Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Civil War And Power: A Theoretical Inquiry, Can Guven

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is a theoretical project that explores the conceptual nexus between civil war and power. It maps out a lineage of thought which posits civil war as a framework for explicating politics, not as a pre-political stage of savagery or a deteriorated condition of the socio-political order. Starting with Michel Foucault’s radical yet short-lived civil war thesis, which situates civil war as the matrix of relations of power, this investigation traverses the work of several theorists and philosophers who have drawn on, or departed from, this line of thought. It critically evaluates Giorgio Agamben’s use of the concept …

Individual Differences In Categorization, Urooj Anees

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The appearance of individual differences used to be regarded as noise in psychological experiments, but is slowly becoming a tool used to enhance and solidify findings in various fields of cognitive psychology. This presentation aims to very briefly discuss individual differences and categorization and what questions future research could aim to answer.

Measuring The Morphologic Response Of Braided Rivers To Lateral Constriction, Victoria Barlow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of this thesis is to understand the morphologic changes to a set of historically braided rivers that have been narrowed. Braided rivers from the agriculturally developed Canterbury Plains, New Zealand, were studied from a period prior to much development (mid-1900s) to the present. Narrowing of channels, decreased braiding intensity, and loss of braided planforms were determined based on aerial imagery, changing the geography of braiding along all rivers. Channel width and count were statistically correlated and show the predictability of braiding change based on narrowing. Reaches with initially wide channels require more narrowing to induce a simplification of …

Colombian Women’S Experiences Of The Canadian Refugee And Asylum Adjudication Process, Camila N. Parra Carrillo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present thesis “Colombian women’s experiences of the Canadian refugee and asylum adjudication process” is an ethnographic description and analysis of the experiences of Colombian refugee women as they move through the refugee and asylum adjudication system in Ontario, Canada. Using concepts such as liminality, politics of waiting, hermeneutics of suspicion and arbitrariness, the refugee and asylum adjudication system is shown to be a site of power and domination that creates negative emotions in the people who face it, especially in the oral hearing as a central event in the process. Centering Colombian refugee women’s voices, their experiences and emotions …

Development And Validation Of The Fat Microaggressions Scale, Megan Lindloff

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Much of the discrimination that higher-weight people face takes the form of microaggressions, which have yet to be quantitatively measured. Across five studies, I describe the development and validation of the Fat Microaggressions Scale (FMS). In Study 1, I created the initial item pool through examining previously published measures of experienced weight stigma, qualitative studies, and tweets using the #FatMicroaggressions hashtag. In Study 2, I conducted a Delphi review with fat activists and scholars to receive feedback on the scale. In Study 3, I provided initial evidence for a four-factor structure of the FMS through an exploratory factor analysis. In …

Human Augmentation Technology: Exploring Exoskeleton Patents, Mridula A. Debnath

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Human augmentation technology has numerous applications in rehabilitation medicine, disability management, military settings, workplace/industrial settings etc. Such technology can be studied through patent exploration, where the contents of each patent can highlight specific intentions and usage for the invention. This project uses a small sample of exoskeleton patents from China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, to demonstrate how similar technology is designed for different purposes. Three distinct patent categories have been identified: Disability & Rehabilitation, Prevention of Injury, and Enhancement. Disability & Rehabilitation patents describe exoskeletal devices that are intended for use in medical settings. These may be …

A Demonstration Of The Utility Of Formalizing Theory: Mapping, Evaluating, And Testing The Theory Of Devaluation Of Alternatives, Rebecca Koessler

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Devaluation of alternatives is often identified as a key relationship maintenance strategy that is used to combat the threat of attractive alternatives. However, since the theory was proposed by Johnson and Rusbult (1989), few efforts have been dedicated to evaluating the progression of the theory and assessing the quantity and quality of the existing evidence that claims to corroborate it. The present research fulfilled this need by formalizing the theory of devaluation of alternatives using a metatheoretical approach that involved categorization, deconstruction, reconstruction via theory mapping, and evaluation (Chapter 2). P-curve meta-analyses were used to determine whether p-hacking …

Reframing Childhood Disability: Pushing Boundaries In The Rehabilitation Sciences, Emily J. Cox

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to critically examine the ways that dominant discourses surrounding childhood disability, as constructed in the neoliberal context, shape knowledge and practice in children’s rehabilitation. I carried out a critical discourse analysis of text within the rehabilitation sciences, including peer-reviewed research, websites, and qualitative interview transcripts. Drawing on disability studies scholarship as well as my Foucauldian conceptual framework, I called attention to complex interactions between discourse, power, and knowledge that shape thought and action in the rehabilitation sciences. My findings suggest that despite a growing recognition of the harms associated with deficit-based understandings of disability, …

The Effect Of Propionic Acid On The Habituation To Social And Non-Social Odour Cues In Adult Male Rats, Cashmeira-Dove P. Tyson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The enteric bacterial metabolite, propionic acid (PPA), elicits physiological and behavioural changes in rodents reminiscent of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This includes abnormal sensory processing and social behaviour. ASD may contribute to social deficits through impaired habituation; therefore, the present study examined the effects of intraperitoneal PPA on the habituation to social and non-social odours. Adult male rats were injected daily with PPA or the vehicle control, and for 3 days, habituated to a conspecific odour or vanilla extract for 10 minutes. On day 4, rats were exposed to a novel conspecific odour or almond extract for 10 minutes to …

The Links Between A Postsecondary Education And Adult Health Behaviors, Anthony Jehn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Postsecondary education is a fundamental social determinant of adult health behaviors. The knowledge and skills acquired through higher educational attainment can impact health behaviors indirectly through better occupations and incomes as well as directly by enhancing cognitive and non-cognitive abilities to enable healthier lifestyles. However, there has also been an increasing divide in health-related behaviors between adults with incomplete or lower-level postsecondary credentials (sub-BA) and those with at least a bachelor’s degree (BA+). In fact, adults with sub-BA levels of postsecondary education have seen rising death rates from preventable behavioral causes of early mortality, such as alcoholic liver disease. These …

Digital Geographies Of Indigenous Health: Exploring Indigenous Mental Health Content From Turtle Island During Covid-19, Veronica Reitmeier

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The physical and mental health and wellness of Indigenous peoples is cultivated through interrelations with spiritual, cultural, community, and social practices: these practices strengthen identity and belonging. COVID-19 has disrupted many of these relational practices or shifted them to digital environments such as social media. Drawing on a thematic analysis of Tweets from March 2020-December 2021 (n=1137), I address the research question: How are Twitter users across Turtle Island engaging with Indigenous mental health content on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic? Within an Indigenous context, no exploratory research has been conducted on who is engaging with mental health content on …

Race Disparities In Pain Among Canadian Adults., Harry Alorgbey Sardina

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Pain has significant quality-of-life implications for adults. We aimed to identify racial disparities in pain among Canadian adults. These results are crucial to uncovering which population groups are disproportionately experiencing pain-related suffering in Canada.

Listening Effort: Separating The Subjective From The Objective, Joseph E. Rovetti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Challenges such as background noise may increase “listening effort.” This construct has been operationalized as the recruitment of cognitive resources during listening (objective effort) or as the self-reported feeling of effort (subjective effort). In the current study, I compared these two dimensions of listening effort directly. Normal-hearing adults listened to highly intelligible passages across several signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), with reaction time on a secondary task (objective effort) and effort ratings (subjective effort) measured in separate blocks. As the SNR became less favourable, subjective effort appeared to increase continuously, while objective effort only began to increase at a much less favourable …

How Do Individuals In Intercultural Romantic Relationships Use Communication Strategies To Maintain Their Relationship? A Qualitative Analysis., Adira Daniel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intercultural relationships—romantic relationships where one partner is outside the other’s racial, ethnic, religious, and/or language group—are a growing sociodemographic group. Individuals in such relationships must navigate their cultural differences to mitigate the negative effects of the challenges they face and ameliorate the benefits of their relationship. Culture can impact preferences in communicating about these differences and consequently relationship maintenance. Yet little is known about how intercultural couples communicate about their cultural differences to effectively maintain their relationship. To address this gap, I conducted semi-structured, virtual, interviews with 23 intercultural couples and found that intercultural couples’ overall preference and efficacy …

Analysis Of Credit Risk And Single / Two Factor Model, Siwen Chen

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Since 2008, businesses and banks must manage and track more risk than ever before. Financial risk management helps companies and banks decrease the risk of investment and trade. Additionally, financial risk management gives a guide on how to forecast and manage the risk efficiently. More specifically, the three major risks are market risk, credit risk, and operational risk. This report will focus on the credit risk: introducing the definition of credit risk, single factor model, the relationship between coefficient and default probability, and the relationship of m coefficient and default probability. Using the single factor model, we will extend the …

Gbsv Resource Guide And Review For The University Of Western Ontario And Surrounding Area, Alyssa J. Madhani

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

During the 2021-2022 academic year, gender-based violence and sexual assault became a major topic of discussion due to a number of troubling incidents throughout the year. One of the largest calls to action by the student body was for more resources and trainings. This paper compiles the resources and trainings that can be found on campus of the University of Western Ontario and in the surrounding areas into a cohesive list of major relevant sources. The goal of this paper is to amplify the many different programs already in place that can be added to the training cohorts or made …

Examining The Relationships Between Socio-Cognitive Factors And Neural Synchrony During Movie Watching Across Development, Kathleen M. Lyons

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

While different cognitive abilities mature, the conscious experiences of children likely become richer and more elaborate. A challenge in investigating relationships between cognitive development and real-world experiences is having measures that assess naturalistic processing. Movie watching offers a solution, since following the plot of a film requires cognitive processes that are similar to real-world experiences. When different adults watch the same film, their brain activity begins to align (known as neural synchrony). The strength of this alignment has been shown to reflect the degree to which different individuals are having a similar experience of the movie. While this phenomenon has …

The Initial Development, Factor Structure, And Psychometric Validation Of The Impostor Phenomenon Assessment (Ipa): A Novel Assessment Of Impostor Phenomenon, Deanna L. Walker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite growing attention surrounding impostor phenomenon (also known as “imposter syndrome”), recent reviews have suggested that current measures may be inadequate in capturing the complex and multifaceted nature of this construct (i.e., thoughts, feelings, and behaviours). The objective of my dissertation research program was to clarify the theoretical conceptualization of impostor phenomenon based on experiences in an achievement-oriented setting, and to develop a novel and psychometrically valid method of measuring this construct. I began by conducting an extensive review of the literature and developing an item pool for a novel impostor phenomenon assessment. I then conducted exploratory factor …

Role Of The Default-Mode Network During Narrative Integration In Major Depressive Disorder, Darren Ri-Sheng Liang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How brain activity is synchronized across individuals during narrative comprehension has previously been characterized by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy and patient populations. To our knowledge, there has been limited investigation as to how it is affected by major depressive disorder (MDD). We addressed this issue with fMRI through examination of inter-subject synchronization in the default mode network (DMN), brain structures which have previously been implicated in MDD pathology. Twenty-two patients with MDD and 20 matched control participants listened to Intact versus Scrambled versions of an auditory narrative; these experimental conditions differed in the degree of temporal integration …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Undergraduate University Students With Part-Time Jobs, Miguel F. Bernard Bravo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored how the pandemic and the shift to online learning impacted university students’ experiences of learning and working, and how students’ capital and other resources impacted their university experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen undergraduate students who had paid employment in the last 12 months were recruited. In interviews participants were asked about their experiences with work, schooling and balancing the two with the pressures of the pandemic. Students cited financial concerns, as well as challenges with difficulties with online learning, motivation, and isolation. Importantly, this study found that students experiences differed in accordance with their capital and …

Non:Wa: Navigating Indigenous Modernity Through Female Artists' Perspectives, Nicole Bussey

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This article examines the relationship between tradition and modern elements of Indigenous music through a cyclical perspective, and challenges colonial concepts of Indigenous modernity. Indigenous culture is often portrayed in mainstream culture as a relic of the past, which renders it incompatible with modernity. With a special focus on Indigenous female artists’ perspectives, I examine the ways in which women placed in this unique intersection challenge the binaries of past/present and tradition/modern.

Objectified And Dehumanized: Does Objectification Impact Perceptions Of Women Political Candidates?, Claire M. Gothreau, Amanda Milena Alvarez, Amanda Friesen

Political Science Publications

Objectification and dehumanization are topics often discussed within the social psychology and feminist theory literature. Research on objectification has largely focused on the sexual objectification of women’s bodies, whereas the dehumanization literature has focused on dehumanization in the context of racial and ethnic groups. Extant political science research has only recently begun to engage with these concepts. In this manuscript, we build upon these literatures and apply these insights to questions relevant to politics. In particular, we argue that objectifying and dehumanizing portrayals of women impact how voters evaluate women politicians and how much they support gender parity in politics. …

Community Development Agreements: The Hardening And Evaluation Of A Norm, Luka G. Petrusevski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Large scale mining projects generate highly variable outcomes. Proponents of mining cite benefits including job creation and revenue generation, while critics point to adverse social and economic impacts borne by mining-proximate communities. Community-based concerns about mining operations have raised ethical and social justice considerations relating to human-rights and consent. Community development agreements (CDAs) have emerged as an increasingly common tool to address such concerns and facilitate the delivery of tangible benefits from mining operations to affected communities. The effectiveness of CDAs, however, varies widely depending on the negotiated provisions and their implementation. This work contributes to the understanding of CDAs …

Virtual Reality, Mindfulness And Their Associations To Personality Traits, Somer Schaffer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mindfulness, conceptualized as actively noticing and engaging with oneself and one’s surroundings with a nonjudgmental mind, is associated with many positive outcomes such as healthy relationships, stress reduction, performance engagement, and increased well-being. Virtual reality (VR) technologies offer people immersive experiences to engage with novel environments for entertaining and therapeutic purposes. While in any VR environment, participants may perceive themselves as if they are in the scenes, that is, they experience moment-to-moment awareness and immersion in these virtual environments. Thus, practicing mindfulness meditation with technologies like smartphones and VR has become increasingly popular over the past decade. However, little research …

Mapping Governmental Engagement With Community Engaged Learning In Canadian Higher Education: An Environmental Scan Of Key Trends, Hannah R. Argiloff

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This is an environmental survey my supervisor and I conducted pertaining to the landscape of government engagement with Community Engaged Learning in Canadian Universities.

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) is a valuable type of experiential learning characterized by collaboration between student and community partner/ stakeholder for the creation of a mutual outcome.

Given the relations between provincial governments and their influence over publicly funded universities, compounded by a recent uptick in CEL programs across Canada, we wanted to survey government rhetoric, policy, and legislation across the country to create a picture of the interactions between provincial governments and CEL in the …

Measuring The Exposure And Vulnerability Of Transit Riders To Cold Temperatures In London, Ontario, Armin Mahboubi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Due to the expansion of suburban areas in many cities around the world, accessibility to public transit through walking has become a new challenge for riders. Considering the impacts of climate change in creating more extreme weather, such as extreme cold, heat, or flooding, transit riders may thus be at a higher risk of exposure for various weather-related illnesses (Fraser & Chester, 2016).

Using ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap software, and data collected from City of London’s Open Portal, the United States Geological Survey, Open Mobility Data, and Statistics Canada, the exposure and vulnerability of transit riders to cold temperatures in …

An Explorative Study Of The Methods Used In Dendrochronology And Its Applications, Matthew Bowery

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The science of dendrochronology involves the dating of tree rings and analysis of their annual growth rates. It is important to conduct field studies to determine what tree species in a given area are suitable for analysis. This project began by coring Acer plantanoides, Acer saccharinum, Acer saccharum, and Picea abies from the Fanshawe Conservation Area in London, Ontario. Each core was prepped using standard procedures and analyzed for the visibility of annual rings. The tree rings of Acer plantanoides and Acer saccharinum were inadequate for accurate dating, and thus, only Acer saccharum and Picea abies were …

Digital Road Safety Education Intervention For Children: A Pilot Feasibility Study, Julia Pham

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Over the summer, the Active School Travel (AST) Digital Road Safety Education Pilot Feasibility project was developed as part of the School Travel Plan (STP) study, which aims to improve children’s AST behaviour, physical activity, and reduce air pollution around schools. The Pilot Feasibility study will be evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of an online educational intervention that teaches Grade 4 to 6 students about the rules and skills involved in walking and wheeling to and from school (and around their community) daily. The curriculum is broken up into four modules that will consist of readings, an audio/visual resource, …

Endorsement (And Rejection) Of Normative Fitness Culture: Qualitative Evidence For A Novel Construct, Sara M. Stanley, Eva Pila, Katarina Huellemann

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

“Normative fitness culture” is a phenomenon within the disordered eating literature that comprises the endorsement of sociocultural fitness norms (e.g., “no pain, no gain” rhetoric). Endorsement of normative fitness culture is hypothesized to contribute to maladaptive body, eating, and exercise attitudes and behaviours, though it has never been formally operationalized and examined in the psychological literature. Qualitative explorations of how women endorse (and reject) normative fitness culture may inform how these norms are promoted and maintained, and their impact on individual psychosocial experiences. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to explore and characterize the endorsement and rejection of …

Humor Styles And Job Interests, Trinity Ho

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The goal of this study was to investigate the possible relationships between humor styles and vocational interests by using the correlations between the two variables. Previous research suggests that humor in general plays an important role regarding work/job satisfaction individual and job performance (de Sousa et al., 2017), or the atmosphere at work place in general (Romero & Cruthirds, 2007).

This study aims to investigate the possible relationships and fill the gap, between humor styles and vocational interests.