Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Time, Perspectives, Verbs, And Imagining Events, Jeffrey P. Hong

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During the processing of verbs, readers form internal representations of the events described by those verbs. Two key elements in the construction of event representations are temporal information, given by the verbs that describe the represented events, and the visual perspective from which the events are represented. The current study is composed of two experiments aimed at examining the roles these two factors play in event representation. Specifically, the study aimed to determine how temporal information and visual perspective are represented during event imagination.

Experiment 1 investigated the role of temporal information associated with verbs, given by grammatical aspect (GA) …

Juror Perceptions Of Eyewitness Identification Evidence, Timothy G. Wykes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Jurors rely on eyewitness testimony in deciding a defendant’s guilt or innocence. Archival analyses of hundreds of post-conviction DNA exonerations have identified eyewitness misidentification as the highest individual factor contributing to wrongful convictions (Innocence Project, 2014). Internationally, criminal justice systems have employed procedural safeguards (PSs) to educate juries on factors affecting eyewitness identification accuracy. Two such safeguards include the introduction of eyewitness expert testimony during trial proceedings and the reading of cautionary instructions by a presiding judge. In an independent factorial design, this research sought to examine the effects of a model judicial caution drafted by the Ontario Judicial Council …

Parent-Child Interaction In Shared-Computer Activities: An Exploratory Study Examining Parent-Child Interaction With A Mobile Device, Marjan Petkovski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present exploratory study examined the shared-computer behaviours of parent-child dyads in order to examine how (and if) parents interact with their children when using mobile digital devices and parents’ perceptions of their child’s technology use. Little is known about how technologies are used with young children and how to maximize and support young children’s learning when they are introduced to these technologies. In total, ­­104 parents (­­n = 72 mothers and n = 32 fathers; one parent per child) participated in an observation session where parent-child interactions using a mobile device (Apple iPad™) were recorded in order to observe …

Intersectional Exposures: Exploring The Health Effect Of Employment With Kaajal Immigrant/Refugee Women In Grand Erie Through Photovoice, Bharati Sethi Ms

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this community-based participatory research was to understand the employment-health association for immigrant/refugee women from Korea, Asia, Africa, Japan, Arab world and Latin America (KAAJAL) in Grand Erie –a mid-sized urban/rural region in Ontario, Canada. The study utilized photovoice –a visual qualitative research methodology in which participants were given cameras to record their experiences. Intersectionality analysis of 525 participant-generated photographs, diaries, and in-depth interviews of twenty women revealed that various markers of difference such as nationality (i.e. native or foreign-born), immigrant status (i.e. family class sponsorship), geography (i.e. rural or urban residence), …

Through An Intersectionality Lens: Service Provider Views On The Sexual Health Needs Of Racialized Lgbtq Youth In Toronto, Shanshan Yan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis explores the needs and gaps in knowledge and service delivery in sexual health for racialized LGBTQ youth living in Toronto, Canada from the perspective of service providers. Through a grounded theory approach, data were analysed using an intersectionality lens with the intention that the complex identities of the youth be considered. The findings of this study shed light on the barriers that operate at the micro (ie. personal), meso (ie. community) and macro (ie. societal) levels that affect the sexual health outcomes of racialized LGBTQ youth. Key findings from this study point to: 1) the need to closely …

Bay Area Student Involvement In The Environmental And Food Justice Movements: A Narrative Of Motivations, Experiences, And Community Impact, Laura E. Solof

Doctoral Dissertations

Many California public school students lack exposure to any formal, academic curriculum that emphasizes environmental awareness and activism. This may result in a population of adults who believe they know more about the environment than they actually do, lack the skills to compete in an expanding green job market, lack creativity and the ability to problem-solve, suffer from obesity, depression, anxiety, and attention disorders, and unknowingly contribute to the ever-increasing problems of air and water pollution, land and habitat destruction, and other environmental injustices. Community organizations and university programs are filling this much-needed gap in student environmental education, as they …

Perspectives On Disability And Community Engagement In Albania: Developing Mutual Understanding Through The Sharing Of Individual Narratives, Lucia Murillo

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores current perspectives on disability in Albania by bringing into discourse the voice of families and community members in order to learn how history, tradition, and family values influence individual or community response to having or being in community alongside children with special needs.

Research Theory and Protocol

I carried out this research using critical hermeneutic theory. The protocol followed an interpretive approach as outlined by Ellen Herda (1999). This orientation brought the researcher and participants together and used narratives as a medium for participatory inquiry.

Research Categories

The critical hermeneutic concepts of narrative identity, mimesis, and communicative …

Pro-Anorexia/Bulimia Interactions Online: Problematizing Complex Cultural Phenomena, Nicole D. Schott

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the West, and increasingly globally, individuals, particularly women, are fixated on weight loss, driven by the goal of achieving a culturally-desired, and aggressively marketed, "skinny" female physique. There are online forums where individuals refer to themselves or their eating disorders as "pro-ana" and "pro-mia". Individuals who post on these sites both align with, and challenge, what medical and mental health professionals define as serious mental health problems that result in severe, sometimes fatal, medical complications. This thesis specifically focuses on interactions with, and within, the pro-ana/mia culture on the social media websites Tumblr and YouTube. Over sixteen months, and …

A Bittersweet Investigation Of Availability And Nutritive Value As Determinants Of Volitional Sucrose Consumption, Milan D. Valyear

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Rats given ~24 h access to a 4% sucrose solution every 3^rd day (E3DA) consume about 100 g more solution than rats with continuous, everyday access (EDA). Under the same EDA-E3DA conditions rats will consume similar amounts of a more concentrated 8 or 16% sucrose solutions (Eikelboom, Hewitt, & Adams, Unpublished). It maybe that with these more concentrated solutions rats hit a satiety limit that prevents a difference between EDA and E3DA consumption from being evident. Experiment 1 was conducted to investigate the effect of adding quinine to 4% and 8% sucrose solutions with the intention of reducing consumption …

Youth Recidivism: A Qualitative Study Of Risk And Resilience, Jesse M. Near Ms.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

The rates of reoffending for Ontario youth are high and come at a significant cost to both society and the youths involved. Research to date has explored risk and protective factors. Despite this progress, the relationships between these factors and recidivism are not well understood. Knowing that a youth is exposed to any of these identified risk or protective factors does little to explain why these factors do not affect all youth equally and why some youths reoffend while others do not. Resilience theory has increasingly been used as the framework to explore the concept of recidivism. The present …

Children's Cognitive Processing Of Abuse As Described In Investigative Interviews., Kayleen A. Willemsen, Kim P. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A great deal of research has examined ways in which investigative interviewers can elicit accurate information from children. More recently, research has studied children’s own thoughts or comprehension of abuse, and how these types of statements relate to disclosure, others’ perceptions of child witnesses, and psychological trauma. However, little research has investigated multiple types of children’s thoughts about abuse as they occur in an actual investigative interview. The current study examined seven types of statements children made about their abuse in a sample of 86 transcripts of investigative interviews conducted by Child Protective Services and a police department in a …

A Heart-Based Sufi Mindfulness Spiritual Practice Employing Self-Journeying, Faruk Arslan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Spiritual Psychology is the study and practice of the art and science of the human evolution of consciousness. The heart occupies an important place in Sufism and is considered to contain the divine spark that leads to spiritual realization. Fethullah Gülen’s action-oriented Sufi methods described in his book series “The Emerald Hills of the Heart” provides the basis for a heart-based therapeutic intervention through self-journeying, which is the objective of this thesis. These self-purification and mindfulness-related transpersonal methods generate a form of treatment that is culturally sensitive. Through my reflections in this research, I transformed my personal experiences into …

Youth's Comprehension Of Environmental Justice Across Multiple Countries, Alexa L. Stovold

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Global climate change is an issue of environmental justice, because neither contributions toward the causes nor its consequences are equally distributed across and within countries (Roberts, 2001). Given the importance of framing climate change as an environmental justice issue, the present study sought to understand how youth conceptualize and engage with environmental justice across multiple countries. Youth are an important target population for engagement, because they often are active agents of social change by challenging the status-quo, and becoming civically engaged (Blythe & Harré, 2012; De Vreede, Warner & Pitter, 2014; United Nations, 2004).

The current research is a secondary …

Therapists' Experiences Treating Clients With Dissociative Identity Disorder, Alexandra E. Paull

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this exploratory study was to collect qualitative data to examine what social workers describe as their experience working with clients who fit the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This study interviewed twelve licensed therapists through in person, phone, and skype interviews. These interviews explored the experience of their clinical work and its impact on them personally. Seven major themes were identified from coding the narrative data: the challenges and rewards of treatment, characteristics of the population, characteristics of the clinicians, treatment structure, what treating their first client with this disorder was like, misconceptions, and places current …

What Does The 'Q' Stand For Anyway? : Queerness And Agency Competence, Eleanor C. Taylor

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This exploratory study’s purpose was to explore queer identity in mental health practice through the question, "Does queerness emerge as a distinct cultural category through the language of conversation, clinical practice, and administrative policy in mental health agencies that serve queer people, and in what practices is this reflected?” This project was undertaken in order to begin to fill gaps in existing cultural competence literature, particularly regarding queer identity.

This project entailed semi-structured interviews with ten participants, who worked in direct service at mental health agencies that serve LGBTQIA+ populations. This study examines the meanings and effects of queerness in …

Creating And Teaching A Specialized Legal Research Course: The Benefits And Considerations, Erika Cohn

All Faculty Scholarship

This article outlines the author's experience creating and teaching a specialized legal research course. It includes the reasons for offering such a course, tips for selecting a topic and developing a syllabus, getting the course approved, creating student interest, developing a teaching plan, and evaluating the course.

Police Sexual Misconduct: A National Scale Study Of Arrested Officers, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Brooke E. Mathna

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Police sexual misconduct is often considered a hidden crime that routinely goes unreported. The current study provides an empirical data on cases of sex-related police crime at law enforcement agencies across the United States. The study identifies and describes incidents where sworn law enforcement officers were arrested for one or more sex-related crimes through a quantitative content analysis of published newspaper articles and court records. The primary news information source was the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts. Data are analyzed on 548 arrest cases in the years 2005-2007 of 398 officers employed by 328 nonfederal law …

Whose Niqab Is This? Challenging, Creating And Communicating Female Muslim Identity Via Social Media, Gordon Alley-Young

Publications and Research

The 2010 annual report of the US State Department on Human Rights reported a rising bias towards Muslims in Europe (US State Department, 2010) while France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland enact laws restricting religious dress and/or mosques. Despite this bias, Gallup reports that 77% of UK Muslims identify with their country versus only 50% of the general public (BBC News, 2009). North American Muslims face similar challenges. US news reports of mosque building or expansion draw vocal opposition like that expressed about an Islamic Cultural Center opened near Ground Zero in New York City. US reality series All American Muslim …

A Comparison Of Alexithymia Levels Of Male Intimate Partner Abuse Perpetrators And Men From The General Community, James Strickland

Theses : Honours

Intimate partner abuse (IPA) is a significant social issue with diverse and complex risk factors. Recent attention, however, has been placed on the individual psychological and emotional factors associated with IPA, including deficits in the processing of emotions. The construct of alexithymia, which involves difficulties identifying and describing emotions, integrates some of these emotional deficits. Currently, no published research has examined the levels of alexithymia among Australian men who perpetrate IPA. The aim of the current study was to compare the alexithymia levels of IPA perpetrators (n = 31) with those of men from the general community (n = 34) …

Toward A Filipino/A Critical (Filcrit) Pedagogy: Exposure Programs To The Philippines And The Politicization Of Melissa Roxas, Michael Viola

School of Liberal Arts Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Networked Ecological Citizenship, The New Middle Classes And The Provisioning Of Sustainable Waste Management In Bangalore, India, Manisha Anantharaman

School of Liberal Arts Faculty Works

Globalization and economic liberalization are enabling individuals in emerging economies like India to access lifestyles similar to the resource-intense West. This spread of consumerism poses substantial ecological challenges, and calls for studies that investigate the environmental values, ethics, and politics of India's new consumers. In this paper, I explore emerging pro-environmental behaviors in the city of Bangalore, India, among the new middle classes- its most significant consumer class. Using the case of home waste management, I show how household behavior change is made possible by neighborhood-based coordination, involving multiple actors such as environmentally-conscious residents, domestic help, and hired waste workers. …

Therapy Portrayal In The Media : Exploring How Viewing Scenes Of Therapy In Film And Television Affect A Person's Decision To Seek Therapy, Melissa E. Bayer

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore how viewing media representation of therapy, expressly film and television, can affect a person's willingness to attend therapy. This study also explored a person's perceptions of media on their beliefs about therapy and what scenes of therapy and therapists impacted them. Our current society is saturated with media messages and this study looks to explore how the constant amount of media can influence us and affect our decisions, such as attending therapy. Scenes of therapy have long been portrayed in the media and frequently continue to be in the media. Fifty people …

Exploring Ways White Children Are Taught About Race And Racism, Angela M. Clark

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

In this theoretical study, I will explore ways White children are taught about race and racism, and ways this subject can be explored with White youth in therapeutic contexts. In the United States, racism continues to have a significant negative impact on the material and psychological experiences of people of color, limiting life chances while it is largely ignored by White individuals and White-dominated institutions. One factor that serves to maintain the existence and influence of racist systems is White people's ignorance of the degree to which racism is present in our institutions, dominant discourse and ideology, and in ourselves. …

Exploring The Relationship Between Maternal Childhood Maltreatment History, Parent-Child Relations And Child Emotion Regulation, Chelsie D. Sampayan

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Child maltreatment is an issue that has serious psychological and behavioral consequences in children now and in the future. This exploratory study used the developmental psychopathology framework to examine the relationships between maternal childhood maltreatment, parent-child relations, and child emotion regulation. I performed a secondary data analysis on 228 preschool-aged children (118 boys and 110 girls) and their biological mothers. Data was originally collected as part of a longitudinal study called the Child Regulation and Representation Project (CHiRRP). Mothers responded to a semi-structured interview, which was then coded for severity ratings of childhood physical abuse (CPA) and childhood sexual abuse …

Chinese American College Graduates In The Great Recession : An Exploratory Study, Rebecca D. Lee

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the ways in which the Great Recession has affected Chinese American, recent college graduates in their career development. The person-in-environment perspective of clinical social work was the foundation for this study: it was expected that the negative economic effects of the Great Recession have changed the occupational landscape for Chinese American recent college graduates, which has had an effect on their mental health and personal relationships. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling, and 12 individuals were interviewed regarding their career-related experiences after graduation. All participants identified as Chinese American and graduated …

An Evaluation Of Clinical Interventions And Client Satisfaction In A Mandated Massachusetts Driver Alcohol Education Program : A Project Based Upon An Investigation At Spectrum Health Systems, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Adesholla L. Gionet

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study was carried out to evaluate the use of psycho-education as a clinical intervention with court-mandated, drunk, and under-the-influence (DUI) clients, as well as, those who operated a motor vehicle under-the-influence (OUI). Additionally, the study was designed to determine the extent of client-perceived satisfaction in a Massachusetts Alcohol Education program. Furthermore, the study intended to give clients a voice in expressing themselves about what elements of the program could benefit from improvement in order to assist in motivating court-mandated clients to make positive behavioral changes that will result in lower alcohol and substance-use related recidivism rates. A questionnaire was …

Youth Incarceration : Restorative Justice And Social Work Practice, Elissa N. Berlinger

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This project examined the problem of juvenile crime and incarceration. I explored how two Criminal Justice theories—Attribution theory and Deterrence theory—support and explain the problem, and how two Social Work theories—Social Justice theory and Responsive Regulation theory—offer an alternative view and solution to the problem. I explained the principles and program models of Restorative Justice and strived to understand why there are so few Social Workers involved in Restorative Justice programs. Through this work, I addressed the following questions: with Restorative Justice carrying similar values as the Social Work profession, why are Social Workers not involved in Restorative Justice programs? …

What Do Clinicians Know About Human Sexuality After Leaving Graduate School?, Linzy K. Barnett

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Clinicians are trained to address a variety of issues regarding their clients' mental health, but how well are professional counselors being trained to explore "alternative" sexual expressions, erotic (counter) transference, gender identities, and the enumerable ways clients can have concerns or issues with aspects of their sexuality? Within this study 15 clinicians were interviewed regarding their experiences within graduate school and the level to which they felt competent and prepared to discuss topics of sex, gender, and sexuality within a clinical context. Many of the participants described utilizing their personal life experiences, self-sought trainings, and individual reading choices as ways …

The Desire To Informally Mentor : Creative Growth Within The Third Space, Emily K. Porter

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This theoretical thesis endeavors to explore the unconscious benefits accrued by the mentor in informal mentoring relationships. It focuses on a significant gap in the theoretical and empirical literature by identifying and describing the potential benefit for the mentor beyond Erikson's (1950) notion of generativity within his framework of psychosocial development. This thesis employs both Drive Theory and Object Relations Theories in order to conceptualize a more dynamic understanding of why the mentor might invest energy and time as a participant in an informal mentoring relationship. Both Drive and Object Relations Theories are used to explore the hypothesized three-part relationship …

Emotional Abuse : The Subjective Experience Of Professionals And The Obstacles To Prevention And Intervention, Rachel H. Flichtbeil

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore the subjective experience of the professionals in the Denver/Boulder area working with emotional abuse that occurs between children and their caretakers and to examine the obstacles they experience to more effective prevention and intervention of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse is a widespread and damaging social problem that is often ignored or minimized by the legal system, the child welfare system and the mental health system (Doyle, 1997; Glaser, 2011; Marshall, 2012). This study interviewed 12 key informants from the mental health system, the child welfare system and the legal system and included …