This essay aims at understanding the experience of the use of ayahuasca, and similarities and differences between interview protocols and socio-cultural identities. The work is based on field studies conducted in the Peruvian Andes, in the village of Pisac September to November 2009. What has emerged is that the experience does not seem to be dependent on cultural manifestations as much as it is dependent on general human cognition. Theories have been applied on an empirical phenomenological descriptive study. Various brain activities, along with mental mechanisms contribute to a deeper understanding of the findings in the descriptive analysis.It seems that the cultural differences, which I have classed as typological in the phenomenological study, mostly are expressions of meaning for the informants.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Cognitive and Psychodynamic theory in the ways they approach spirituality. How and whether or not the personal view of spirituality affects the professional role of the psychologist is investigated. Data from six semi-structured interviews with psychologists have been collected and analysed in a qualitative, phenomenological method. The results reflect two main topics and several subsequent headlines with regards to: 1) the psychologist's professional approach and 2) the area in between the psychologist's personal and professional approach to spirituality. From empirical studies and relevant theories, a discussion is held about the psychological approaches to spirituality in psychotherapy.

The object of this explorative theoretical study is to compare similarities in three perspectives for evaluation of credibility. The perspectives are the historical method source-criticism, cognitive authority and domain analysis. These perspectives, regarded as intellectual tools for critical thinking in a process of information seeking, by asking questions about credibility related to the social and theoretical context of the intellectual background, can give support in articulating which documents that gives a specific and essential answer to a question. In this sense credibility is seen as a qualitative aspect of relevance. Patrick Wilson argues that we can attain some critical independence towards cognitive authorities and the literature by investigating the social and theoretical topography of a field.

För att utvärdera en metod för tillämpad kognitiv uppgiftsanalys, ACTA (Applied Cognitive Task Analysis), har anställda på Saab AB genomfört ACTA genom att intervjua flygförare. ACTA består av tre intervjutekniker och skapades av Klein Associates Inc. ACTA är en metod som kan användas i tillämpade sammanhang för att ta fram aspekter av experters beslutsfattande. Denna rapport redovisar en utvärdering av CDT (Cognitive Demands Table), vilket är tabeller över kognitiva krav sammanställda av datamängden insamlad i intervjuerna. Utvärderingens syfte var att avgöra huruvida praktiker kan sammanställa en CDT med högt innehåll av kognitiva poster.

In the debate on laying hen welfare, and specifically housing conditions, the main focushas been on physiological and behavioural measures. What is lacking is knowledge of howthe hen experiences the situation ? her state of mind.This study is an attempt to gain insight into the private mental states of former batteryhens. It uses a cognitive bias method based on spatial judgement, i.e. judgement of aambiguous stimulus placed spatially in between a reinforced and an unreinforced stimulus.This method has previously shown differences in judgement by animals in enriched versuspoor housing.

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.

Preschool belongs to Lpo-94. School readiness can interprets in different kind of aspects, then you can not found any goals to reach in Lpo- 94 for the pre-school, which preschool teachers can relay to. There are comprehensive goals for the nine-year school in Lpo- 94, about which knowledge the student should have for the fifth grade. Purpose of the studie is to examine preschool teachers understanding of the phenomenon school readiness. Qualitative interviews by preschool teachers in south and middle of Sweden has been carried out and a hermeneutic analyse has been used for a deeper understanding of pre-school teachers interprets of school readiness.

The gap between practise and theory is often described in negative words in teachers? professional lives. Learning study is a model for teachers´ professional development where a theoretical framework is used to enhance practice. The theoretical framework used by teachers in learning study is variation theory. In this study the research object is variation theory and the aim is to present how variation theory becomes a guiding principle to understand teaching and learning processes.

The field of coping has become more developed during the past decades but there is still a lot to be discovered and discussed. Theories of developmental psychology describe the possibility to map a general developmental structure of how the human mind expands. The aim of this study is to contribute to further research in whether there is a reason why we cope the way we do in relation to age. The questions answered in this study was, what coping two girls, whom lived during the Holocaust, used and how the coping found, were possible to interpret from theories of developmental psychology. In order to answer the questions asked a method called Template Analysis Style and three different theories have been applied.

This master thesis concerns whether Swedish non-financial listed firms act in accordance with the optimal capital structure theory and/or pecking order theory. The examined period is 1998-2004 and we discover that Swedish companies neither follow optimal capital structure theory nor pecking order theory. From our results we conclude that there exists no single point of the capital structure which is optimal. Rather it seems as if the optimal point lies in-between an interval from 0 to the industry average, where firms tend to be indifferent to their debt-ratios. Our results show that Swedish companies prefer internal financing followed by equity and as last choice debt issuance..

The way man divides his thoughts and sorts them into different boxes, is a cognitive activity which works alike for every person. We split peoplesexterior attributes and characteristic qualities into stereotypes or prejudicemind patterns and treat them along those.This study examines through a qualitative method what twelve respondents (six women and six men) between the ages 16-21, think about ?intense? conceptions, which may show stereotype or prejudice ways of thinking. There spondents have been chosen regardless ethnic or economic background andare all enrolled in an upper secondary school located centrally in a Swedish big city.The purpose is to find out if there are any differences between how some young men and some young women spontaneously think in stereotypical orprejudice patterns. The result is interpreted on the basis of the social cognitive perspective and from out of theories about how people create schemes andprototypes to separate individuals and groups from each other.This study suggests that men more easily express their stereotypes and prejudice, while women more often seem to be careful with their stereotypes and prejudice, and end up redefining them.

This text concerns itself with war, the just war theory, and the application of that doctrine on the ?war on terrorism?. I present different views on the theory's place in the discourse, its relevance for unconventional wars followed by the analyses of above mentioned empirical situation.Particular interest is given the criteria concerning proportionality, both ad bellum and in bello, due to in part its difficult nature, and the attention it has received from others. This paper asks the question: Is the just war theory adequate for analysis of modern war?There are few alternatives.

This essay examines the theme of blindness in the Gospel of Mark. The two main questions asked are: 1) ?What is Mark?s view on blindness?? and 2) ?How does the Gospel of Mark?s view on blindness inform the current discourse of disability studies and how can we interpret Mark?s view on blindness today?? By the methods of metaphor analysis and character analysis, four passages of the Gospel are studied (Mark 4:10-12; 8:14-21; 22-26; 10:46-52). The analysis concludes that blindness is depicted by the author of the Gospel as a disability which also consist of a lack of cognitive ability and a hopeless state that is in need of healing.  The depiction of blindness in Mark originates out of the authors use of blindness as a metaphor for lack of cognitive ability (Mk 4:12; 8:18) and the lack of characterization of the blind man at Bethsaida (8:22-23). This view on blindness is, in comparison to a modern view, difficult, as it marginalizes persons with blindness as inconsiderate and not fully human.

I Sverige genomförs varje år offentliga upphandlingar till ett värde av ca 500 miljarder kronor. Alla offentligt finansierade verksamheter måste följa lagen om offentlig upphandling och den formella upphandlingsprocess som lagen specificerar. Lagen är allmänt formulerad och anvisar en process där fokus ligger på förarbete och matematisk utvärdering.Cognitive Systems Engineering har vuxit fram utifrån insikten att effektiva processer kontinuerligt behöver använda såväl feedback och feedforward för att uppnå sina mål. Typiska tillämpningar är dynamiska, tätt kopplade processer där dessa behov är tydliga, men CSE som ramverk är generellt definierat och bör gälla även för en beslutsprocess på organisationsnivå. En CSE-analys har potential att förtydliga funktionella faktorer som tillåter upphandlare att genomföra effektiva och ändamålsenliga upphandlingar.I syftet att testa ovanstående hypotes genomfördes en fallstudie av Linköpings Universitets upphandling av företagshälsovård 2008.

The field of coping has become more developed during the past decades but there is still a lot to be discovered and discussed. Theories of developmental psychology describe the possibility to map a general developmental structure of how the human mind expands. The aim of this study is to contribute to further research in whether there is a reason why we cope the way we do in relation to age. The questions answered in this study was, what coping two girls, whom lived during the Holocaust, used and how the coping found, were possible to interpret from theories of developmental psychology. In order to answer the questions asked a method called Template Analysis Style and three different theories have been applied.