Department of Psychology Graduate Theses
Recent Submissions
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Racializing Sexual Response: The Role of Identification and Racial Attitudes on Black and White Women’s Responses to Race Congruent and Incongruent Sexual Stimuli
Identification, or taking the actor’s perspective in a sexual film, is a strong predictor of women’s self-reported sexual arousal, and similarity between the viewer and actors in a film, such as similarity in race, is ... -
Comparing Mechanisms of Change in Group-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Patients with Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is a costly, debilitating, and prevalent condition that requires biopsychosocial informed interventions for best management. This study aimed to compare acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive behaviour ... -
Interpersonal and Affect-Related Outcomes of Short-Term Targeted Loving-Kindness Meditation for Female Undergraduate Students
Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), derived from a Buddhist practice focused on cultivating feelings of love towards others, has recently been found to be associated with immediate and long-term improvements in interpersonal ... -
The Influence of Perceived Control and Helplessness on Chronic Pain
The present dissertation includes three empirical studies (Chapters 2-4) examining the relationships between perceived control constructs and chronic pain related outcomes. Study One (Chapter 2) examined whether low ... -
The Role of Affect and Trait Sexual Desire in Sexual Response among Women with and without Symptoms of Sexual Interest and Arousal Disorder
According to the Incentive Motivation Model, sexual cue processing is influenced by both responses to the content of sexual cues, and by individual psychological factors, both of which may result in differences in sexual ... -
On the flexible nature of the relationship between attention and active memory representations
Despite being two of the most commonly studied constructs in cognitive psychology, our understanding of how active memory representations interact with attention remains highly contentious. One of the primary reasons for ... -
Testing Associations Between Impulsivity Facets and Suicidal Behaviour Among Young Adults
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults in Canada (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2019). Impulsivity is one of the most widely studied correlates of suicidal behaviours. However, most studies to ... -
Psychological Mechanisms Associated with Depression Symptoms and Help-Seeking Intentions Related to Adolescent Dating Violence
Adolescent dating violence victimization is associated with negative mental and physical health problems including depression (Barter & Stanley, 2016; Exner-Cortens et al., 2017). Many adolescents do not seek help when ... -
A Theoretical Understanding of Defending Behaviours
Youth’s defending behaviours are associated with less bullying in the classroom (Salmivalli, Voeten, & Poskiparta, 2011) and, consequently, are critical components of bullying prevention programs (e.g., KiVa; Salmivalli, ... -
Testing Predictors of Change in Suicidal Ideation Among Transgender and Non-Binary People
Suicide is a pressing public health concern and is among the top 10 leading causes of death. Although rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STBs) are substantially elevated among transgender and non-binary (TGNB) ... -
Probing the Probabilistic Reasoning and Belief Change Abilities of Preschool-Age Children
Research on cognitive development has challenged the assumption that children are passive participants in their own learning. Far from ‘passive sponges’, children are active participants in their learning process who select ... -
Developing a Measure for Classification, Differentiation, and Diagnosis of Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder/Genitopelvic Dysesthesia and Hypersexuality
Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder/Genitopelvic Dysesthesia (PGAD/GPD) is characterized by persistent, distressing genital sexual arousal sensations in absence of mental sexual arousal and sexual desire (Goldstein et al., ... -
This is what friendship is to me: A grounded theory of how adolescents with autism spectrum disorder experience and develop friendships
Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience substantial difficulties developing and navigating social relationships. They are reported to have fewer friends, poorer friendship quality, and increased loneliness ... -
The Enduring Effects of Adolescent Stress on Adult Anxiety-like and Depression-like Behaviours: A Meta-analysis of the Rodent Literature
In humans, exposure to stressful life events during adolescence is an established risk factor for the development of affective disorders in adulthood. However, the current rodent literature aiming to model this phenomenon ... -
‘Jumping-to-conclusions’ about vaccines: An information search perspective on anti-vaccination attitude endorsement
Vaccine hesitancy has been identified among the top 10 threats to global health (WHO, 2019). Those few who are anti-vaccine have been found to be more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, be high in psychological ... -
Interpersonal Emotion Dynamics in Friendships during Adolescence
The current dissertation explored interpersonal emotion dynamics in late adolescent female friend dyads, and their associations with psychosocial adjustment (internalizing symptoms and relationship quality), in three ... -
Neurobiomarkers of Real-World Dietary Success
Why do some people regularly eat healthy foods, while many others suffer poor health outcomes due to maladaptive dietary choices? Empirical work suggests that functional and structural properties of the brain contain ... -
What? I Don’t Get What You Mean: Understanding Language in Childhood Epilepsy
Research suggests that children with epilepsy may have impaired language and social competence. Little is known about their language profile or whether language is associated with social cognition in this population. The ... -
Associations Between and Changes in Hippocampal Volume and the Cortisol Response Over Time: The Role of Childhood Maltreatment and Depression
Stress-related brain mechanisms, specifically HPA axis dysregulation and reductions in hippocampal volume, have long been associated with the pathology of major depressive disorder, especially within the context of a history ... -
Neural correlates of reward learning and cognitive control in depression: A research domain criteria (RDoC) approach
The current thesis employed the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework to understand how environmental, biological, and psychological factors differentially impact reward learning and cognitive control. Across three ...
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