A self-esteem that is contingent on affirmation from others leaves the individual psychologically vulnerable. Ccontingent self-esteem has been shown to be either relationship or competence based. The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between relationship based self-esteem, competence based self-esteem, the under dimensions of those, and self-efficacy. Questionnaires were handed out to 69 university students. The results indicated that competence based self-esteem predicted a significantly low self-efficacy.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the ways in which emotion regulation and mood affects risk taking when it comes to decision making competence. Emotion regulation is an essential part of the attachment process, the development of an autonomous self and functional stress coping systems. Research indicates that there is a relation between a distorted emotion regulation and some psychological disorders like depression, PTSD, anxiety disorders and borderline (or instable emotional personality disorder). There is a definite need to analyze the relation between emotion regulation and decision making competence since it is relatively unexplored. A digital questionnaire was distributed amongst the participants.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to accomplish an understanding for childrens librarians purchases of juvenile books. Two main questions are to be answered: - Which considerations do childrens librarians do when buying juvenile books and which goals and motives are behind their purchases? - What do childrens librarians think that their knowledge and competence consists of and how is that knowledge useful when buying juvenile books? To answer the questions qualitative interviews with five childrens librarians have been carried out. The material has been analyzed through a theoretical construction consisting of theories about collection development, book selection and quality judgments. The conception tacit knowledge silent knowledge from Michael Polanyi has also been used for interpretation.

Deposits can be formed in the paper machine due to sticky materials from wood and recycled paper. These deposits get stuck on process equipment and cause the product quality to deteriorate and the efficiency of the paper machine is reduced. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding about deposits among machine operators, and to suggest methods that can be used to reduce the amount of deposits formed in Bravikens paper machines.To fulfill the purpose of the thesis a pre-study, a literature review and interviews with machine operators and production staff, were carried out. These methods led to the planning and creation of an education about deposits for machine operators.The education about deposits for machine operators consisted of an interactive lecture to introduce the subject of deposits and a subsequent discussion. This approach was chosen to give the machine operators the opportunity to discuss their work situation on the paper machines related to their new knowledge about deposits.

The purpose of this study is to examine sex/gender relations amongst staff in public libraries who have taken part in projects related to information technology. This is done through e-mail surveys and telephone interviews with staff who have participated in the development of the two library websites Mina bibliotek and Biblioteket.se regarding their experiences. The theoretical basis for the analysis is two gender theoretical perspectives with reference to technology. The first perspective is represented by Yvonne Hirdman?s theory concerning the gender system, in which women and men are kept apart and in which there is always a hierarchy where men are higher up, and Hanna Westberg-Wohlgemuth?s theory concerning sex marking of job-tasks.

Background:An increasing number of patients with an oncology diagnose will be seen in the future. The oncology care is complex and in great need of nurses with a high level of competence. There is a lack of previous research in the specialist oncology nurses competence and therefore knowledge of their skills can reveal an understanding of their competence.Aim:The aim of the study was to describe the competence of the specialist oncology nurse.Method:Four oncology nurses and two directors of oncology care were interviewed. The interview text was analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Results:The result showed that the oncology nurses had developed six different competences within different areas. These competence areas were assertiveness, patient-centered care, ethical and moral-, pedagogical-, to lead and develop- and theoretical competence.

The Swedish school is today a meeting place for many people with different cultures. The teacher education at Södertörn University have since 2002 been influenced by an intercultural profile. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the intercultural profile of Södertörn University is expressed in preschool- teachers/ teachers work. Is an intercultural approach requested in schools and is intercultural approach useful and applicable in the teaching profession? The report is based on a qualitative study of what intercultural competence means for five preschool- teachers/ teachers who have graduated from Södertörn University.

This analysis is about the fourth basic competence and how you can define it, what it includes and if it is possible to find it in the new curriculum for the Swedish high school; Gymnasiereformen -07. The analysis was focused on the following subjects; Mathematics, Social science and Swedish. The aim with this analysis has been to create a summary in the field of information literacy and to define the fourth basic competence. The analysis were focused on and delimited by the following conceptions; information literacy, digital competence and the information search process. The sources of information has primarily been taken from the field of information literacy and statements from professionals in the fields of information literacy and education.

The Swedish Public Relation industry has gone through a rapid growth in the recent decade. A peculiar, although perhaps not unexpected, development is that former politicians and politically employed individuals to a larger extent have been the subject of recruitment effort from the industry. Simultaneously there has been a public debate concerning the influence on Public Relations and Lobbying over the political agenda. The purpose of this thesis is to widen and deepen the discussion concerning Public Relations consultants. It centers on the individual consultants and takes their competence as the point of departure.

Social competence is an effective weapon at all costs on today?s market. In many job ads we can see the words to be socially competent. In our report we have studied the subject?s social competence, relations, relationship marketing and personal networks and looked to the connection these subjects have to one another.

This study is based on my work as a teacher of Swedish language and literature to upper secondary school students, and my interest in developing the teaching of literature by using both new criticism theories and theories of literary perception focusing on reader response. The purpose of the study is to examine the learning process in trying to develop literary competence and to find out how to describe the competence shown by the students. My starting-point is a discussion about literary competence and the theory and model of literary competence by Örjan Torell. In examining literary competence, by how students use their constitutional competence as well as performance and literary transfer competences, Torell´s model shows the possibility and the need for both knowledge of literature and personal reception by focusing on the dialogue between author and reader.The method is qualitative and the empirics are material collected in one senior high school class in the Social Science programme during their second and third year. The material contains written reading logs, written answers to tasks and transcribed recordings of discussions of literature.The analysis shows a variety among the literary competence shown and developed by the students and points to the complexity of understanding the concept of literary competence.

Ethical competence is an important precondition when people are to respond to moral problem situations as efficiently as possible. In these situations it is not easy to make choices and decisions, especially when many stakeholders are involved with various opinions and interests.The purpose of this thesis was to generate a web-based support tool to train and promote ethical competence of the users of this tool.We first created a theoretical basis by studying the major theories of ethics in general and ethical competence in particular. The importance of ethical competence and its main subject, namely, the autonomy in the theoretical part described and specified. In addition has the practical ethical reflection over morality preferred and characterized to the classical ethical passivity over morality. We have also preferred and characterized the autonomous thinking to the heteronomous one.Based on the theoretical base a prototype tool to support the training of ethical competence was designed and developed.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of competence within the social services. More specifically it aims to find out how the social workers themselves look upon their own competence in social investigations concerning children. As the study was based on focus groups the main questions were vague at the beginning and were cleared later on during the group sessions.In three focus group interviews in three different municipalities in southern Sweden 11 social workers were asked to discuss this issue. The interviews were then thoroughly transcribed. In the data I identified 9 themes seeming to play a special roll in the discussions about competence: practice; experience; approach; intuition; responsibility; theories, methods and laws; reflection; resources and ethics; specialisation versus integration.The analysis made on these themes was based on two different kinds of perspective; one focusing knowing-in-action and the other focusing the organization framing the competence considered.As a conclusion the 7 first themes can be seen as a definition of the competence used in social investigations concerning children.

The aim of this two-year masters thesis is to look for the Swedish public library´s core business, using theories about competence. The approach is qualitative. It is done by studying the Unesco Public Library Manifesto, the Swedish library legislation, the education in library and information science, two important Swedish library related journals and by asking public librarians about their work and point of view regarding competence.The research shows mainly two sides of the core competence of public librarians: information technology competence and literature knowledge. The conclusion is that the two meet in the idea of mass education, which could therefore be called the Swedish public library´s core business..

Preschool is a place that is continually undergoing change at a rapid pace and developing the skills of our educators is essential for their ability to keep up with these changes. Guidance conversations can be used as a vital tool for the educators Competence Development.The purpose of this essay is to investigate how educators, special educators and preschool principals think and reason about the use of guidance conversations in preschool.A qualitative method has been used in the shape of interviews with educators, special educators and preschool principals working within different districts of a medium sized city in the south of Sweden.These interviews revealed that the use of guidance conversations is often controlled by specific needs and is used when a problem arises amongst the children. There are many expectations on the special educators role in these conversations, one of which is the role of conversation leader with the purpose of guiding the conversation amongst involved parties and give them the tools they need to resolve problems by themselves instead of delivering packaged solutions..