Two studies were undertaken to explore how aspects of the couple relationship might play a role in women's experience of prenatal diagnosis (PND). Both studies involved women referred to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) for prenatal genetic counseling due to advanced maternal age (AMA). The first study examined the role of the partner during the genetic counseling session by comparing 123 women who attended the session alone with 222 women accompanied by their partners, on the basis of self-report measures completed immediately prior to and following the session. Accompanied women reported somewhat higher levels of state anxiety and PND-related decisional conflict before the session than did those who attended alone (p < .05). The presence of the partner could thus reflect a support-seeking coping strategy employed by women to cope with feelings of indecision and anxiety surrounding the issue of prenatal diagnosis. Alternatively, it is possible that attendance by the partner contributed to anxiety and uncertainty among women. The second study sought to clarify the reasons for partner attendance or non-attendance at the genetic counseling and testing appointments, and to explore how certain relationship variables might relate to women's individual and marital adjustment following PND. Ninety-five women completed self-report measures prior to genetic counseling (Time 1), during the waiting period for PND test results (Time 2), and after normal results were known (Time 3). Many women reported that their partners attended the appointments on the basis of the couple's view of PND as a shared experience, or to provide emotional and decisional support for the women. The most common reason for partner non-attendance was work-related conflicts. At Time 2, distress was predicted by the degree to which women approached the PND decision jointly with their partners, and marital adjustment was predicted by women's satisfaction with the support received from their partners. Marital adjustment at Time 3 was predicted by earlier levels of partner agreement about PND-related issues. The association between pre-counseling partner agreement and Time 3 well-being was mediated by women's use of relationship-focused coping (partner support seeking and empathic responding) and moderated by women's satisfaction with their partners' support. Joint decision-making at Time 1 was linked to Time 3 adjustment indirectly, through women's satisfaction with their partners' support. Finally, women's use of avoidant coping strategies mediated the association between perceived partner support and Time 3 adjustment outcomes. Results suggest that aspects of the couple relationship have the potential to facilitate or hinder women's experience of PND counseling and testing, thus highlighting the potential benefits of focusing at least a portion of the genetic counseling session on couple-related issues.

This longitudinal, multi-informant study is an examination of aggressive behaviour and peer rejection as predictors of children's school adjustment over time. 524 children between the ages of seven and eight (272 boys, 252 girls) in greater Florence, Italy and their mathematics/science and language arts/social studies teachers participated in the investigation, which spanned 18 months. Following a review of the relation among children's aggressive behaviour, rejection from the peer group, their adjustment to school, and the Italian cultural context, analyses of hierarchical linear models indicated that children who were rejected by their peers generally liked school less, avoided school more, and performed worse academically over time than did children who were not rejected. The onset of peer rejection predicted a decline in academic performance in some cases. Peer rejection also forecast increased aggression in boys. Children who were aggressive avoided school more than nonaggressive children did. The present findings support the claim that peer rejection might be a pivotal contributor to the development of children's academic difficulties over time with aggressive behaviour, school avoidance, and school dislike as potential mechanisms of decline.

Although many theoreticians have posited that cognitions concerning self, children, and other adults play a central role in the etiology and maintenance of child sexual abuse, knowledge in the area remains incomplete due, in part, to reliance on self-report measures, which are generally restricted to consciously accessible thoughts and susceptible to presentation bias. In the current study, the primary goal was to test for the existence of differences between the cognitions of child molesters and non-molesters using an implicit measure called the Implicit Association Test (IAT). To that end, 6 IATs were designed to measure the domains of evaluation, social power, and sexual attractiveness in self and in children (relative to adults). Participants were incarcerated men who had either been convicted of sexual offences against extrafamilial children under 14 years of age (N = 30) or who had not admitted to, been charged with, or been convicted of any sexual offences ( N = 31). As expected, child molesters viewed children (relative to adults) as significantly more sexually attractive than did the non-sex offenders, as measured by the sexy child IAT. Among the child molesters, a greater number of sexual offences was significantly associated with a view of self as less powerful and less sexually attractive, as measured, respectively, by the powerful self IAT and the sexy self IAT. These results remained even after a number of potential confounding variables were statistically or otherwise controlled. Although only partial support for the hypotheses was found, this study demonstrated that the IAT has much promise as a tool with which to study cognitions associated with child sexual abuse.

Social functioning deficits have long been implicated in explanations for sexual abuse. Historically, this understanding has been rooted in research findings, which differentiate child molesters from nonsexual offenders on constructs such as social skills, empathy, and cognitive distortions. The goal of the current study was to examine how these various indicators of social functioning are combined to explain sexual aggression in child molesters. To this end, a model of general aggression in non offenders was adapted and tested to explain sexual and general aggression child molesters. Specifically, it was proposed that poor social intelligence contributes to negative attitudes and beliefs about sexual contact with children (i.e. cognitive distortions), which inhibits capacity for victim specific empathy responses, which in turn leads to sexually aggressive behaviour. Participants were incarcerated men who had been convicted of a sexual offence against a child (N = 122) and men who may or may not be incarcerated, but have never admitted to, been charged with, or convicted of a sexual offence ( N = 61). As predicted, child molesters (relative to non child molesters) reported poorer social intelligence, victim specific and general empathy deficits, and greater cognitive distortions about sexual contact with children. Although these factors were not predictive of sexual aggression, general empathy accounted for significant variance in the prediction of general aggression in child molesters. Interestingly, cognitive distortions made virtually no direct contribution to aggression. However, support was found for a negative influence of cognitive distortions on general empathy, which was then negatively related to general aggression. The results of this study were found after controlling for a number of confounding variables, which suggests that social competency factors are relevant over and above demographic and criminal history factors in understanding aggression in child molesters. This study demonstrates the importance of integrating independent factors into a testable model, has implications for etiological theories, and contributes to understanding the complex role of social functioning factors in aggression.

Three studies were undertaken to explore foster parenting practices (parental nurturance, parent-youth conflict, and parent-youth shared activities) as predictors of psychosocial outcomes (pro-social behaviour, emotional disorder, conduct disorder, and indirect aggression) in youths aged 10-17 years and living in foster homes in Ontario from 2001-2004. The first study included cross-sectional hierarchical regression analyses using data collected from 367 foster youths in 2001-2002. The second study replicated cross-sectional analyses with data collected from 439 foster youths in 2002-2003. It also included a longitudinal investigation of 201 foster youth present for both years of the study, permitting a more thorough exploration of reciprocal causal mechanisms. The third study explored the added influence of a fourth parenting practice: parental monitoring, using data collected from 143 foster youths in 2002-2004. Statistical controls included demographic variables (foster youth gender and age) and contextual variables (length of time in foster placement, total number of youth in foster household). It was hypothesized that the same trends observed in broader parenting research would also apply within the context of foster families, and therefore that more frequent engagement in positive parenting practices would predict improved foster youth outcomes. Results for the three studies provided inconsistent support for the hypotheses. Parenting practices, as a set, accounted for a modest, statistically significant increment in the variance explained in several of the foster youth outcomes (and always in the direction expected). However, the predictive power of individual parenting practices varied, with parent-youth conflict serving as the most consistent predictor. Another predictor, parent-youth shared activities, was not significant in any of the regressions. Study limitations were discussed for each study, including the demand characteristics of the larger research project, the differing nature of the foster parent-foster youth relationship, and the potential role of other unaccounted-for moderators. Also, parenting practices were conceptualized as fluid, reciprocal processes, for which further research is needed to better operationalize and measure salient aspects. Despite limited findings, the thesis remains an important one in presenting one of the first looks at the impact of foster parenting at-risk youth in Ontario.

Cette étude qualitative exploratoire a pour but de mettre en lumière les impacts de consommation de pornographie gaie à l'aide d'entretiens avec 20 consommateurs. En ce qui concerne la pornographie gaie, la perspective des consommateurs brille par son absence. Tout un amalgame de discours théoriques, souvent discordants, existe entourant la pornographie gaie mais l'expérience vécue s'avère sous-théorisée et peu comprise. Selon certains, les hommes gais consomment plus de pornographie que les hommes hétérosexuels et semblent plus confortables avec ce medium; la pornographie semble normaliseée à l'intérieur du milieu gai. Les indicateurs utilisés pour qualifier les impacts possibles renvoient à des concepts liés à la santé sexuelle et la santé mentale. Notre recherche vise donc à explorer à travers la voix des hommes gais les impacts possibles de leur consommation de pornographie sur leur santé mentale et santé sexuelle prises au sens large. L'impact de la consommation de pornographie dans la population hétérosexuelle constitue un thème relativement bien documenté mais où les conclusions sont souvent contradictoires et ou le paradigme de recherche post-positiviste domine Notre étude utilise un cadre de sociologie des médias, ce qui situe la pornographie comme objet culturel de consommation. Trois auteurs dans la tradition postmoderne ont guidé l'analyse de nos données: Foucault (1976) et ses notions d'ars erotica et de scientia sexualis, Debord (1967) et sa notion de société du spectacle et finalement Baudrillard (1970) et sa notion de société de consommation. Utilisant un devis inspiré de l'ethnographie et une approche poststructuraliste, l'exploration des récits à l'aide de l'analyse thématique et l'analyse critique de discours nous ont permis de dégager des résultats de recherches en lien avec les impacts psychosociaux de consommation de pornographie gaie, les motivations relatives à la consommation de pornographie et enfin, la pornographie gaie comme véhicule de stéréotypes sur la masculinité, la race/ethnicité, le milieu gai et le genre.

The role of language in the transmission of prejudice has received much theoretical attention, including the features of the linguistic intergroup bias (LIB) paradigm (Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989; 2000). The LIB model posits that a person's linguistic choices in describing others may reveal positive in-group and negative out-group biases (e.g., Maass, 1999). The following studies investigate specific intrapersonal and socio-contextual variables related to both the mitigation and maintenance of linguistic intergroup bias. The first study examines the acquisition of an out-group language and the subsequent development of out-group identity among minority Canadian Francophones as factors mitigating biased speech. Results reveal that second language (L2) confidence and out-group identification are both related to a decrease in negative out-group bias. However, these same factors appear to promote biased speech toward the in-group. This unexpected finding is understood in relation to the relative imbalance in social power between Francophone and Anglophone Canadians. A subsequent study expands upon these results, through investigation of the LIB in relation to relative group status. While some participants demonstrate a LIB effect, others show out-group favoritism, dubbed here as a reverse LIB effect. Moreover, minority-group members use linguistic bias differently than do majority-group members. These findings suggest that certain factors may in fact contribute to variations in the typical LIB effect. A final study explores the effect of an experimental manipulation of identity on the LIB. Among several revealing observations, analyses indicate that the priming of an inclusive, super-ordinate Canadian identity among minority group members has an effect on linguistic bias use. Results are discussed in the context of intergroup communication theory.

The performance before personality subhypothesis specifies that victim devaluation only occurs when witnesses cannot find the victim responsible for the suffering on the basis of any performed act. Devaluation consists of attributing negative personality traits to a victim and claiming that he deserved to suffer. The Just World Hypothesis attempts to provide a motivational explanation for the phenomenon. In so doing, it attributes two needs to the observer. First, the victimization evokes inequity anxiety which must be reduced. It can be reduced by construing the victimization as justified. Second, observers are therefore hypothesized to have a need to believe that the world is just. Consequently, observers devalue victims thereby denying the occurrence of injustice. Since this preserves the just world belief, it also helps reduce inequity anxiety. In the only published experiment correlating Just World Belief (JWB) scores with victim devaluation (Rubin and Peplau, 1973), uncontrollable confounds and equivocal results prevented any conclusive data interpretation. The present research used items for two independent sources to assess subjects1 JWB. The scores were combined to produce a third, highly homogenious index of JWB. After a critical literature review, two addenda, and one alternative, to the performance before personality subhypothesis were presented. The alternative was the blame-sympathy-hypothesis. The predictions of both hypotheses were compared. Several possible meanings of the term "responsibility" and the dependent variables designed to assess them were discussed. Sixty-three subjects completed two JWB scales three to four weeks before participating in the experimental sessions along with 31 unpretested volunteers. Among the 12 to 19 subjects assembled for each session was a female confederate. The experimenter stated that in order to study people's perceptions of other people in stress it would be necessary to select one person to receive shocks in a verbal learning task which would be broadcast over closed circuit T.V. By a contrivance, the confederate-victim appeared to be randomly chosen to be the "learner". She left the room before the experimenter began playing one of two versions of a videotape on which the victimizer-experimenter (another confederate) shocked the victim either contingently upon wrong responses (CS condition) or non-contingently (NCS) at random intervals throughout the task. At the end of the videotape subjects completed a questionnaire which measured personality evaluations and attributions of responsibility for the victim and the victimizer. The Just World Hypothesis was not supported. JWB predicted nothing. No victim devaluation occurred. JWB may be related to victim devaluation but the Just World Hypothesis is not detailed enough to predict when it will occur. The absence of victim devaluation may be a result of an interaction between information provided by post-test items and the perceived unfairness of the shock contingency conditions. The fact that, in the responsibility items, an experimenter was asking subjects to comment on his own research ethics may have created demand characteristics especially in the condition where the victim suffered greater inequity (NCS). Inequity anxiety does, at least, influence the intensity of reactions to both victims and victimizers. There are many alternate pathways along which the inequity anxiety might be manifested. It was suggested that a move towards more mundane realism in this line of research might eliminate some of the pathways which arise primarily from artifacttial sources of information embedded in the context of the psychology experiment itself. The performance before personality subhypothesis received no support. The alternative blaming hypothesis was strongly supported. There was a significant main effect for shock contingency. In the NCS condition the victimizer was blamed while the victim received sympathy. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The integrative complexity of various literary figures was examined as a function of certain personal and social stressors operating across their own life spans. Previous research concerned with the complexity of information processing as a response to the changing demands of the environment has focused on the strategies employed by individuals in political and/or decision-making contexts. The current study was designed specifically to investigate the information processing complexity of individuals who are unencumbered by the responsibilities associated with high-level decision making. The lives and personal correspondence of five eminent English novelists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were analyzed. It was hypothesized that the following factors should influence integrative complexity: stressful life events, changes in health, war intensity, and civil unrest. Each individual's life was divided into consecutive five-year time periods, and for each period personal correspondence was scored for integrative complexity. Using multiple regression analysis, the following results emerged: information processing complexity is positively related to age; illness and war intensity are both negatively related to complexity; and there is a positive correlation between civil unrest and complexity. In interpreting the relationship between complexity and both war intensity and civil unrest, it was suggested that the information flow in the environment is an influential factor in determining the ways in which individuals respond to these situations. In addition, a variable called terminal years was initially introduced into the analysis to control for possible biases resulting from the five-year analytical framework employed. It was subsequently determined that this variable served a function other than that which was originally intended. It emerged as a significant predictor of integrative complexity, the relationship indicating that complexity of information processing decreased shortly prior to death. ' This result was explained with reference to life-span developmental research that has shown marked performance decrements that appear to occur in close proximity to the death of those individuals studied. The current research has supported the general hypothesis that information processing complexity is affected by changing aspects of one's environment. The findings suggest not only that factors such as stress and information input affect cognitive processes, but that physiological factors such as ill-health also appear to be related to integrative complexity. It was advised that the results of this work should be interpreted with a certain degree of caution, particularly in light of the small sample investigated. This research however points to a number of interesting directions of inquiry that future studies in the area of complexity might pursue. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Each year, corporate America spends millions of dollars on leadership training programs in an attempt to create more effective managers, but many specialists in this field have speculated that much of this effort is wasted. In the past ten years, a small group of researchers have been approaching this issue from a different perspective; they are looking at how leaders think and create meaning in their roles. The purpose of this study is to contribute to that growing body of research by: (a) exploring the connections between concepts of transformational and transactional leadership models as defined by James MacGregor Burns and Bernard Bass, double-loop learning, a managerial model, as defined by Chris Argyris, and social cognitive development as defined and measured by Robert Kegan and Lawrence Kohlberg; (b) investigating how workers experience a range of leadership models. Eight leaders in a mid-sized, natural food distribution company comprised the primary research sample; eighteen employees also participated in the study via informal interviews. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to determine the range of transformational abilities and in addition, each leader was assessed using two social cognitive tools: Robert Kegan's subject-object interview and the Defining Issues Test created by James Rest to assess moral reasoning abilities. Workers were interviewed to see how they experienced their environment and themes were culled from their responses. The results of the study suggested a relationship between the cognitive developmental level of the leaders as measured by Robert Kegan's stages and their transformational leadership abilities. Four out of five leaders used transformational skills with a fairly high degree of frequency. Worker interviews seemed to reflect a substantial degree of satisfaction with the organization. Four themes were extrapolated from the employee interviews: company as community/family, lack of hierarchy, informal atmosphere, and freedom to voice opposition. The implication of the study suggests that the ability to practice transformational leadership is strongly connected to an individual's social cognitive complexity and when this kind of leadership is practiced, the employees reported positive effects.