The effects of cortical arousal on state complexity and evaluative importance were examined. Arousal was manipulated using two levels of white noise. In Study 1, a three-dimensional social domain was created using behavioral descriptions of eight fictitious people. In Study 2, subjects memorized these descriptions, and later, from memory, made similarity judgments among these eight targets while being exposed to either loud or soft white noise. The first hypothesis was that loud noise would effect an increase in the relative importance of the evaluation dimension. The second hypothesis was that this increased use of evaluation would be a result of a reduction in state complexity-evidenced by the other dimensions becoming less important. The results fully supported the first hypothesis and partially supported the second. There was also some support for the hypothesis that trait complex compared to trait simple individuals would be more affected by loud noise. However, the prediction that sensitizers would be more affected by the loud noise than repressors was not supported. The limitations of the second stud-y and new directions for research are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to develop a model of investigating anxiety in human-computer interactions. The model was constructed from three components. Firstly, precursor conditions of anxiety were identified by assimilating several of the accepted theoretical viewpoints of the anxiety concept. Secondly, the computer-human interaction process was examined and typical events in this process were identified. Finally, a connection between the computer-human interaction process and anxiety was proposed by identifying a subset of specific interaction events that were representative of the anxiety inducing conditions. These were termed Computer-Interaction Anxiety (CIA) events. To test the validity of the model an experiment was carried out in which state anxiety data was collected while 31 subjects were engaged in an interactive computer programming session. There was a significant increase in the subjects' state-anxiety level immediately after experiencing typical CIA events. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The objective of this thesis is to initiate development of a valid and reliable measurement process to assess a viewer's emotional response to television advertising. The development of this measure is based on current psychological theories about the emotional process, and takes advantage of current methods available to measure emotional response. The goals for the measurement process are to provide information on emotional response to television advertising from two diverse sources, automatic real-time response, and cognitive after-the-fact responses. The selection of instruments to meet these goals first involved a review of the psychological literature on emotional theory to provide direction on defining what is an emotional response, and how the emotional subcomponents relate. This provides direction for evaluating the instruments available for measuring emotional response, and selecting two that will satisfy the above goal. The use of these measurement instruments in a pretest is then outlined, and the thesis concludes with directions for future research. The construct of emotion is complex and multidimensional, including interactions among neural hormonal systems, conscious and unconscious cognition, physiological adjustments, affective response, and expressive behavior. These dimensions suggest four categories that emotional response measurement instruments can be grouped into; cognitive, affective, psychological and behavioral. Measurement instruments in each of the four above categories have problems in their applicability as stand alone measures of emotional response to television advertisements. Of all the measurement instruments reviewed, the Beaumont Emotion Battery and the Facial Action Coding System appear to be compatible with the construct of emotion and each other. These measures can provide similar data, and capture virtually the same categories of emotional response. The usefulness of combining these two measures should be explored through a pretest. In designing the pretest, the success in capturing specific emotional responses attributable to the advertisement will depend on the setting used, the selection of advertisements and the program these advertisements are embedded in. The setting should copy a normal viewing environment to encourage normal behavior in subjects. The advertisements used should maximize the variability in emotional response, while being new to the subjects to avoid frequency biases. The program should be carefully selected to avoid content effects. When subjects proceed through the pretest procedure of watching a television program while having their facial expressions videotaped, and then responding to the Beaumont Emotion Battery after the program ends, careful attention to the environment, advertisements, and program will reduce the potential for error and bias in the pretest. To structure and delineate areas for new research, emotional response to television advertising can be approached from the viewpoint of what could impact or influence the response. This leads to the definition of the following areas of influence: the advertisement; the group of advertisements the advertisement is placed in; the program; the viewing environment; and the viewer. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Cognitive processes have recently received considerable attention in studies of pain. Belief systems, coping mechanisms, perceptions of control and self-efficacy, and other cognitive systems appear to play a central role in determining individual differences to painful events (Rollman, 1983; Turk, Meichenbaum & Genest, 1983; Weisenberg, 1984). The present investigation sought to examine the cognitive and behavioural relationships that are associated with individual differences in responses to painful stimuli. Sixty female undergraduate psychology students participated in the experimental pain induction procedure which used the cold pressor test as the noxious stimulation. To gain a broad assessment of the different factors that may be characteristic of differences in response to pain, tolerant subjects were contrasted with less tolerant subjects on a variety of self-report, cognitive and behavioural - facial expression - measures. As part of the assessment procedure, subjects completed measures of state anxiety, self-efficacy to withstand pain, and a questionnaire involving a retrospective analysis of cognitive techniques. Half of the subjects were interviewed regarding their cognitions concerning the cold pressor task both pre and post their immersion, and the other half were interviewed post only. Transcriptions were coded independently of pain tolerance status. Subjects' facial expressions were videotaped during the cold pressor task and coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) developed by Ekman and Friesen (1978). It was hypothesized that dysfunctional cognitions, lack of effective coping activity, amplification of sensory intensity and affective discomfort and high levels of facial activity would characterize subjects who were less tolerant of the induced pain. The distribution of the endurance times to the cold pressor task confirmed past observations that subjects cluster into two major groups of high and low tolerance (Turk et al. 1983). The results confirmed the major hypotheses that there are cognitive and self-report differences between pain tolerance groups. In comparison to tolerant subjects, less tolerant subjects had lower scores of perceived self-efficacy to withstand pain, higher scores for both sensation and discomfort ratings, retrospectively reported having experienced more pain, and made more accurate estimates of their duration in the cold water. Less tolerant subjects also reported more dysfunctional cognitions during the cold pressor task and reported using effective coping techniques to a lesser extent than tolerant subjects. Major differences between the tolerance groups also appeared in the length of post-test interviews. Tolerant subjects had much lengthier interviews at the post-test than less tolerant subjects. A discriminant analysis revealed that self-efficacy beliefs during the experimental task and the length of the post-test interviews were the most important discriminators between the groups. These results highlight the role of cognition in individual differences in pain tolerance. These results also suggest that low pain tolerance subjects may be better conceptualized as being ineffective and overwhelmed in their attempts to cope with pain which supports the current notion that cognitive based therapies may be the key in managing and alleviating pain states. No support was found for the hypothesis that subjects of differing pain tolerance thresholds would be characterized by differences in facial activity. Facial actions associated with pain in the present study were similar with facial expressions in previous studies (cf. Craig & Patrick, 1985; Hyde, 1986; Swalm, 1987). Contrary to previous results (Craig & Patrick, 1985), measures of facial expression increased over exposure time similarly to self-report. High levels of facial expression were associated with low levels of self-report of coping cognitions assessed at the post-test and with shorter post-test interviews. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This research study sought to respond to the question; what is the meaning of the experience of the companion to a grieving person? This was accomplished through using a phenomenological method of research. The researcher was guided by dramatic form in creating a common story of the experience and its structural meanings. This study included three co-researchers, who were selected on the basis that they had each been a companion to a mother who had grieved the loss of her child through death. The co-researchers were Interviewed and asked to give detailed descriptions of their experience, which were taperecorded and transcribed, and the transcripts or protocols were analyzed by the researcher. A Phenomenological protocol analysis was used to extract meaning units and common themes from the three protocols. The themes were woven into an integrated narrative description, which was condensed into the essential structure or meaning of the experience. At each stage of the analysis, the researcher and co-researchers cooperated so that all the results were validated by the final interview. The results of the study included a list of twenty-four themes, a narrative description of the experience being investigated, and the essential structure, which presented the meaning of the experience as concisely as possible. It was posited in the discussion that the study had particular implications for practice. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This qualitative study was undertaken for the purpose of answering the following two research questions: (a) What is the personal meaning and experience of mothering for women who feel they are actively resisting the Western dominant discourse on mothering?, and (b) How are these personal meanings and experiences grounded in the participants' personal contexts as well as in dominant and alternative discourses and discursive practices? Fifteen women ranging in age from 23 to 46 years, who self identified as actively resisting the dominant discourse, were interviewed about their mothering experiences. Their interviews were transcribed and analyzed following a critical interpretive approach (Cushman, 1995; Packer & Addison, 1989). In answering the first research question three themes were identified: (a) resisting is rewarding and liberating, (b) resisting entails juggling and balancing, (c) resisting entails cognitive work, refraining, and reconciling. Although acknowledging the pragmatic and cognitive challenges inherent in so doing, the women in the study experienced a sense of empowerment and pride in their choice to resist. In answering the second question, participants' identified concrete structural barriers to their efforts to mother differently and acknowledged the importance of supportive partners, friends, extended family members, education, financial resources, and flexible employment as critical in their efforts to resist having their own needs completely subjugated to those of their children. Participants drew on the discourses of feminism, achievement, individualism, collectivity, self-care, science, attachment, and alternative medicine in supporting their efforts to resist. They positioned themselves as caring responsible mothers, independent women, educated/professionals, critical thinkers, and activists. The findings suggest that in positioning themselves in opposition to the dominant, 'selfless mother' discourse, the participants were faced with negotiating between multiple and often contradictory discourses. In particular, the women in the study struggled to negotiate between the selfless mother and the individual rights/self actualization discourses. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the perception of resistance may be as important in engendering a sense of agency for women who mother, as the actual manifestation of resistance in their mothering practices. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research, theory, and clinical practice. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

An exploratory case study using multiple cases investigated the question "What is the meaning of stealing in eating disordered women?" Seven women diagnosed with bulimia nervosa participated in in-depth interviews about this experience. The findings of these interviews revealed commonalities and variations in the patterns and dynamics of both stealing and bulimia. Important information emerged about this experience regarding restrictive family patterns, participants' reactions to these restrictions through stealing and the parallel restrictions and reactions of the bulimic behaviours they later imposed upon themselves. These results add new and in-depth information to the few existing quantitative studies and clinical knowledge addressing stealing in bulimic women. Recommendations for future research and implications for clinical practice were presented. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This essay is a discussion of two related topics in contemporary aesthetics: the notion of aesthetic sensitivity, and the question of the objectivity of aesthetic judgements. Its point of departure is the work of Frank Sibley on "aesthetic concepts". In Chapter I intuitionism is rejected both as providing an answer to the question, "Are aesthetic judgements objective?" and as providing the basis for an account of aesthetic sensitivity. In Chapter II an account of aesthetic sensitivity based on the seeing-as notion is explored and ultimately abandoned. In Chapter III the issue of objectivity for aesthetic judgements is developed in detail, as turning on the availability of some decision procedure or other for the resolution of disputes. It is argued that relativism, the position that no such decision procedures for aesthetic judgements are available, cannot be adequately defended. An analogy between aesthetic judgement and color attribution emerges as basic to a promising strategy for a defense of aesthetic objectivism. The strategy involves the demand for an articulation of decision procedures relevant to color attribution. The promise of the strategy is defended when it is argued that standard anti-intuitionist criticisms need not undermine it. Finally, the theses and arguments of one relativist, Isabel C. Hungerland, are criticized. Part of her defense of relativism is traced to her acceptance of an analogy between aesthetic judgement and seeing-as. The results of Chapter II, in which the limits of that analogy are exposed, are employed against her. Chapter IV is an outline of a set of decision procedures for color attribution. Color decision procedures involve the selection of a reference group of observers, whose visual experiences are taken to be authoritative. Members of the reference group are selected on the basis of two principles of selection: one which selects statistically normal observers, and one which selects observers of demonstrably higher discriminatory capacity. A system of subsidiary principles, which operates when the two main are at odds in their selections, is illustrated. In Chapter V the plausibility of an aesthetic analogue of the theory of color objectivity developed in Chapter IV is defended against two major objections. The first objection is based on a point of disanalogy between colors and aesthetic features: the V-emergence" of aesthetic features, It is argued, in effect, that this is not a relevant point of disanalogy. The second objection is based on the view that the meanings of terms used to express aesthetic judgements are never twice the same. This view is criticized, and a more plausible one, which does not pose difficulties for the colors/aesthetics analogy, is considered. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative influence of stimulus cues and response tendencies on the behavior of average and consistently or inconsistently overweight individuals. The female undergraduate volunteers who participated in the study were assigned to one of three weight groups on the basis of weight history, present weight, and triceps skinfold measurements. The three groups included consistently average, consistently overweight, and "fluctuator" subjects. This last group consisted of subjects whose weights over the past two years had varied between the average and overweight classifications. There were 20 subjects in each of the three groups. All subjects completed two experimental tasks and were also administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), Form A. The first experimental task, used previously by Sikes, involved guessing the colors (black or red) of 120 consecutively presented cards. Seventy-five per cent of the first 90 cards in the series were black, while all of the remaining 30 cards were red. As expected, there were no performance differences between groups on the first 90 cards; however, on the last 30 cards consistently overweight participants made significantly more errors than either average or fluctuator subjects. This finding is consistent with Singh's deficit-in-response-inhibition hypothesis which maintains that overweight people have greater difficulty in changing established response tendencies than do people of average weight. It is noteworthy, however, that in the present study only people who had been consistently overweight for the past two years experienced more difficulty in changing their established responses. The second experimental task involved learning two paired associate word lists in an A-B/A-Br transfer paradigm. As expected, there were no performance differences between groups on the initial list. Contrary to expectations, however, there were also no differences between groups on the transfer list which required the suppression of previously established responses. Thus, in this situation consistently overweight subjects did not show the predicted deficit-in-response-inhibition effect. The results, then, offer partial support for Singh's interpretation of obesity in terms of differential response tendencies. No support is found for Schachter's interpretation which stresses the effects of external cues, since obese subjects did not show performance that was superior to that of average subjects at any point. Results from analyses of subjects' scores on the EPI indicated that there were no differences between the three weight groups on either extraversion or neuroticism. In addition to providing some support for Singh's hypothesis, the experimental findings in this study indicate that it is important to consider recent weight history as well as present weight when investigating behavioral differences between overweight and normal individuals. Implications of this research for treatment of overweight individuals were discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the larger issue of color and emotional responses and, within that framework, to explore ways of specifying complex color displays. Several steps were involved in this investigation. First, a total of 80 color displays representing five levels of hue, two levels of value, two levels of chroma and four levels of motif were constructed. These were unique in that they accurately and systematically sampled the Munsell color space, and in the fact that they contained large numbers of color elements which were colorimetrically specifiable and which at the same time were arranged in such a way that they resembled color pictures. They thus bridged the gap between stimuli used in single color experiments which could be colorimetrically specified, and experiments with unspecifiable color pictures. Secondly, an emotional response measure employing the three dimensions of pleasure, arousal and dominance, was used to assess the effects of the display dimensions of hue, value, chroma and motif and the subject variable of sex. In addition, a verbal measure of information rate was used to assess the extent to which the display motifs influenced subjects' non-affective (i.e., cognitive responses), and subjects' ability to recognize the display motifs was assessed as well. Thirdly, the problem of stimulus specification was approached through the application of a three-step procedure involving increasing stimulus specificity. These approaches dealt with the specification in terms of (1) the individual color elements making up a display, (2) the quantity of these individual color components, and (3) the distribution or location of these elements across the display surface. The latter specification scheme, which was termed "distribution specification", made use of 24 procedures—some based on accepted artistic views and others of a more abstract nature—for calculating the relationship between the color elements in the displays. The measures which these procedures resulted in were subseqently assessed against subjects' responses on the dimensions of pleasure, arousal, dominance and information rate. Initially, a pilot study with 20 subjects and 16 of the 80 displays was conducted to test the general performance of the response measures and to test whether the displays could be presented in the form of projected slides. The results of this study showed that the general experimental procedure was acceptable but that the projection technique distorted the colors of the displays excessively. Based on the conclusions of the pilot study, a larger study using 82 subjects and the displays as originally constructed was conducted. The results were surprising to the extent that complex color stimuli did not differevery substantially from those elicited by single color stimuli: the color dimension of value influenced the emotional responses to the greatest extent, chroma to a somewhat lesser extent, and hue very little. The motif of the displays, on the other hand, was found to make a substantial difference to the way subjects felt about a display, and the way they assessed it in terms of information rate. Also, it was found that the verbal measure of information rate was a good predictor of how well subjects would recognize a motif. The results of the analysis of stimulus specification in terms of the 24 distribution measures was particularly interesting and gratifying in that several of the measures emerged as strong predictors of responses to the emotional measures and information rate. In particular, the artistically common-sense notions of top-bottom and left-right pictorial balance were prominent, as was the specially constructed measure of contrasts within small sampling areas of the displays. It was concluded, first, that the study had reinforced the findings of many past studies dealing with color and affect, and that it had thrown some new light on some of the controversial and contradictory findings of the past. Secondly, the study had moved the investigation of emotional responses to color pictures and works of art a substantial step closer to realization. Finally, the study had suggested new and promising avenues to follow in the further investigation of colorimetric specification of complex color stimuli. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Interdisciplinary - Psychology, Education, Architecture / Graduate