MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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I Can See It On Your Face: How Levels of Psychopathy, Anxiety, and Emotional Intelligence Predict Detection of Negative Emotions
No full textPast research has revealed a complex interplay between psychopathic traits, levels of anxiety, and emotional intelligence (EI). In particular, scholars argue that psychopaths vary in their levels of trait anxiety, suggesting that some may be able to “feel” or experience emotion to some degree. Conversely, psychopathy also has been negatively related to the ability to perceive and recognize emotion (a form of EI) in others, especially for those low in trait anxiety. That said, other studies have found that psychopaths may have an enhanced ability to detect negative emotions, particularly fear. Few studies have examined these variables in relation to the detection of real or feigned emotion, and none in relation to negative emotions. The present research was designed to evaluate the influence of psychopathic traits, levels of anxiety, and emotional intelligence in relation to an emotion veracity task focused on negative emotions. Participants will complete self-report assessments of our personality variables, followed by exposure to facial emotion sets that vary according to veracity (genuine/feigned) and emotion type (fear/sadness/anger/disgust). Accuracy scores and signal detection rates will be analyzed to determine what combination of psychopathic traits, anxiety, and emotional intelligence are linked to fine-tuned emotion detection.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kristine Peac
Social Media, Targeted Advertising, and the Impact on the Consumer and Business Owner: A Qualitative Analysis on Students’ Views
No full textSocial media has created a new way of interacting with advertisements around us. Social media advertisements are now part of a two-way form of communication instead of one-way, as found with traditional media platforms such as the television or newspaper. Two-way communication refers to the ability for the business owner and a larger audience of consumers to communicate with each other in a reciprocal manner. Business owners gain an in-depth look at the demographic of their target audience and can therefore communicate with their audience at a more personal level. Consumers can directly interact with the advertisement found on social media in real time, offering their opinions, questions, or views. For consumers, attitudinal and behavioral responses toward social media advertising vary by either producing positive or negative reactions. For businesses, social media has provided important benefits, such as tracking users’ behavioral responses, building relationships with consumers, generating exposure, and increasing traffic. The aim for this study was to examine the perspectives of the consumer and business owner on their attitudes toward social media advertisements. The study was qualitative in nature, using an explorative and open-ended approach. The researcher collected data from students at MacEwan. The findings confirmed results from previous studies and showed that when advertisements were relevant or provided value, consumers would react more positively. From the perspective of the small business owner, social media was viewed as an important tool for advertising and attracting customers.
Discipline: Sociology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kalyani Thurairaja
Committing Public Sociology: Blogging Bodies, Marginalization and Violence
No full textBy exploring the sociology of the body in an independent study, we delved further into intersectional feminist and postcolonial theories to question whose bodies matter and why. We engaged in sociological blogging in order to extend our learning experience with the public, thereby making sociological knowledge more accessible to the general public.. The blogs, Embody Sociology and Simply Sociology Blog were created and hosted on Wordpress.com with content published anonymously. As bloggers, we connected relevant course topics such as the relationships between race & place or the discourse of disposable bodies to events in the news, case studies, personal experiences, government law or policy or some combination of the latter to inform our audience of relevant contemporary issues that could relate to them, be it that they feel a sense of marginalization or not. As authors in a critical sociological field, we felt the need to ensure our voices were not speaking on behalf of the marginalized identities with experiences unlike our own, meanwhile emphasizing that our own experiences were not the sole experience in the long run. We were able to find the value in shifting the tones of our writing to a more informal one in the public eye, and found ourselves better able to engage more people into a sociological dialogue. By engaging nearly 400 visitors at our blogs collectively at the end of the semester, this project had undoubtedly left a wider impact in numbers exceeding one that often remains between a student and their instructor.
Discipline: Sociology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alissa Overend
 
Exoplanet Detection Limits of the Athabasca University Robotic Telescope (AURT)
No full textThe discovery and study of exoplanets is an important area of inquiry in the field of astronomy. The transit method is a powerful technique for discovering and studying exoplanets. When the orbital plane of an exoplanet is aligned with the Earth a transit may be observed. As the exoplanet transits, it blocks some of the starlight causing the total flux from the star to drop. With the proper equipment this decrease in the brightness of the star can be measured. The result is a light curve that shows the brightness of the star decreasing as the exoplanet travels in front of it and then returns to its original level when the exoplanet is no longer eclipsing the star. The objectives of this research project are to demonstrate the sensitivity with which exoplanet orbital parameters can be derived using the Athabasca University Robotic Telescope (AURT), and to determine the exoplanet detection limit of this telescope. Satellite survey missions are an important source for finding new exoplanets. But launching satellites is difficult and expensive. Time on space based satellite is also in limited supply. As such there is a need for more Earth based surveys using small telescopes. It is hoped that the work of this research project will be the foundation on which a search for new exoplanets using the AURT can begin.
Discipline: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stefan Cartledg
The Noble Singer: Consolidating Incantations in Plato\u27s Phaedo
No full textTwice in Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates suggests that the singing of incantations may reduce fear towards the afterlife; first, when Simmias admits to the persistent fear of death; and second, when Socrates concludes his eschatological myth. In both instances, it is unclear what exactly he is telling them to do; indeed, the instances seem to disagree. In this paper, I will show that the two descriptions of incantations do not ostensibly agree and how. Then, I will explore the nuances of each reference and clarify their context by providing passages from other parts of the dialogue and by referring to Aristotle\u27s Ethics. I aim to consolidate both references, if possible, and to clarify who can sing incantations and how it affects the listener.
Discipline: Philosophy
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Edvard Lorkovi
An Abridged History of the Function and Mathematical Rigour: The Integrability of Thomae\u27s Function
No full textFor many people, the terms "mathematical function" probably call to mind something resembling the equations we are all familiar with from our primary and secondary school experiences, like F=ma, or perhaps a quadratic function. Even for many first and second year post-secondary students, polynomials, sine and cosine functions, and the exponential function probably comprise the bulk of what we consider functions. And for much of history this natural, fairly intuitive notion of functionality has proven sufficient. It was only by the beginning of the 19th century that, as the movement began to put all of mathematics on a more rigorous footing, this characterization of a function was found to be lacking. It was in this context that Dirichlet, and later Thomae, put forth the functions that bear their names as examples which demonstrated that a much broader notion of what constitutes a function could exist within the new more rigorous framework which mathematics was moving toward. That Thomae\u27s function, a peculiar and counter-intuitive looking construction, would prove to be integrable in spite of possessing infinitely many discontinuities, was a potent demonstration of the power of the new rigour, as well as that a broad new class of mathematical objects might reasonably be termed and treated as functions, as much as the old familiar ones which preceded them. The trend toward greater mathematical rigour begun in the 19th century defines much of mathematics today, and Thomae\u27s function serves as an important landmark which connects that past to the present.
Discipline: Mathematics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nataliya Zadorozhn
The Relationship Between Health Anxiety and Thought-Action Fusion
No full textIndividuals with health anxiety (HA) believe they have or may develop a serious illness, despite having no clear medical issues. HA has been found to be comorbid with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Underlying cognitive distortions associated with these disorders may help explain their overlap. One cognitive distortion that has previously been found in OCD and GAD is thought-action fusion (TAF). TAF consists of Likelihood-Self TAF, Likelihood-Other TAF, and Moral TAF. Likelihood TAF is the belief that thinking about an event will make it more likely to occur, either to yourself (Likelihood-Self) or to someone else (Likelihood-Other). Moral TAF is the belief that an immoral thought is equivalent to an immoral behaviour. The present study used self-report questionnaires to assess the relationships between HA, OCD, GAD, and TAF in a non-clinical university sample (N = 309). Bivariate correlations revealed that HA significantly correlated with Likelihood-Self TAF and Likelihood-Other TAF, ps < .001. Although HA did not significantly correlate with Moral TAF, p = .06, it was approaching significance. Additionally, bivariate correlations revealed that OCD and GAD symptoms also correlated with TAF, ps < .05. Using hierarchical regression analyses, Likelihood-Self TAF, p = .001, and Likelihood-Other TAF, p = .001, uniquely predicted HA when controlling for OCD and GAD symptoms. Moral TAF, ps > .28, was not a unique predictor of HA. These results indicate that both researchers and clinicians may wish to explore the role of Likelihood TAF in the development and maintenance of HA.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alexander Penne
Changes in fluorescence in captive soft corals, Anthelia spp. & Nephthea spp., after exposure to thermal stress
No full textClimate change is increasing global ocean temperatures causing a decline in coral reefs, mainly by the process of bleaching, involving the expulsion of zooxanthellae. The health of the soft corals Anthelia spp. and Nephthea spp. were assessed by the degree of fluorescence they produced. It was predicted that a decrease in coral health from thermal induced stress would also decrease fluorescence. Coral fragments underwent the following treatments: 30ºC, 31ºC, 32ºC, 33ºC, 34ºC and no treatment (26-28ºC). Treatments were carried out for 24 hours. The fragments were subjected to 400nm UV light from an Olympus X-Cite 120Q EXFO light source. Photos of the coral were taken using an Olympus XM10 camera mounted on a dissecting scope that produced a live feed to the program cellSens Standard. The images were analyzed using ImageJ software to determine the mean corrected fluorescence per treatment. The data were analyzed with a one-way ANOVA. Anthelia showed a significant difference in the degree of fluorescence between the control treatment (26-28ºC) and the 33ºC treatment, while Nephthea did not show a significant difference. This knowledge may be useful in surveying large areas of coral reefs via fluorescence imagery.
Discipline: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ross Sha
The Effects of LSD and Psilocin on Anxiety-Related Behaviours in Zebrafish
No full textRecently there has been a surge in interest in the research of hallucinogens, particularly serotonergic hallucinogens. While some preliminary research has shown some promising applications in the treatment of anxiety, these compounds are still poorly understood, and their reputation as drugs of abuse make clinical research challenging. Zebrafish, a popular model organism for neuropsychopharmacological research, are ideal for the pre-clinical testing needed to explore how serotonergic hallucinogens impact anxiety. LSD has demonstrated anxiolytic effects in zebrafish, however psilocybin has failed to demonstrate comparable effects. In this study we sought to determine if the dephosphorylated metabolite of psilocybin, psilocin, could produce an effect in zebrafish where psilocybin has previously failed. Using the novel tank diving test, fish treated with LSD (100µg/L and 250µg/L) displayed a significant increase in behaviours indicative of low anxiety compared to control fish and fish treated with psilocin, a result consistent with a reduction in anxiety. Fish in the psilocin treatment group (500µg/L and 1000µg/L) did not differ significantly from those in the control group, suggesting that at the doses used, psilocin does not impact zebrafish exploratory behaviour. Further research will be necessary to establish whether higher doses would be effective, or whether zebrafish are not sensitive to the psilocybin/psilocin compounds. While the study did demonstrate the effectiveness of LSD for reducing anxiety-related behaviour, fish treated with psilocin failed to differ significantly from control fish.
Discipline: Psychology Honours
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Melike Schalomo
Smart Reflect Server
No full textA smart mirror is a device that functions as a mirror with additional capability of displaying multimedia data, such as text, images, and videos. This device allows users to access and interact with contextual information, such as weather data, seamlessly as part of their daily routine. In this project, we developed SmartReflect—a software platform for developing smart mirror applications. The main features of SmartReflect are threefold: (1) It is modular, lightweight, and extensible; (2) It allows developers to sidestep the sandboxed environment created by web browsers; and (3) It supports plugins written in any programming languages. These improvements alleviate the hardware and software limitations inherent with the use of web browsers as a primary scriptable display method. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of SmartReflect and compare it with other similar platforms. We also discuss the potential uses and applications of smart mirrors with regard to the new capabilities that our platform provides.
Discipline: Computing Science
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Indratmo Indratm