Participatory action research (PAR) methodologies attract researchers both because they open up space to apply the values and principles associated with social justice and because they have the potential to deepen our understanding of an issue by giving us the opportunity to explore contexts and processes through people's experiences. This allows for new insights to emerge and relevant solutions to be discovered and implemented through emancipatory practices. However, choosing to do this type of research for a thesis as a master's of social work student without lived or research experience complicates an already complex endeavor and raises many dilemmas, questions and challenges. Reflecting on my experience of working with a peer-led community organization in Southern Ontario that provides services for people who have experienced mental health or substance use challenges and have interacted with the mental health system, this thesis will explore my journey of joining a research team that set out to use PAR to better understand peer support. Using a narrative inquiry approach, I will explore the tensions that occurred throughout the process of attempting PAR with a community agency within the university framework of completing a thesis. In the spirit of PAR and its intention to disrupt dominant approaches to research processes, I will use an alternative, storytelling format in order to best illustrate my circumstances, perspectives and the difficulties I faced as an outsider, student, university researcher trying to follow PAR principles. The lessons I learned will also be provided in an effort to make this type of undertaking easier for future students. Overall, I learned that we need to find ways to bridge and support the two cultures of graduate students and community groups in working together in PAR. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

The objective of this study was to investigate how well the academic performance of the Industrial and Organisational Psychology master’s students at a research institution can be predicted through psychometric measures. A non-experimental design was used in this empirical study. The sample consisted of one hundred and thirty-three IO Psychology master’s students over a five-year period. The secondary data for this research originated from the students completing the Graduate Verify Ability tests as well as the Occupational Personality Questionnaire, which are psychometric measures that form part of the selection. Both psychometric measures load onto the Person Job Match competencies. A theoretical relationship could be found between the Ability tests and academic success as well as the PJM competencies that included weighted scores from both psychometric measures. The empirical relationships, therefore, proved that the ability tests have the strongest predictive ability for academic success. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)