The purpose of guidance is to assist the individual in making intelligent choices and adjustments. It helps in the interpretation and solving of problems for individuals, at critical times in their lives, by providing them with both the necessary information and the assistance which counselling offers. [...]

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This was an exploratory study which used Flanagan's Critical Incident Technique to find out the factors which hinder or facilitate the psycho-socio adjustment of students from The People's Republic of China to Canada. The 21 subjects for the sample were drawn at random from a name list provided by the Chinese Visiting Scholars and Students Association at University of British Columbia. All of the subjects were graduate students or visiting scholars and had been in Canada for 9-12 months at the time of the interviews. All subjects were able to identify incidents which hindered or facilitated their first year psycho-socio adjustment to Canada. The total of 385 incidents, 175 facilitating and 210 hindering incidents, were reported. The average number of incidents reported per student was 19.2. Ten major categories which facilitate or hinder PRC students' psycho-socio adjustment to Canada have been found through this research. Considering the number of incidents reported by the participants, Academic Study & Research was ranked the first place among 10 categories. According to the rate of participation, Language Barriers & Improvement was listed the highest among 10 categories. Considering the number of facilitating incidents reported by the participants, Initial Settlement was placed the highest. In the number of hindering incidents, category of Language Barriers & Improvement was listed the highest among the 10 categories. The explanation of the research findings and suggestions for how the findings might contribute to the understanding PRC or other Oriental international students are included in the discussion. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

At the heart of this study is a desire to unravel a puzzle of why I and other self-identified Chinese students share common experience of exclusion in the Canadian academy, despite our differences as individuals and as Chinese. Our experience of exclusion is made invisible by the stereotypical image of Asian students as the paragon of success within the academy. It is again made invisible by policy addressing inclusion in the academy that uses largely outcome measures to paint pictures of success, and keeps the less concrete parts of processes unpainted. There is a lack of attention to and an under-theorization of the less perceptible and less tangible processes of inclusion and exclusion. The central question of this study is: How do Chinese students’ experiences in higher education, as viewed through Bourdieu’s framework of culture, inform a nuanced understanding of inclusion and exclusion? I draw on Bourdieu’s framework along with its core concepts to analyse the narratives of sixteen self-identified Chinese students from six Ontario post-secondary institutions. Methodologically, I draw on a theme-based approach from Thematic Inquiry and a case-based approach from Narrative Inquiry to form a Bourdieusian methodological framework that stays true to the anti-dualistic epistemological foundation of Bourdieu’s theory. Captured in this study is a complex picture of inclusion and exclusion centred on a boundary that is so intangible and masked that it is largely imperceptible and hence unarticulated. The boundary is imperceptible because: 1) inclusion and exclusion is mediated through an unspoken system of meanings and values inscribed in disposition and practices; the boundary takes the form of a normalized way of being (disposition) and doing (practice) 2) inclusion and exclusion is unintentionally enacted; the boundary takes the form of unintentional domination and ‘voluntary’ exit (as if no external force is driving the exclusion) 3) inclusion and exclusion is diffused by the conversion of the boundary from an overt form to a neutralized or ‘normalized’ form such as social network. While the boundary is obscured, it is at the same time fluid and permeable when capital is strategically positioned and deployed. This study concludes by suggesting the need to take into consideration intangible and unintentional processes of inclusion and exclusion, and a two-way approach (again staying true to Bourdieu’s anti-dualistic framework) to broaden policy and research conversations about inclusion and exclusion. Only when invisible processes of inclusion and exclusion are brought to the fore can we begin to redress them. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Perfectionism has been related to both adaptive functioning such as positive achievement striving, as well as to negative outcomes such as procrastination and depression. Numerous studies, using primarily Caucasian subjects, document a relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and depression. Few studies have examined perfectionism in samples from different cultural backgrounds. The present multidimensional conceptualization and operational definition of perfectionism remains to be tested in terms of meaningfulness and applicability to other cultural groups. Therefore the overall aim of the current study is to determine if the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) shows evidence of construct validity in a sample of university students from Chinese cultural backgrounds. Evidence of construct validity is obtained by investigating similarities and differences between the two cultural groups in the following: the internal structure of the measure; and the relationships between the measure and other measures (concurrent validity). Differences in mean levels of perfectionism between Chinese-Canadian and European Canadian students are also investigated. Data for 191 subjects are reported for the following measures: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991); Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost et al, 1990); Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al, 1979); Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (Suinn et al, 1987); a Background Information Sheet. Evidence of construct validity and of the previously documented relationship between socially-prescribed perfectionism and depression was found for the Chinese-Canadian sample. The current study lends support for using the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) with Chinese-Canadian university students.

Perfectionism has been related to both adaptive functioning such as positive achievement striving, as well as to negative outcomes such as procrastination and depression. Numerous studies, using primarily Caucasian subjects, document a relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and depression. Few studies have examined perfectionism in samples from different cultural backgrounds. The present multidimensional conceptualization and operational definition of perfectionism remains to be tested in terms of meaningfulness and applicability to other cultural groups. Therefore the overall aim of the current study is to determine if the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) shows evidence of construct validity in a sample of university students from Chinese cultural backgrounds. Evidence of construct validity is obtained by investigating similarities and differences between the two cultural groups in the following: the internal structure of the measure; and the relationships between the measure and other measures (concurrent validity). Differences in mean levels of perfectionism between Chinese-Canadian and European Canadian students are also investigated. Data for 191 subjects are reported for the following measures: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991); Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost et al, 1990); Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al, 1979); Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (Suinn et al, 1987); a Background Information Sheet. Evidence of construct validity and of the previously documented relationship between socially-prescribed perfectionism and depression was found for the Chinese-Canadian sample. The current study lends support for using the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) with Chinese-Canadian university students. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate