The main purpose with this MA thesis is to examine how visually impaired, disabled and people with dyslexia define service quality at the public library of Linköping. The method that has been used is focus group interviews. A focus group consists of four to eight people who are joined together, without knowing each other before, to discuss a certain subject. The aim is to get a wide spread of answers. A secondary purpose is to examine how this method works.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relations between foster parents and their foster children, what kind of motivation there is behind their involvement in foster children, how they experience the commission and what good parenting mean to them. The study is including eight foster parents. They have experience of both long and short placement of foster children. The results show that all these foster families have at least one child that they have a good relationship with. It is important to know that those children either have spent many years in foster families or arrived to foster families when they were very young or as infants.

This study is about state officials who handle applications for sickness benefits and about municipal officials who handle applications for financial assistance. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences between the two professional roles regarding their conception about their exercise of authority, in terms of flexibility, individual adjustment, Empathy and legal security.The study has a qualitative approach and is based on structured interviews with two state officials and two municipal officials. The questions that this study aims to answer are:- Is there a difference between state officials and municipal officials regarding their experience and use of flexibility? - Is there a difference between state officials and municipal officials regarding their perceptions of legal security, individual adjustment and Empathy in their exercise of authority? - What kind of bureaucracy can you find in the two organizations?The results show that the state officials in this study have very limited flexibility due to legislation which makes their exercise of authority neither empathic nor individual. The municipal officials in this study state in their turn that the law entails broad flexibility and the opportunity for them to be empathic and to make individual decisions.

Huvudsyftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka effekterna av aggressionsersättningsträning (ART) program på tre kriminalvårdsanstalter och två frivårdskontor. Huvudfrågeställningen som belyses i studien är: förändras deltagarna i ART-program med avseende på empati och attityder till kriminalitet? För att besvara dessa frågor har vi utfört för- och eftertester på tre kriminalvårdsanstalter och två frivårdskontor. Instrumenten som användes i testerna är Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) och Mill's Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA).Slutsatserna som kan dras utifrån denna studie är att den emotionella empati-komponenten "personal distress" visar en minskning som kan förklaras av interaktionen med ART.The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Aggression Replacement Training (ART) program in some of the prisons and probation authorities of the Swedish correctional system. The specific questions we are trying to answer are: (1) does ART-program change the clients' empathic concern and (2) does ART-program help in changing participants' attitudes towards criminality? This investigation is based on a quantitative inquiry consisting of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) tests.The overall results of this study indicate that the emotional Empathy-component "personal distress" shows a statistically significant reduction, which can be explained by the interaction with ART..

Syftet med denna studie var att se om det fanns ett samband mellan den empatiska förmågan hos lärare och elvens studiemotivation. Jag vill se om det fanns variationer med hänseende på genus och bakgrund i relation till elevernas upplevelse av lärares empatiska förmågor alternativt oförmågor..

The purpose of the essay is to draw attention to my approach in relation to a boy I choose to call Emil, and how I can increase my understanding of his behavior. I explore conceivable reasons for why he breaks down so often, especially when other children are given attention. Is he simply unusually egoistic, and to a large degree only able to see to his own interests, or am I overlooking the real reasons for his actions.In order to explain the reasons for Emil?s apparent frustration in sensitive situations, I explore the significance of attachment theory. I argue about possible effects of Emil?s parents? way of describing and guiding him, as well as how I, and my colleagues, risk fulfilling and amplifying negative expectations.As the prime reason for his repeated sense of unhappiness seems linked to a lack of Empathy, I explore different ways of understanding this, as well as how I might contribute to fostering compassion.

Abstract Svanvik, Robin (2013). Läs: spela! En jämförande studie av elevers uppfattningar om datorspel, skönlitteratur och lärande. Svanvik, Robin (2013). It Reads: Play! A comparative study of students' beliefs about computer games, fiction reading and learning. This essay is part of a masters degree of pedagogy and investigates the experiences of 10 high-school students concerning playing computer-games-off-the-shelf (COTS) on the one hand, and reading fictional, printed novels on the other. The aim of this study was to learn more about the students' thoughts about playing COTS and reading novels; also, what differences and similarities there might be between these activities. Furthermore, I wanted to know what they thought they might learn from these activities. The theoretical point of departure for the study is twofold: Firstly, a theory of learning as expressed by Illeris (2007) and, secondly, a sociocultural perspective on learning, represented by Säljö (2000, 2005/2010) which includes the educational benifit of both playing COTS, represented by Gee (2007), and reading fiction, represented by Probst (1990) and Langer (1995). The method used in this study is mainly qualitative by nature.

Empati är att kunna uppleva och förstå andra människors känslor. Tre studier gjordes för att undersöka socialsekreterares empati för sina klienter och hur de upplever sin professionella och genuina empati. Två studier var kvantitativa och en var en mixed design. Deltagarna var 26 socialsekreterare och 57 socionomstudenter. Studie 1 och 2 visade att socialsekreterare och studenter på socionomprogrammet hade mer empati för en sympatisk person än för en osympatisk.

This essay is about how and why teachers use fiction litterature as a teaching method. It´s based on a study among eight teachers in year 4-6 at a school in Mariehamn in the Åland Islands. The results show the high importance of using fiction litterature in education. Fiction literature is highly valued in all subjects as it stimulates the students development of language, Empathy and fantasy. The curriculum´s aim of using fiction litterature is to stimulate the pleasure of reading.

I tidigare empatiforskning har könsskillnader studerats betydligt mer änåldersskillnader. Syftet med den aktuella undersökningen var att studera hurförmågan till empati skiljer sig mellan tonåringar, medelålders och äldre. Iundersökningen deltog 68 personer varav hälften kvinnor. Empatin varhögst i den äldsta gruppen och lägst i den yngsta för både kvinnor och män.Däremot kände tonåringarna mer för vissa känslor som mättes utanförempatiskalan. Kvinnorna i alla tre åldersgrupperna har högre empati änmännen.

Ethical evaluation of scientific studies carried out using animals is legally mandated in many countries and has been so in Sweden for over three decades. The animal ethics committees (AECs) responsible for the task have however been subjected to criticism; common critique being that the wrong issues are discussed and that the ethical evaluation is thus incomplete, that there is a lack of coherence across committees and that the committees are not as democratic as they might appear. This study investigates the view of Swedish AEC members on a number of issues in order to shed some light on the mandate and functioning of the committees, and on the grounds for ongoing criticism. In a survey and interviews AEC members and other persons connected to the committees gave their views on the AEC task in relation to their roles, the ethical evaluation per se and whether or not emotions such as Empathy play any part in it. There were significant differences found between AEC member categories and several issues were encountered, many of which have been stressed in previous studies.

The results from 13 interviews and one opinion poll answered by resident physicians were interpreted as stories about identity as primary material for this thesis. The resident physicians stress the importance of considering whether their work primarily concerns curing people from diseases or if the process of working with sick people also includes how to handle the pressure of work, either by adapting to it or changing it, and the search for balance between work and private life. Residents separate themselves from older physicians by saying that younger physicians accentuate Empathy to a greater extent while older physicians emphasise a high work load. Identity seems to effect how the residents perceive and relate to their work, themselves as residents and different types of patients..

Syfte: Studien syftar till att öka kunskapen om vilka faktorer som motiverar människor attsprida eWOM då kundförtjusning upplevts. Studien syftar, i synnerhet till att få en ökadteoretisk förståelse, i termer av servicekvalitet, kopplat till denna motivation.Design/metod: Studien kombinerar en induktiv och deduktiv ansats där empiri har prövatsmot befintlig teori. Undersökningen har genomförts i form av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys,med en kvalitativ ansats, där söktermer för hotellrecensioner på Tripadvisor.com, kopplat tillkundförtjusning, har använts. Ett befintligt kod-schema från tidigare forskning inom områdetför kundförtjusning har använts som utgångspunkt för kategorisering av analyserad text.Emellertid har vi haft ett öppet sinne för att kunna se eventuella nya kategorier växa fram urdatamaterialet. Kategorier har även kvantifierats för att få en bättre förståelse av resultatet.Resultat: Analysen av hotellrecensioner indikerar att det framförallt är kundservice, i form avöverraskningar, varm/välkomnande-, vänlig-, hjälpsam och uppmärksam personal sommotiverar människor att sprida eWOM då man upplever kundförtjusning.

Individuella skillnader i empati, att kunna sätta sig in i någon annans situation och förstå vad en annan person känner, har studerats i tidigare forskning. En aspekt som visat skillnader angående personlighet men bristande belysts i samband med empati är syskonposition; om man är endabarnet, yngsta, mellan eller äldstabarnet. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka huruvida syskonpositionen har betydelse för den empatiska förmågan.  Deltagarna var nittiosex studenter och tjänstemän som läste en historia och därefter fyllde i en empatiskala om vilka känslor de kände för personen i historien. Resultatet visade att endabarn hade signifikant högre värden på empati än äldsta barn.

Swedish law is very keen on the fact that every person should be treated equal when facing the legal system. When it comes to cases concerning children, social workers and judges are expected to strictly obey the rules of the law but at the same time make individual judgements based on the best interest of the child, something that requires a great deal of Empathy and knowledge. Is it possible to live up to the maxim about equality and to simultaneously see the individual needs? With so many different parties and angles in the case, how does one manage to make a solid appraisal of the situation that truly serves the best interest of the child?The purpose of this study was to examine the capability within the social services with focus on objectivity. More specifically it's aim was to find out how the social workers and judges see their capability of being objective in the investigations concerning children.