DTheses (Athabasca University)
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The Role of Spirituality in Addiction Recovery
Get PDFIn the area of addiction, Canada has been in a public health crisis since 2016. Addiction takes a toll on an individual’s self-worth and identity. A single approach to addiction recovery does not function as a sustainable path to spiritual development for clients diagnosed with substance use disorder. Understanding of spirituality can inform counsellors regarding spiritual development in addiction recovery. Research was conducted to explore the role of spirituality in addiction recovery. Using heuristic inquiry and thematic analysis, I interviewed six coresearchers who had at least one year of continuous sobriety, were active in Alcoholics Anonymous, and abstinent. Six themes emerged: identifying with collective knowledge, finding a translator, body talk, let love in, nourishing a healing perspective, and elevated consciousness and manifestation. The themes highlighted the importance of body-mind-spirit-based psychotherapy. Implications for counselling include a roadmap to support clients developing an individualized spiritual connection and operating as a functional system.2021/1
Efficacy of efficient remote office ergonomics education
Get PDFMany employees have makeshift areas within their homes to conduct their work during the current pandemic, increasing their risk for discomfort and injury. This study looked at the ability of a distance education office ergonomics course for participants in Canada who normally work in an office and are now working from home because of the global pandemic where physical distancing limits the ability to obtain a face-to-face ergonomic assessment. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the distance education course was assessed to determine its effectiveness in addressing knowledge and behaviour of office ergonomics. There was evidence of increasing knowledge after participants completed the eLearning program and adoption of this knowledge after the provision of feedback from the participant photos submitted for review. In future, a larger group should be identified to recreate this study using a randomized-cluster design.2021-0
Occupational Disappointment in Emergency Department Nurses as a Result of Verbal Abuse
Get PDFOccupational disappointment is a novel concept in emergency nursing, defined as a feeling of disheartenment with career choice in this group of nurses who enter the profession to help others. It results from prevalent, unaddressed verbal abuse in the emergency department directed towards nurses from patients and/or their visitors. In the limited literature published, it is shown to be conceptually different from nursing burnout syndrome and compassion fatigue, yet it can lead to negative effects for nurses and their patients. A qualitative descriptive methodology was used in this research study to yield a straight description of occupational disappointment. Six emergency department nurses were interviewed to explore the questions: What are the concerns of nurses about occupational disappointment? What are nurses’ responses towards occupational disappointment? From an emic perspective, nurses in this study discussed the prevalence of occupational disappointment in emergency nursing culture and offer their concerns regarding this pervasive issue.2021-0
OVERESTIMATION OF DONATION AMOUNT IN CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING
Get PDFResearch evidence suggests that people are generally inclined to overestimate the effectiveness of their contribution to the public good. In the context of cause related marketing (CRM) campaigns, cognitive bias resulting from the complexity of the judgmental task involved in interpreting the donation information can lead to overestimation of the donation amount. However, previous research in this area of CRM has mostly been focused on CRM campaigns where a firm ties in with a single cause. This study aims to extend research in this area to further explore the impact of CRM portfolio characteristics (framing and size) on cognitive bias in consumer judgment and decisions. The experiment investigates whether the degree of consumer overestimation of the CRM donation amount varies with an increase in the size of a cause portfolio, as well as the impact of portfolio evaluation framing on overall consumer overestimation of the donation. Results revealed no significant effect of portfolio size nor portfolio framing in overestimation. However, there were indications that some interactions with regards to overestimation may exist between small and large portfolio sizes under medium negative affect conditions.2021-0
“KNOWING I’D BE OK”: POTENTIAL PEER MENTORING BENEFITS FOR ONLINE GRADUATE LEARNERS
Get PDFPostsecondaries need learner mental health (MH) supports suited to the online learning environment. Research has demonstrated that peer mentoring is a viable online learner MH support. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to uncover the graduate learner perspective of using an online peer mentoring program (PMP) as a learner MH support. Four graduate learner participants provided data through interviews and writing prompts. Data were analyzed as per IPA with a disability theory lens. Participants characterized peer mentoring as the act of supportively sharing experiential knowledge and as being relevant for student counsellors. Participants’ perceptions showed that online education positively and negatively affected learner MH, and they believed that learner welfare is a shared responsibility between themselves and the institution. Emergent research demonstrates that all postsecondary learners will need post-COVID-19 MH supports. My study suggests that a PMP is one way postsecondaries can fill this learner need.2021-1
EMOTIONAL PRESENCE IN COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY: A SCOPING REVIEW AND DELPHI STUDY
Get PDFBackground: This dissertation reports on a two-part study regarding emotional presence in a Community of Inquiry. A scoping study of emotions research in online learning was used to frame a subsequent Delphi study about emotional presence in Community of Inquiry learning. Methods: Inspired by COI philosophical foundations and pragmatic approaches, interactive participant engagement, multiple data sources were used to explore social and cognitive emotions in CoI learning and instructor and learner emotional presence indicators. Delphi panelists were experienced CoI learners (13) and facilitators (7). Findings: The results reveal that emotional presence indicators in CoI are manifested in connection to all three presences. Mapping participant responses to the existing CoI framework results in the major finding that emotional presence is a diffuse presence, visible in relation to and overlapping with cognitive, social, and teaching presence indicators. It is enacted more purposefully in relation to the pedagogical practice of climate setting, supporting discourse, and regulating learning. Contribution: This study may contribute to a more complex understanding of emotional presence as an intentional, deliberative discourse-based climate setting tool and self and co-regulative practice (macrocognitive) manifested through the intersections of teaching, cognitive and social presence.September 2, 202
TEACHING PRESENCE IN ONLINE MUSIC LESSONS
Get PDFEight online music teachers were interviewed for this collective case study, investigating the processes that private online music instructors experienced when teaching music lessons online. This study utilized Garrison’s (2017) Teaching Presence within the Community of Inquiry as a framework. Interviews took place during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America, which became a sub-topic of the study. Theme One centered on Instructional Design and Organization whereby participants discussed the importance of building a communal learning relationship with their students. Theme Two addressed Facilitation and the importance of maintaining a collaborative balance between interest, engagement, and student learning. Theme Three highlighted the concept of Direct Instruction, by concentrating on the importance of setting up an appropriate environment for learning that remained focused on the organizational elements of collaborative balance. Theme Four encompassed the complete interaction of the Educational Experience between teacher and student.2022-0
THE INFLUENCE OF INFLUENCERS ON #MOTHERHOOD
Get PDFWhile working with mothers, counsellors face a difficult task of unravelling preconceived mothering ideals alongside clients. Social media can play a significant role in a mother’s development. Influencers present an image of what one may come to view as ideal motherhood. Similarly, counsellors hold a high degree of influential capacity that must be carefully understood to avoid unintentional perpetuation of harmful societal expectations. This discourse analysis examines and brings to academic awareness mothering discourses by analyzing Instagram posts by motherhood bloggers. Fifty Instagram posts about motherhood were analyzed. Results of this analysis found prevailing motherhood narratives are repeated frequently across Instagram, and many mothers experience negative effects from internalizing these discourses. Sources of these dominant discourses were linked to influences within the spheres of religion, society, and psychology. Implications for counselling therapists are discussed.2021-1
AN INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF CHRONIC PAIN EXPERIENCES AMID THE OPIOID CRISIS
Get PDFFor many individuals with chronic pain, opioid therapy is the only safe, effective, and affordable option for pain management. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the experiences of four Canadian females managing chronic non-cancer pain to better understand how opioid-related systems-level initiatives impact chronic pain management. Participants provided insight into how the opioid crisis impacted their access to chronic pain treatment, relationships and interactions with medical providers, and their physical and mental health. The results of this study indicate that the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of individuals using opioid therapy to manage chronic pain is significantly impacted by systems- level initiatives such as prescribing guidelines and prescription drug monitoring programs. Further, this study found that systems-level initiatives further exacerbate the institutionalized stigma commonly experienced by individuals with chronic pain. Lastly, this study supports the necessity of further research on how health policy impacts the chronic pain community.2021-1
SECONDARY E-LEARNING STUDENTS’ TRANSITION TO UNIVERSITY AND COVID-19 EMERGENCY REMOTE LEARNING
Get PDFApproximately 300,000 Canadian students are currently engaged in K-12 distance learning (Archibald et al., 2019). Despite the growth in secondary e-learning, there is limited research on how students with secondary e-learning experience are transitioning into traditional postsecondary university programs. This research is an exploratory study on how Ontarian students with secondary e-learning backgrounds transitioned into their first year of postsecondary education and Emergency Remote Learning (ERL) and how their secondary e-learning experiences impacted these transitions. Using Giorgi’s (2009) Descriptive Phenomenological Method, this study revealed that the structure of the transitional experiences of first-year university students with secondary e-learning backgrounds had four constituents: readiness, barriers, supports and strategies, and development and adaption. In order to overcome transitional barriers, students had to adjust by developing new attitudes, behaviours, and strategies. Students described how their secondary e-learning experiences helped them develop the new skills and attitudes that they needed to adapt to the changes in their new learning environments. This study showed that secondary e-learning positively impacted students’ transition to university and ERL.June 202