This study investigated the question: What is the experience of immigration for Iranian women? This was accomplished by using an existential-phenomenological approach. The study included four adult single female co-researchers who had migrated to Canada from Iran and, by their own reckoning, were feeling settled in this country. The co-researchers were asked to describe their experience of immigration, from the beginning to the time they felt adjusted. The descriptions were audio-taped and transcribed. The analysis of these descriptions was conducted according to the method described by Colaizzi (1978). From the four descriptions thirty-two themes were derived. These themes were clarified and woven into a narrative description of the experience of immigration. Highlighted in the narrative description were five significant phases involved in the process which depicted an approximate symmetry of experiences. These significant experiences included sense of loss and attachment to the homeland, awareness of differences and conflicts, sense of self-invalidation and disorientation, reviewing oneself and the situation and sense of personal growth, stability and deriving meaning from the experience. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This thesis is an exploratory ecological study of the role of the family environment as it relates to a number of variables under investigation in the Vancouver Day Care Research Project's extensive contextual study of children enrolled in family day care settings. These variables include child language scores, indices of socio-economic status, conditions of maternal employment and attitudes related to maternal employment, other measures of the home environment, and parental attitudes to childrearing. In addition, the family environments of the family day care caregivers were examined in relation to the quality of care provided. The Moos Family Environment Scale (1986) was administered to parents and caregivers enrolled in the study. Scores from its ten subscales were correlated with measures of the variables of interest and then tested for significance. Data was then analyzed for important trends, patterns and highlights. Results showed that exposure of family members to stimulating ideas and activities is facilitative of child language skills, while an emphasis on achievement seems to have a negative effect. Families from higher socio-economic status homes seemed to be more likely to provide these opportunities for their children, particularly if they are well-educated. Findings also indicate that mothers who are satisfied with their employment tend to provide more positive family environments for their children than those who are working reluctantly. Mothers who worked part-time also appeared to provide better family environments than did those who experienced the increased stress of full-time employment. Adult-centered parenting values which stressed obedience were associated with family environments which were less facilitative of child cognitive development, whereas homes with child-centered parenting values appeared to be more positive. Family day care caregivers who provided superior childcare were found to be more organized in their own families, more supportive of one another, and more able to allow their family members to function independently than were other caregivers. There was considerable overlap in the results for each variable of interest; many similar features were found in the environments which were considered optimal in terms of language development, socio-economic factors, conditions of maternal employment, attitudes to childrearing, and high quality care for children. The study results strongly support the importance of exposure to a wide range of intellectual and cultural stimuli, participation in activities outside the home, expression of feelings amongst family members, and well-organized family functioning in the creation of optimal family environments; an emphasis on achievement, and the use of rigid rules and doctrine were found to be deleterious to the creation of positive home environments. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Although many factors have been Implicated in the etiology and maintenance of anorexia nervosa and bulimia, anxiety, particularly in the context of eating, may be critical. Applying the tri-partite model of anxiety, this study was designed to assess anxiety before, during, and after eating in eating disorder and normal control subjects. The experimental eating procedure was preceded by a neutral task. Four groups of ten female subjects each participated: normal-weight females, restricting-anorexics, bulimic-anorexics, and bulimics. Anxiety was assessed by self-report (ratings of pleasure, arousal, and anxiety), psychophysiological (heart rate and skin conductance) and behavioural (food consumption) measures. Controls reported themselves to be non-anxious throughout the study arid ate almost all of the small test meal. Somewhat surprisingly, physiological arousal (especially heart rate) was high during eating. During the neutral task, heart rate declined slightly in all groups. The eating disorder groups indicated a high level of anxiety throughout the study which showed a trend to increase further during eating. In addition, anorexics and bulimics described dysfunctional beliefs regarding the effects of eating on body shape and weight. Similar to controls, physiological arousal was high during eating. Overall, heart rate proved to be a more useful measure of arousal than skin conductance because many anorexics were hyporesponsive. Restricting-anorexics ate the least amount, bulimic-anorexics ate slightly more, and bulimics ate similar amounts to controls. Thus, food consumption was probably associated with weight status. Several conclusions were drawn. Women with eating disorders have a high level of general anxiety probably because of a conflict between biological pressures to eat and fears of weight gain. The high physiological arousal during eating appears to reinforce perceptions of anxiety. The eating disorder groups showed different degrees of concordance among measures of anxiety. Borrowing from the research on phobias, therapeutic procedures such as cognitive therapy, progressive relaxation, and exposure treatments can address the different components of anxiety anorexics and bulimics experience during eating. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Society's dramatically mounting population of Seniors is creating a demand to increase our knowledge of senior health program participation and of what promotes 'Healthy Aging'. This thesis is concerned with factors that affect seniors' participation in health promoting programs. There are two distinct aspects to this study, one is an experiment and the other is a survey. The experiment component of the thesis predicts that potential program participants' giving advice on a projected program topic, more than giving information will increase self-esteem, internal locus of control and thus program participation. The survey aspect of the thesis is designed to discover other factors which affect participation and health concerns. The project deals with psychological constructs such as locus of control, self-esteem and life satisfaction put to the use of social work concerns such as increasing program participation, health awareness and resource use. One hundred and twenty persons aged 60-75 were randomly selected from the files of Matsqui-Abbotsford Community Services and randomly assigned to 3 groups of 40 persons each. Group 1 & 2 were administered Wallston & Wallston & DeVallis' Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales and Rosenbergs’Self-Esteem Scale before and after the two experimental interventions of giving advice or information on the same health topics. Both groups also responded to Diener & Emmons & Larsen & Griffin's Life Satisfaction Scale, Chapin's Organizational Participation Scale and some questions about family, friends, smoking, health and demographics. Group 3, the control group, was not interviewed. After regular intervals all groups were invited to participate in three progressively involving 'Healthy Aging' pursuits. Statistical analysis does not support the hypothesis that giving advice increases self-esteem, life satisfaction, participation or 'internality' of health locus of control. Participation in formal organizations correlates with other forms of sociability and knowledge about prevention, while smoking co-relates positively with social isolation. Health internality is associated with greater self-reported health, life satisfaction, more contact with family and not associated with sociability outside of the home. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The primary objective of this study was the development and investigation of the psychometric properties of a measurement instrument based on the integrated model of behavior roles of offspring of alcoholic parents (Schneider, 1989,1995). The Behavior Role Scale was developed utilizing Crocker and Algina's (1986) 10 step instrument development process and deals directly with the concepts of the original models of behavior roles of offspring of alcoholic parents (Black, 1981; Booz-Allen & Hamilton, 1974; Deutsch, 1983; Kritzberg, 1985; Wegscheider, 1981). The first three steps of the instrument development were completed in an earlier investigation (Schneider, 1989). In this investigation, steps 4 - 8 were completed. The following activities were undertaken: step 4, the construction of an initial pool of items; step 5, the review and revision of the items with the assistance of a panel of experts; step 6, a preliminary tryout of the items in a pilot test; step 7, a field test of the instrument with a nonclinical sample of offspring of alcoholic parents and offspring of nonalcoholic parents; and, step 8, initial investigation of the psychometric properties of the behavior role scale. This investigation contributed the following findings. The field test yielded reliability estimates of .72 for the Caretaker, .67 for the Super Achiever, .86 for the Invisible One, .89 for the Jester, .78 for the Rebel, and an overall alpha of .88. Initial validity was indicated by the emergence of a five factor model as the most interpretable factor analysis solution. The performance of the Behavior Role Scale was also investigated using six validity issues identified in the literature. Offspring of alcoholic parents, offspring of nonalcoholic parents who had experienced a significant family disruption, and offspring of nonalcoholic parents who had not experienced a significant family disruption had significantly different scores with the Super Achiever, Invisible One, and Rebel roles. The three groups did not demonstrate significant differences with the Caretaker or Jester roles. Additional significant differences were discovered with the Jester and Rebel roles among offspring of alcoholic fathers when they were compared according to their fathers' pattern of drinking. The findings of this investigation add to the research evidence which suggests that refinements need to be made to improve the clinical and psycho-educational uses of the behavior roles of offspring of alcoholic parents. Recommendations for future research include submitting the Behavior Role Scale to construct validation studies in order to further refine its ability to measure behavior roles and to be of assistance to researchers seeking to unravel the complexities of life for more than 28 million offspring of alcoholic parents. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Perfectionism has long been recognized as an important personality trait that has a significant impact on emotional and social well-being. More recently, it has been recognized that there is a stylistic aspect to perfectionism that focuses on a desire to appear perfect. This perfectionistic self-presentation, and in particular, the desire for concealment of imperfections, has been related to psychopathology in past research. However, it is proposed that perfectionistic self-presentation presents a particular concern from a clinical perspective because of it's indirect effects on pathology; a desire to conceal imperfections is especially problematic to the extent that it impacts the experience of therapy and the therapy relationship. The current study examined the cognitive, affective/physiological, and behavioral manifestations of perfectionistic self-presentation in a clinical sample. Ninety clinical subjects completed self-report measures of perfectionistic self-presentation, trait perfectionism, impression management, mood, appraisals, and self-handicapping. A brief structured assessment interview that included a discussion of past mistakes, was conducted by trained clinical interviewers. Physiological monitors recorded heart rate and skin conductance level throughout the interview, and the interview was videotaped. Post-interview measures of mood, appraisals, and self-handicapping, were also completed. Results at the bivariate level showed that the self-protective dimensions of perfectionistic self-presentation were associated with more distress both prior to and following the interview, higher heart rate and greater change in heart rate when discussing mistakes (and greater skin conductance for men), greater claims of disability from self-handicaps, and appraisals of the interviewer as both threatening (wanting more than the participant could provide) and disappointed following the interview. Regression analyses showed that the desire to avoid disclosing imperfections was a unique predictor of appraisals of threat over and above demographics, trait perfectionism, and other measures of distress (interaction anxiety and depression) and impression management, and of appraisals of the interviewer as disappointed following the interview, over and above demographics and trait perfectionism. The block change score for perfectionistic self-presentation predicting interviewer satisfaction was marginally significant over and above emotional distress and impression managment. The desire to avoid displaying imperfections was a unique predictor of lower threat appraisals. Perfectionistic self-presentation also predicted higher heart rate when discussing errors, over and above demographics and other measures of distress and impression management, and greater change in heart rate from relaxation; this relation held when controlling for demographics, trait perfectionism, and emotional distress and impression management. Perfectionistic self-presentation did not predict defensive behaviors and was not a unique predictor of self-reported negative affect. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for therapy and the therapeutic alliance. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Despite social scientists' interest in globalization, mobility, the effects of colonialism, and the intercultural situations that result, little attention has been devoted to expatriates as a contemporary transnational group. This thesis is an enquiry into the ways eight individuals define themselves as expatriates, through their oral narratives of life in Papua New Guinea. The paper focuses on expatriates' characterizations of themselves in terms of: their communities; their relationships with locals; their status as foreigners in post-colonial Papua New Guinea; arid their experiences of mobility. Set against social scientific notions of expatriates and contemporary ideas of mobility and its relation to identity, expatriates' personal narratives indicate that scholarly depictions are too simplistic to access contemporary expatriates or the complex situations in which they live. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to investigate the praxis (theory and practice) of oral language by student teachers during their practicum. Specifically, this study identified and described the factors which 13 British Columbia student teachers perceived of as affecting the establishment of an orally interactive environment within their practicum classroom. Through the analysis of dialogue journals, interviews, and questionnaires, 24 factors in 5 categories were identified and described that affect the development of orally interactive teaching. The factors were grouped into categories of knowledge, position, expectations, structures, and assumptions. This study concludes that the identification of factors affecting orality in the practicum can assist teacher education programs and teachers to more effectively address the potential of orality as a medium for negotiation and meaning making in the classroom. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Application after application of the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) has revealed that the majority of urban core school climates seemed to be "closed" rather than "open". Efforts on the part of school administrators to alter the "closed", "unhealthy" organizational climates in their systems to more "open", "healthy" climates are premature because so little is actually known about how to change a climate. Since "closed" climate conditions seem to be almost synonomous with "large" school size, the purpose of this study has been to contribute some small measure of knowledge as to how to change a school climate by determining the relationship between organizational climate measured by the eight OCDQ subtests—Disengagement, Hindrance, Esprit, Intimacy, Aloofness, Production Emphasis, Thrust, Consideration—and four objective organizational size characteristics—School Area, Staff Members, Enrolment, and Human Density. The impact of these size variables is examined based on data obtained through a field study involving 20 schools and 116 teachers in the Vancouver, British Columbia school system. The data were subjected to factor analytic techniques. The results subsequently suggested that a five-factor pattern of climate dimensions—Principal as Leader, Teacher "qua" Teacher Group Perception, Non-Classroom Teacher Satisfaction, Working Conditions, Hindrance V—was as suitable as an eight-factor pattern. Consequently, the study design was expanded to accomodate the unanticipated results. In terms of its purpose, the study's findings can be briefly summarized as follows: 1) Reduction of Enrolment may prove useful in providing conditions related to the type of leadership behaviour—as described by the Principal as Leader dimension of school organizational climate—normally associated with a more "open", "healthy" climate. 2) Reduction of Staff Members may influence the Principal as Leader dimension of school organizational climate in much the same manner just described for Enrolment. Further investigation of this relationship could well reveal that the reduction of Staff Members, would increase Esprit for the remainder. A smaller staff with higher Esprit will, tend more toward the "open", "healthy" climate; 3) There is a hint in the findings that the association between Density and Principal as Leader and Area's association with both Teacher "qua" Teacher Group Perception and Hindrance (V) is strong enough to justify further research; 4) There Is little Indication that manipulation of any of the four size variables will influence either, the Non-Classroom Teacher Satisfaction or the Working Conditions dimension of a school's organizational climate. Three basic implications are drawn from the findings and related empirical evidence provided by the literature: 1) Smaller schools are imperative if the principal's leadership is not to be smothered by too many pupils and teachers, 2) School size in terms of its Area and its Density, i.e., the number of square feet available to its occupants, may not have as much impact on the climate dimensions as a reduction in Enrolment and Staff Members, but nevertheless, sufficient evidence does exist to. imply that altering Area and Density might prove useful in providing conditions similar to those which are normally associated with an "open" climate, 3) Even though considerably more research is required with respect to gaining much more knowledge concerning the relationship between school size and school climate, the difficulties encountered by this study and several others reported in it, imply that the OCDQ itself should be subjected to further refinement before continuing to subject it to such extensive use. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This thesis develops a general theory of choice behaviour which is applied to the analysis of response to development programmes in rural India. The theory focuses on the social processes which structure perceived choice parameters for individuals differentially situated within the village communities. It examines those mechanisms which influence the range of alternatives likely to be considered, appreciation of their varied consequences, or the likely outcome of new proposals, and their perceived and actual feasibility. A basic concept in the theory is "power", defined here as "the ability to influence the structuring of choice parameters of others", through control over critical mechanisms of information flow, persuasion, and access to input facilities. Ten hypotheses are derived from the basic theoretical axiom of rational action, concerned with how such control will be exercised, and the implications which this has for the scope of choices open to others. Rural development programmes in India provide the substantive context for testing the utility of these hypotheses. These programmes are directly concerned with promoting innovation among villagers, and they incorporate a wide range of specific choices. The theory predicts that within the highly stratified village communities, first hand access to new information, and further diffusion at second hand, will be concentrated among members of the same faction and* social stratum as initially privileged informants. Vertical diffusion of information across strata will be minimal, and its content strongly biased by the particular interests of initial informants. The theory further predicts that evaluation of the merits of any new proposals will be strongly influenced by the character of relations between informant and recipients. As information flows vertically between strata, its persuasive impact will decline, as a function of relatively poorer quality information, the extent of tensions and conflicting interests between strata, and perceived economic disparities. Lastly, the theory predicts that access to any input facilities will be concentrated among members of the same faction and social stratum as those persons responsible for their distribution. Access by members of other strata will decline with increasing social distance, and their preferences are progressively less likely to be considered in the investment of resources for community projects. The study succeeds in demonstrating the utility of these hypotheses in predicting response to development projects within the five village communities. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate