The academic underachievement of looked after children is well known. By involving foster carers in a Paired Reading intervention a Swedish project tried to address this issue, replicating a successful British trial. The aim of my thesis was to study the variations in the foster carers? experiences of this literacy intervention. Reading reports from 100 children were collected and qualitative interviews with 15 foster parents were analyzed using concepts from motivational psychology.

As part of the project Self esteem and Life circumstances among teenagers (started by Johnsson, Lundh & Wångby at Lund University in 2006) results from pilot studies of expressive writing (intervention initially created by Pennebaker and Beall, 1986) among adolescents in six secondary school classes in Sweden were investigated. The study describes changes from pre-test to follow-up on adapted versions of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Emotional Tone Index. Different strategies for emotion regulation are focused: voluntary and involuntary engagement and voluntary disengagement (Connor-Smith, Compas, Wadsworth, Harding Thomsen & Saltzman, 2000). The study is explorative. Results show a tendency towards more frequent diary use at follow-up for participants in expressive writing.

Results from previous studies have shown that people with depression tend to have impaired executive functions, although it's not clear whether this is also true for mild depression in young people. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mild depressive symptoms and executive functions in young individuals. 60 participants, between 18-33 years of age, took part in this study. They were divided into two groups; a "depressed group" (n = 8), with mildly depressed subjects, and a "none-depressed group" (n = 52). The depressed group was significantly impaired on several executive tests, namely TMT A (p = 0,025), TMT B (p = 0,040), FAS (p = 0,002), WAIS-R Digit Span Backwards (p = 0,047) and CWTa - subtest colour naming (p = 0,001), which evaluated abilities such as shifting, verbal fluency, working memory, attention and mental flexibility.

Physiotherapists treat people with different views of the world and medical beliefs, which require a good understanding of cultural differences. One way to achieve cultural understanding is through self-reflection in a new context. During five weeks the authors, two physiotherapy students, completed a clinical practice at the rehabilitation center Pina Palmera, Zipolite, Oaxaca, Mexico. At the beginning of the period a critical incident was chosen, when the head physiotherapist for the ward Cuidados Especiales intended to sell jewellery to the authors during a treatment of a patient. The authors have by using the reflection framework "Framework to guide reflective process", and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) for analysis, discussed different ways of communication, adherence, education, and self-reflection and critical thinking.

Den teoretiska bakgrunden tar upp self-efficacy som begrepp och dess betydelse för medarbetare och organisation. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om samband finns mellan self-efficacy och interaktion mellan medarbetare och chef. Self-efficacy mäts med GSE, i översättning av Koskinen-Hagman et al (1999), medarbetar-chefsinteraktion mäts med egenkonstruerade frågor i samma enkät i syfte att undersöka relationerna avseende bl a nöjdhet, chefsnärvaro, kontaktfrekvens, problemlösning. Deltagare består av 58 medarbetare från samma organisation varav 83 % är kvinnor. Studien visar att samband finns mellan self-efficacy och hur medarbetare uppfattar interaktionen med sin chef avseende närvaro, nöjdhet samt hur medarbetare själva agerar vid problem på arbetet.

Babies born prematurely are deprived of normal sensorimotor stimulation when placed in an artificial environment, the incubator. The aim of this project was to design a series of products that could promote the baby?s emotional and neurological development, and to facilitate parental bonding. The products designed in this project has a theoretical basis on the research available today on cognitive and emotional development in children born prematurely. They were developed in close cooperation with a group of parents and nurses in a neonatal intensive care unit.Presence is a product collection for developmental care, consisting of a mattress, a figure and a necklace. The mattress has vibration sensors that transfer the mother?s heart beat and speakers with recorded heartbeat and her voice.

I denna undersökning studeras om motiv till prosociala beteenden påverkar sociometrisk och upplevd popularitet bland elever i årskurs 2 och årskurs 4 (n= 209). Genom självskattningar och lärarskattningar fanns fyra motivkategorier vilka var altruistiska, scripted, expansivt egoistiska och defensivt egoistiska. Faktoranalyser reducerade dessa kategorier till två motivfaktorer vardera för lärare och elever. Primärt utgörs dessa av motiv med antingen yttre eller inre belöningssystem.Resultaten av analys med ANOVA visar att elevernas självskattningar av motiv inte ger någon effekt på sociometrisk eller upplevd popularitet. Lärarnas skattningar av motiv visar att sociometriskt populära barn i högre utsträckning än andra grupper är mer prosociala och altruistiska, att de motiveras av ett inre belöningssystem.

The purpose with our research in Varbergs Kurort is to study how persons that have been a part of the individual adjusted rehabilitation program First Step have found their stay during their program. The program holds a team of professionals that together work with the individual?s physical and mental health. In our study we have included eight women and to men in the age between 35-65 years who all suffered from a slight mentally illness. Out of a social psychological perspective we have based our study from the social and room environment and how their self-recovery has affected their wellbeing during their rehabilitation.

Precis som många andra domäner har frivilligorganisationen Sjöräddningssällskapet (SSRS) påverkats mycket av den tekniska utvecklingen som skett de senaste decennierna. Den har bland annat inneburit att SSRS båtar har fått mer och mer högteknologisk utrustning. Samtidigt har de frivilliga sjöräddarnas kompetens och kraven på deras kompetens, förändrats i takt med att den svenska fiskeflottan förminskats. Idag består SSRS aktiva medlemmar av personer med huvudsysselsättning bortom den marina domänen. Den här studien gör en bred kartläggning över organisationen för att kunna jämföra förhållanden mellan vilka uppgifter och mål som finns hos SSRS med vilken teknik som finns tillgänglig och hur arbetet utförs i praktiken.

This essay investigates how the author Oline Stig creates identities for her main characters in three short stories; Midsommar, Polly Maggoo and Den längsta dagen from the collection Den andra himlen (2007).My investigation is based on concepts chosen from psychology and narratology: First, Jonas Stier?s definition of human identity. In his definition he focuses on a person?s social context. He also considers identity formation as an ongoing, ever- changing process.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka psykoterapeuters upplevelser av arbete med traumatiserade patienter från andra kulturer. Fokus låg på att undersöka de svårigheter och hinder som kan uppstå till följd av kulturella skillnader mellan terapeut och patient. Högre förekomst av psykiatriska tillstånd bland flyktingar i kombination med postmigratoriska sårbarhetsfaktorer ställer krav på terapeuters kompetens. Kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer användes. Data analyserades tematiskt utifrån ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv.

A study was conducted to investigate the new and frequently discussed concept curling parents. There were no previous studies of curling parenting, and therefore traditional classifications of parenting (Baumrind, 1967, 1980; Maccoby & Martin, 1983) have been used for comparison. Parents (N=140) born between 1959 and 1981 participated. They completed questionnaires to establish their level of curling behaviour. The high Cronbach's alfa confirmed coherence in the curlingcriteria, which implied that curling parents exists as a group.The results confirmed our hypothesis that participants exhibiting high levels of curling behaviour were permissive in their parenting style, had a bad conscience concerning their parenting and wished for more time with their children.

The background to the study was to find out the view of three teachers on students reading comprehension. What strategies and methods are used by the teachers in the classroom when working with reading comprehension? How interaction between teacher and students happen when working with reading comprehension.   The theoretical research approach is based on a sociocultural perspective. Sociocultural perspective maintains that social interaction and cultural institutions, such as schools and classrooms have important roles to play in an individual?s cognitive growth and development.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur några lärare i grundsärskolan arbetar med läsinlärningvad gäller elever med utvecklingsstörning. Studien redogör för deras arbete medläsinlärningsmetoder, läromedel, individanpassning, pedagogiska hjälpmedel samt vilkahinder och möjligheter som uppstår.Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är det sociokulturella perspektivet och vilken ses som enövergripande teori för lärande och utveckling. I studien används kvalitativundersökningsmetod där materialet samlades in med hjälp av intervjuer. Det insamladematerialet analyserades och tolkades utifrån en hermeneutisk ansats.Resultatet visar att läsundervisningen har stor betydelse för elevernas utveckling ochmöjlighet till delaktighet i samhället. Elevernas läsning sågs som en mycket viktig förmåga attutveckla och som kräver erfarenhet och kunskap.

The thesis aims at, from a user perspective, examining how a group of industrial researchers understand the information seeking in their every day work. A qualitative method is employed. The empirical material consists of open-ended interviews with in all ten researchers. All of them work at the Swiss-Swedish Technology Company ABB's research laboratory in Västerås. The thesis is based on the opinion that the scientific knowledge production has become commercialised and that the scientific communication is going through certain changes.