Psychology

Many consumers purchase sweatshop products, despite the hazardous conditions for workers. The psychological factors that influence (un) ethical garment purchasing are not well understood. Two studies explored consumers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour. University students (Study 1; N = 130) said they would pay more for ethically-labelled garments, particularly students who were community and future-orientated. Importantly, most students were unaware of where to purchase ethical garments. In Study 2, female undergraduate students (N = 74) were randomly assigned to read about a sweatshop collapse or garment care. Students who read about the disaster chose more 'sweatshop-free' garments in a virtual shopping task. All students spent similarly (clothes, accessories, and in general) in the week following the experiment, however. Students may buy ethically-made garments if clearly labelled, but sweatshop information in the media may not affect consumer behaviour. Changes in public policy and education about the human costs of overconsumption are needed.

Author Keywords: Decision making, Ethical garments, Ethical purchasing, Materialism, Overconsumption

Media has had a significant influence on how individuals living with and at risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) care for their health. This research builds on previous research to explore the link between HIV related media messaging and HIV related health behaviours using a mixed methods approach. To investigate the access to and perceptions of HIV related media, a sample of 129 individuals took part in an online survey and 13 were assessed in follow up semi-structured interviews. People living with HIV, people at risk of HIV, and participants not in those groups differed on a number of HIV media access variables, including the amount of time spent interacting with HIV related media, how they accessed it, and its perceived effects on their HIV related attitudes and behaviours. Interviews explored these differences more, finding that while current HIV related media is less stigmatizing and more factual than the past, most current HIV related media is distributed via social media and is accessed by a relatively small group of HIV specialist viewers. The history of HIV related media continues to play an important role in determining perceptions of HIV related media. Implications of this study will inform strategies for the communication of HIV health messages.

Author Keywords: AIDS, HIV, Media and Health, Mixed Methodology, Social Determinants of Health, Social Media

The strong relationship between poverty and poor health has been well-established for millennia; however, the mechanisms through which this relationship manifests are only recently becoming understood. Perceptions of relative wealth and status, chronic stress, and immunodeficiencies are implicated in recent research studying the social determinants of health. The purpose of the current study is to access the detailed and contextualized perceptions of these relationships and contribute evidence-based policy suggestions to improve the health of the Canadian population. A qualitative approach was employed to provide a unique perspective in addressing the concerns identified within the literature, and fifteen semi-structured interviews with relevant experts were conducted and evaluated using a Content Analysis. The results of the current study suggested a consensus among the participants with regards to the income-related social factors which determine poor health outcomes. A basic income was also perceived to moderate these mechanisms to a certain degree, but was not considered the most effective policy solution. Emulating the progressive tax policies of more economically equal countries was the preferred approach to addressing the issues of poverty and poor health in Canada (though a basic income was not excluded as a potential subsection of these policies). A lack of political will was perceived to be one of the primary obstacles preventing such policies from coming into practice, and it was the conclusion of this paper that virtuous and knowledgeable political leaders are a necessity in the successful pursuit of improving the health of the Canadian people.

Although years of research have established that attachment representations are not

consistently transmitted from parent to child (also known as the transmission gap), the

reasons for this gap remain relatively unknown. This transmission gap exists between

parents and peers as well. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the role of

caregiving sensitivity in the relationship between parent attachment and peer attachment

and to test if caregiving sensitivity helps explains the relationship between parent

attachment and peer attachment. This study found support for the transmission of

attachment from parent to peers, but not that caregiving sensitivity explains this

transmission. Results indicate that parenting caregiving sensitivity questionnaires are

inconsistent in assessing the construct of sensitivity. Parenting caregiving sensitivity

questionnaires also do not measure the same concepts as peer caregiving sensitivity

questionnaires. These findings suggest that assessing caregiving sensitivity in parents

differently may help close the transmission gap.

Author Keywords: attachment, caregiving, parenting, peer, sensitivity

Sexual assertiveness encompasses skills in refusing unwanted sexual situations and bringing about wanted sexual situations. Measures of sexual assertiveness typically assess both refusal and initiation aspects, yet there is a dearth of research examining these skills in relation to one another. The present study examined the relationship between these skillsets in women, exploring predictors of each. Initiation and refusal assertiveness were moderately correlated. Additionally, the relationship between them was not entirely explained by general assertiveness, indicating that there is something unique to assertiveness in the sexual context. Committed relationship context and erotophilic disposition specifically predicted initiation assertiveness. Less endorsement of the sexual double standard and fewer approach motivations for engaging in unwanted sex specifically predicted refusal assertiveness. Few differences emerged in predictors of assertiveness types when comparing sexual orientation groups, yet non-heterosexual women reported slightly lower levels of refusal assertiveness. Implications for sexual education, therapy, and future research are discussed.

Author Keywords: sexual assertiveness, sexual autonomy, sexual compliance, sexual double standard, sexual satisfaction, sexual self-disclosure

Previous research has found that bullying and victimization is related to poor socioemotional competencies. The present study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and bullying and victimization in a large community-based sample of adolescents. Specifically, we explored the EI of bullies, victims, bully-victims, and those uninvolved. We also examined whether the relationship between EI and types of bullying and victimization activities were consistent across age and gender. We found that stress management and interpersonal skills are important EI dimensions to predicting both bullying and victimization. Moreover, intrapersonal skills were predictive of boys' bullying behaviours and adaptability was the strongest EI dimension in bullies and victims. Age did not contribute much to the overall prediction of bullying and victimization in either gender. Results are discussed in terms of future implications regarding anti-bullying interventions.

Author Keywords: Adolescents, age, Bullying, Emotional Intelligence, gender, social emotional competencies

Autistic traits are characterized by difficulties with socialization, preference for order, and rigid and repetitive behaviour patterns. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of two measures of autistic traits, the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and the Sub-threshold Autistic Trait Questionnaire (SATQ), and their associations with the HEXACO personality framework. The relationships between self-objectification, Need for Cognition (NFC), and autistic traits were also examined. In a student sample (N = 294), autistic traits were found to be negatively related to eXtraversion, but unrelated to self-objectification and NFC. However, individual subscales of the SATQ and AQ revealed different personality profiles, suggesting a non-unitary composition of the autistic trait measures. The AQ's subscales failed to be represented in its factor structure. Intercorrelations between SATQ and AQ subscales showed that some subscales were uncorrelated with others. These concerns challenge whether autistic traits should be considered as a downwards extrapolation of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Author Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autistic Traits, HEXACO, Need for Cognition, Self-Objectification

Children of incarcerated parents are an understudied at-risk population. However, this thesis was designed to advance our understanding of the effects of parental incarceration and factors that may influence the impact. Using quantitative methods, possible moderating roles of gender, number of incarcerated parents, and contact frequency on the associations between attachment representations and problem behaviours were investigated in two samples. Results revealed that the number of incarcerated parents and contact frequency with incarcerated parents moderated the associations between attachment and externalizing behaviours. Furthermore, after controlling for several factors (e.g., gender, number of incarcerated parents, and contact) higher scores on secure parental attachment representations were consistently negatively associated with internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviours. The discussion of findings highlight the utility of attachment theory in conceptualizing the impact of parental incarceration and the importance of fostering attachment security to promote positive mental health and behavioural outcomes for children of incarcerated parents.

Author Keywords: attachment, internalizing symptoms, parental incarceration, problem behaviours

The present thesis entails a qualitative investigation of the unique notion to transition media change from the current paper-based system to the potential use of information technology innovation for communication between health care providers and employers during return to work. Stakeholder perspectives on relevant communication phenomena were gathered from workers, employers, and health care providers with experience in return to work. Methods for analysis involved critical realist grounded theory, as well as the use of a prototype innovation, named the Return to Work Expert App, as a platform for participant evaluation and discourse. The study's findings provided comprehensive and in-depth understanding of return to work communication, beyond its empirical regularities. The generative mechanisms of common communication problems that were discovered included situated reasoning, media as information ("the medium is the message"), epistemological disjuncture, egoism-altruism-collectivism quandary, and perspective taking. A novel theoretical framework based on ecological psychology was also advanced to offer a coherent and systematic understanding of the situated nature of health care providers' reasoning and information development. Media change via the Return to Work Expert App was argued to be limited in handling and resolving many of the communication problems that can occur. However, the app had perceptible value and benefits to prospective users that suggested a distinct advantage over current paper-based practices. Opportunities for further development and research exist to address relevant challenges, most notable of all being the need to address the app's burden of proof. For the interested reader, this thesis advances research and knowledge of provider-employer communication to a state that is truly fitting of the importance acknowledged of it in the field of return to work.

Author Keywords: critical realism, ecological psychology, media change, return to work, stakeholder communication, technological acceptance

Evidence suggests that visuomotor system behaviour may be more sensitive to the prolonged effects of mild brain injuries than neuropsychological tests. We evaluated whether participants with a mild closed head injury (CHI) would show lingering visuomotor deficits, but not cognitive deficits, up to three years post-injury compared to participants with an orthopaedic injury and healthy controls. All three groups completed a tablet-based visuomotor assessment tool and a brief neuropsychological test battery. The CHI participants scored comparable to the control groups on the neuropsychological tests, but when assessed for visuomotor function requiring adjustment to a changing stimulus, CHI participants showed poorer performance than the control groups. Combined, these findings add to the evidence that CHI can lead to persistent visuomotor deficits that extend beyond those of neuropsychological tests. Therefore, visuomotor assessment should be included in brain injury and recovery evaluation, and this can be accomplished easily using tablet-based tasks.

Author Keywords: closed head injury, neuropsychological assessment, recovery, tablet, traumatic brain injury, visuomotor