Journals @ KPU (Kwantlen Polytechnic University)
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Measuring ADHD in Girls
Full text linkADHD is often underdiagnosed or untreated in girls as they display internalizing behaviour and inattentive symptoms, which often get overlooked. Even the qualitative research and diagnostic criteria are biased toward the symptoms presented by males. The current study aimed to address these gaps in current diagnostic practice and create a new subscale called “Measuring ADHD in Girls” that mainly focuses on the symptoms presented by girls to ensure they receive a proper diagnosis. A pool of 30 items was created based on existing scales and literature to assess the symptoms of ADHD in girls. Factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure. Reliability of the scale was assessed using inter-item correlation and item-total correlation. We hypothesized that this scale would measure six factors that are commonly displayed by girls with ADHD; however, upon further analysis, a nine-factor analysis provided a better reliability instead of six factors, as it had a TLI of 0.93 and RMSEA <= 0.08, indicating that the scale is a good fit. The nine factor structures were distraction, emotional and psychological symptoms, emotionality, time management, social difficulties, inattention, lack of focus, hyperactivity, and difficulties with task-oriented coping
Motivating Factors in Recovery from Drug and Alcohol Dependency
Full text link Addiction is a worldwide problem with countless negative effects on individuals, families and society. These impacts include family disruption, loss of parental rights, employment loss, dissolution of the marriage, abuses both psychological and physical, mental health disorders such as depression and over all poor health. Approximately 75 percent of people with this disorder take steps towards sobriety. Of these 75 percent, 46 percent will achieve this recovery without any recognized treatment program. In this study, I used a phenomenological framework to explore the motivating factors that led individuals to seek recovery, particularly where no outside treatment program was sought or undertaken, natural or self-recovery. The themes that were developed from this analysis indicate that a variety of internal and external factors act as motivating factors in recovery. These include a desire for strong family relations and to avoid jail and other contact with law enforcement. Further motivating factors include a belief in their own value, preventing health issues such as overdose and other near-death experiences and an overall feeling that it is time to stop. One interesting theme uncovered which has not been well documented previously was a desire to prove others wrong
From Innocence to Experience: On the Significance of Sansa Stark's Costumes in HBO's Game of Thrones
Full text linkHBO’s Game of Thrones is widely regarded as one of the most ambitious and sophisticated series in the history of television. Based upon the enormously popular historical/fantasy novels of George R.R. Martin, the series is admired for its epic scale and for its elaborate world-building. HBO’s Game of Thrones is praised for its spectacular set designs and its skilful blending of CGI and location shots to create an instantly recognizable visual style. From the opening credit sequence to the richly textured and nuanced representations of the fictional worlds of Essos, Pentos, and Westeros, the mise-en-scène in Game of Thrones has played a significant role in winning the support of die-hard fans and scholars alike. To date, there have been more than a half-dozen monographs and/or collections of critical essays published on the landmark television series. Our essay aims to add to this commentary by exploring the significance of costume design in Game of Thrones. Inherently, costume design serves multiple functions. On one level, costumes help lend a degree of realism and historical accuracy to the characters and settings. They also help to define specific characters both as individuals and as members of specific social classes or groups. However, costume can also visually foreground narrative arcs and themes. This is the case for Sansa Stark. Through a dramatic transformation in costuming, the series showcases her character’s growth from innocence to experience
Threading Together Time, Space, and Emotion with Music: : An Interview with Film and Television Composer Jeff Russo
Full text linkIn 1993, American guitarist, songwriter, and composer Jeff Russo co-founded the Grammy-nominated rock band Tonic. During the band's four-year hiatus between 2004-2008, Russo discovered his interest in composing music for pre-written narrative stories in film and television. His first opportunity was Noah Hawley's crime drama series The Unusuals (2009). Since, Russo has composed the music for all five seasons of Hawley's Fargo (2014-present) as well as Hawley's psychological feature film, Lucy in the Sky (2019). Russo has also struck up a collaborative relationship with writer and director Steve Zaillian, composing the score for the crime miniseries The Night Of (2016), and the Netflix limited series, Ripley (2024), an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 psychological thriller, The Talented Mr Ripley.
Russo has scored a diverse collection of stories, from crime to sci-fi, black comedy to action thrillers. His works include Star Trek: Discovery (2021-present), Picard (2020-23), Peter Berg's espionage action-thriller Mile 22 (2018), Craig William Macneill's biographical thriller Lizzie (2018), and Nick Tomnay's delightfully dark comedy, What You Wish For(2023), about a chef with gambling debts who assumes the identity of a friend, only to find himself asked to procure an unusual menu for an exclusive dinner party.
Speaking with MSJ, Russo acknowledges the difficulty of discussing music given its subjectivity. The conversation is not difficult. Instead, what becomes apparent is the limitations of words to explain how music makes us feel. It can be described, but there's something evasive and ambivalent about this description. We're left searching for a fuller way to verbally and intellectually articulate what it is that music makes us feel.
Two of today's prominent composers, John Williams and Hans Zimmer, shape the conversation about the role of music in storytelling. Russo identifies some fascinating contradictions in how we can compare the pair. It becomes apparent that Russo understands the process of composing music is the pursuit of connection and, for viewers, the subliminal manipulation of music is intrinsic to the emotional connection. This idea of connection is a recurring theme that he returns to when he discusses sublimating the experiences of characters in his own process for Fargo, Picard and Ripley
Does Age-Related Knowledge Impact Ageist Attitudes?
Full text linkAgeism is a type of discrimination that often goes unaddressed. In this study, we examined ageist attitudes that assume older people are sour, purposeless, and resentful (Cooney et al., 2020). We hypothesized that teaching participants about aging and debunking stereotypes would improve ageist attitudes compared to a non-learning group. We used an independent groups experimental design. Using the learning material we created, participants watched a video to learn facts and had their attitudes assessed directly afterward. Our control and experimental groups consisted of men, women, and non-binary persons whose ages ranged from 18 to 50 years. After conducting an independent t-test, we found that the attitudes of our experimental learning group did not differ from our control group. Though the experimental group passed the knowledge quiz and learned about aging, their attitudes remained unchanged. Learning about ageism may reduce ageist attitudes, however, longer interventions may be more effective in reducing them
Confidence in Judgment Among the Chronically Sleep-Deprived
Full text linkResearch has demonstrated that acutely and chronically sleep-deprived individuals are hindered in their performance on cognitive tasks, with pronounced effects on working memory tasks (Durmer & Dinges, 2005). However, little research has been done to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on metacognitive performance. Here, we test whether chronic sleep deprivation affects calibration scores during a working memory task and whether this is dependent on whether participants complete an easy or hard task. Participants aged 18-65 (N = 33) completed a practice mental arithmetic task and made confidence judgments on their expected performance before completing a subsequent 10 mental arithmetic tasks. Results showed that participants were equally calibrated regardless of sleep quantity or task difficulty. These findings could suggest that people can accurately assess their cognitive performance when chronically sleep-deprived, though more research is needed to know whether these findings are accurate. The implications and limitations of the study will be discussed, and directions for future research are proposed. 
Multiple Imputation: An Investigation of the Missing Data Techniques Effectiveness
Full text linkMultiple Imputation (MI) is one of the most reliable techniques in addressing missing data due to partial or incomplete responses from a portion of the sample. MI has been particularly useful when handling missing data patterns such as Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) and Missing at Random (MAR). However, there have been some debates on its use when it comes to the Missing Not at Random (MNAR) pattern due to the bias it creates. This paper further examines the complexities of using MI to accurately complete missing data sets, exploring both its effectiveness and limitations
An Interview with Steven DeLay, editor of Life Above the Clouds: Philosophy in the Films of Terrence Malick (SUNY, 2023)
Full text linkPhilosophical perspectives have been a longstanding framework for addressing the films of Terrence Malick. While this discourse may, at first, appear exhaustive, philosopher Steven DeLay breathes new life into Malick studies here. In his approach, he offers nuanced and passionate insights into Malick’s work by discussing aesthetics, religion, philosophy, and the nature of cinema as art. As a brief introduction to his edited volume Life Above of the Clouds: Philosophy in the Films of Terrence Malick, this conversation with DeLay presents an equally personal and academic dialogue on this complex and elusive filmmaker, who seems to be as much admired as he is criticized. Nevertheless, DeLay’s volume, in addition to a range of other contemporary and forthcoming Malick texts prove that this conversation about Malick augurs a continuum of enriching and provocative study. 
The Pressure of Objects: Clutter and Class in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019)
Full text linkThis essay explores the visual language of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019), critically examining Johnson’s use of clutter and sparsity in the spaces occupied by Harlan Thornberry (Christopher Plummer) and Marta (Ana de Armas) to argue the occupied visual space of the film parallels its class divide. This analysis explores Johnson’s use of clutter as a visual tension within the film, most prominently in the scene which plays out between Marta and Fran in the laundromat, where the stark lighting and extreme sparsity are visually unique in a film that otherwise litters its internal spaces with an excess of clutter. Careful analysis of the mise-en-scène of these objects reveals a consistent attitude towards class divide, a theme supported more broadly in the text of the film itself.
 
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Gamified Virtual Reality on Food Preparation Literacy
Full text linkThe purpose of this research was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of gamified VR cooking experience with video-based cooking experience on improving food preparation literacy. It was hypothesized that gamified VR cooking experience would lead to higher food preparation literacy scores while providing a more immersive and motivational learning environment to the participants than a video-based cooking experience. Thirty-three participants were randomly assigned into the VR group (n = 16) or the video group (n = 17). Each group completed the pre-and post-experience questionnaires, the in-person intervention, and the post-intervention focus groups. Quantitative results indicated no significant difference in food preparation literacy between the gamified VR cooking experience and video experience (p > .05). Qualitative findings indicated that the immersive learning environment of gamified VR cooking experience motivated people to want to cook more healthy meals in the future. Individuals who engage in gamified VR cooking may be more motivated to cook in real life and therefore, choose a healthy diet over unhealthy processed food