MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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Can Leadership Characteristics Predict Perceived Growth When Faced With Stress?
No full textIn recent years, positive psychology has devoted an area of study directed at exploring the anecdote "that which does not kill you makes you stronger." This led to the creation of a field of study called growth through adversity. Previous research in this area has demonstrated that there are a multitude of personality traits which contribute to growth through adversity, but no known research to date has looked at leadership traits specifically, and how these traits affect growth outcomes. This study sought to fill this void in the literature by attempting to determine whether or not leadership characteristics are strong predictors of perceived growth when an individual is faced with stressful life circumstances. Self report measures were used to assess 142 MacEwan students in levels of leadership, stress, and growth outcomes resulting from stress. The relationship between these variables was assessed using regression analysis, which yielded statistically significant findings, which supported that leadership traits have meaningful effects on growth outcomes.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sean Roger
Is a University Degree worth it? A comparative analysis
No full textThe ultimate goal of a university is the pursuit of knowledge. For most individuals, the hope is that obtaining the degree will yield long-term positive returns (usually in terms of income and job security). The general belief is that an undergraduate degree will get you a good starting wage as well as responsibilities befitting the time spent in school. However, there is concern in news and media that during the recovery from the recent economic recession, the job market is saturated with unemployed and underemployed degree holders. This paper attempts to analyze the relationship between having a degree and income category, as well as determine how that relationship changed between 2000 and 2013 (pre and post- Recession). A more detailed analysis would factor in the opportunity costs of a degree, but that lies outside the scope of this paper.
Discipline: Statistics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen Bur
On “Not Returning Time”: Melancholic Resignation in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market
No full textScholars have widely asserted that Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market (1862) is an emancipatory narrative of redemption, in which two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, are tempted initially by Goblin men selling their wares in a traveling market. After succumbing to the Goblin cries, the moribund Laura needs to be saved by her sister, who braves the volatile and seductive marketplace to procure the fruit on Laura’s behalf. At the poem’s conclusion, Laura is restored to health, and the two are redeemed through domestic motherhood. Heather McAlpine argues that the sisters pursue “healthy domestic work” (121) as the antidote for consuming the fruit of the goblins. While the poem does conclude with the two women in an idyllic domestic space, Rossetti’s poetics of space and time undermine the anticipated peripeteia of the women’s redemption. My thesis endeavours to more closely examine the poem’s trajectory from the pastoral depiction of the matriarchal domestic space to an ending that reflects Rossetti’s resignation and melancholy.
Discipline: English Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Daniel Marti
Breeding Diet of Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegolius acadicus) in Central Alberta
No full textNorthern Saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) nest box pellet pads were collected from Beaverhill Bird Observatory between the years 2004 and 2010. Due to the work of previous individuals, 18 of 36 pellet pads that were collected have been thoroughly dissected and analyzed for skeletal remains of prey species. The purpose of this study was to continue with the dissection of the remaining pellet pads and to identify the small mammals to the most specific taxonomic level possible based on the dentition. Identification keys were used to compare and identify the cranial elements of the small prey mammals found in the pellet pad and the minimum number of individuals (MNI) was also calculated by counting the number of right and left femur bones collected. The data collected from this study is important for gaining more insight into this mysterious yet abundant owl and to also detect if the diet of the saw-whet owl can change in response to a change in the ecosystem when compared to other pellet pads in varying landscapes.
Discipline: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Mark Degne
The use of International Suppliers and the effects it has on Just-In-Time delivery and Industrial Construction Processes
No full textThe use of International Suppliers and the effects it has on Just-In-Time delivery and Industrial Construction Processes
Through the advancement of information technology (IT) over the past few decades, supply chains have been able to streamline opportunities to grow their success, through the increased availability of international suppliers, and new process techniques, such as just-in-time management. International suppliers have been effective as they often lead to lower costs, and flexibility in product design. Supply base rationalization of both domestic and international suppliers, has been identified as a key opportunity to streamline supply chain operations. Many supply chains have also re-designed their processes in order to include the just-in-time concept, to reduce the often high holding costs, improve waste reduction, and provide less capital investment. However, construction projects often face many challenges in conforming to these standards and practices. Inherently, construction projects are prone to high waste levels of materials, and in order to reduce these to manageable levels, lean processes have been implemented to support the completion of a project. This combination of these concepts has shown to negatively affect the completion of projects, specifically in areas of quality, cost, and future operational challenges. Through aspects of data analytics, common practices can be analyzed through aspects of supplier selection, delivery system management, material waste, and cost savings/ increases, as well as effective data mining initiatives of current and historical projects. Initial research has also identified the possible advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other innovative technology in order to effectively monitor and track current and future opportunities for growth and improvement within construction projects.
Discipline: Supply Chain Management
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joong So
Incremental Theories of Depression Predict Greater Endorsement of Psychotherapies
No full textThe current studies investigated whether beliefs in the malleability or immutability of depression (i.e., incremental and entity implicit theories of depression, respectively) are predictive of a greater endorsement of interventions for depression. Study 1 (N = 235) assessed implicit theories of depression and the endorsement of therapeutic lifestyle changes and of validated psychotherapies for depression. Regression analyses showed that incremental beliefs regarding depression significantly predicted the endorsement of therapeutic lifestyle changes and psychotherapies for depression. Study 2 (N = 193) sought to replicate associations between trait differences regarding implicit theories of depression and psychotherapy endorsement; it also manipulated state differences in incremental theories of depression (versus athleticism). Regression analyses showed that trait differences on incremental theories of depression predicted psychotherapy endorsement, as in Study 1. Participants exposed to arguments in favour of a malleable view of depression increased their incremental beliefs regarding depression, but did not endorse psychotherapies more than control participants. Therefore, individual differences regarding implicit theories of depression are predictive of the endorsement of psychotherapies for depression. Future research should attend to trait differences on implicit theories of depression as a potential predictor of amenability to interventions for depression.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Andrew Howel
Vindication of the Rights of Women: Mary Wollstonecraft\u27s Progressive Limitations
No full textDuring the Enlightenment era, one of the first significant authors of feminist philosophy was a British woman named Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1792, she released The Vindication of the Rights of Women, which discussed a variety of issues, especially the education of females. Wollstonecraft attacked the inequitable system of female education for its subversion of the republican values of liberty and equality, criticizing pedagogical practices that she argued were failing (Richardson 32). Systemic sexism was causing these methods to fail at producing rational and virtuous moral subjects (Rauschenbush-Clough 135). Her outline for a national school system, with coeducation throughout the years of schooling, was a revolutionary notion. Despite the progressive elements of Wollstonecraft’s work, further speculation will reveal that her view was limited by a unique background that restricted her foresight. Her theories are arguably those of a Christian elitist, whose individual experience in the world has limited the perspective upon which she bases her proposal. This presentation will evaluate how the limitations of Wollstonecraft’s perspective may result in circumstances that would not optimize equality within her idealistic system.
Discipline: English
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Asma Saye
Reducing False Polarization Through Perceptions of Friendship and Intelligence
No full textPeople tend to believe they see the world objectively. Because of this, people perceive those who disagree with them as biased, and consider them to be more extreme than they really are. We intend to examine the effect of friendship and perceived intelligence on this process. Prejudice towards outgroup members can be reduced by enhancing knowledge, reducing anxiety, and increasing empathy for the outgroup, each of which is a critical process of getting to know someone else. Moreover, people evaluate others on two key dimensions relevant to how we perceive those we disagree with - warmth and competence. We hypothesize that people will see adversaries as less biased, but only when they perceive this other person as competent, and when they have formed a friendship. Participant dyads will be randomly assigned to either engage in an abbreviated fast friends procedure or a control procedure, and will be randomly assigned to receive information indicating the other participant to be either highly intelligent or of average intelligence. Participants will see a marijuana legalization opinion disagreeing with their own, and be led to believe it is from the other participant. They will then indicate how they perceive the other participant’s competence and estimate where they stand on the legalization of marijuana. We predict that people perceived as competent friends, will be perceived more accurately and considered less biased than non-friends or those seen as of average competence.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Craig Blat
Animal welfare within the human-dog dyad: The relationship between human mental health and pet dog problem behaviours.
No full textPet ownership interventions reduce owner stress and increase overall quality of life, and as such, pet ownership is sometimes considered as a method of treatment. However, to date research on the human-animal bond and pet ownership has primarily focused on the benefits for the human, and has paid little attention to welfare of the animal. From a caregiver perspective, the owner-pet dyad is analogous to the parent-child dyad. Studies on the parent-child dyad show that children are more likely to display stress-related behaviours if raised by parents who suffer from depression or anxiety, possibly due to social-modeling and the impact the environment has on learned behaviours. Additionally, parental depression is associated with child neglect. The purpose of this study is to see if these correlations also exists among the owner-pet dyad. Using the Inventory of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms (IDAS) and the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), we will measure university students’ level of anxiety and depression, and problem behaviours in their pet dog. Our expected findings are positive correlations between level of owner depression and anxiety, and problem behaviours, typical of stress, in the owner’s pet dog. Furthermore, we expect to find negative correlations between owner depression and owner level of pet dog care. These findings will help to better understand the human-dog dyad and assist clinicians in making informed, ethical decisions while promoting live-in-animal-assisted interventions.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Legg
Doing Bodo without Bodo: Bringing Archaeology into Your Classroom
No full textThe Alberta education system recently started teaching Archaeology and the history of Alberta before European contact to the grade 4 social studies curriculum. As children many of us gained our first experience of archaeology through pop culture icons like Indiana Jones. Such pop culture exposure does not accurately represent what archaeologists do or demonstrate the public value for archaeology. We have engaged children with real-world archaeologists in order to teach them how to approach the human past. Archaeologists teaching young students about archaeology both clarifies ambiguity and reveals exciting career paths that otherwise tend to escape public awareness. Students from MacEwan University, in collaboration with the Bodo Archaeological Society (BAS), have developed a program to take this educational journey to the next step. We will determine if there is value for educators to enlist specialists from the field. Using an Edukit (a collection of artefacts, tools and exercises developed by the BAS), we have developed and conducted a series of in-school field trip scenarios with a number of elementary schools in Edmonton, Alberta in the spring of 2016. Pre and Post test questionnaires and feedback forms were distributed to the children and educators, respectively, in order to test their knowledge before and after our program. With this program we hope to dispel many of the common misconceptions about archaeology and Alberta’s past, while establishing the benefit of having archaeologists participate directly in teaching children about their discipline.
Discipline: Anthropology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cynthia Zutte