not always known, or appreciated by the recipient of the tease, thus creating a rift between the teaser and the target (Kruger et al, 2006). Targets of teasing tended to rate the tease and the intentions of the teaser more negatively than did the teaser. The purpose of the present research was to examine perceptions of teasing within the context of close relationships. Although teasing may be perceived as a threatening situation, members of a close interpersonal relationship may be motivated to lessen …

Evaluating Community Participation In Health Care Decision-Making: The Case Of The Airdie/North Rocky View Health Needs Project, Aleisha Dawn Harrington

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Rising health care costs combined with limited health resources have made it essential for health agencies around the world to identify successful and affordable ways to prevent disease and promote health. Several national and international documents have proposed that increased community participation in health matters is one potential approach. While many of these reports detail the benefits of and need for community participation in health care decision-making, they provide little information as to how this should be achieved. The result has been a myriad of interpretations, interventions and practices of community participation. According to several scholars, evaluations are needed that …

Pigeons’ Memory For Time: Assessment Of The Role Of Subjective Shortening In The Duration Of Comparison Procedure, Patrick Van Rooyen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained with a 1-s baseline s-c delay in a duration comparison procedure to peck one key if a comparison duration (c) was 1-s shorter than a standard duration (s), and another key if c was 1-s longer than s. The duration pairs used prevented pigeons from relying on the absolute duration of c on some trials (comparison common) while on other trials they could rely on the absolute duration of c (comparison unique). Pigeons were then tested with equal duration pairs at extended s-c delays of 1, 2, 4, and …