This study focuses on aspects of cult experiences, given by deconverted formermembers of closed religious movements. Their testimonies were published inbooks or interviews. The aims of the study were to understand the interactionbetween the religious group and its members, living in high tension towardsmainstream society and their testimonies of altered self-esteem during attraction,membership, deconversion and defection. The purpose was to understand how aperson´s self-esteem is affected by inner mechanisms of closed religiousmovements and how these experiences affects a persons identity. Another aspectwas whether there might be differences in altered self-esteem, between those whoenlisted as adults, and those who were born into the closed religious contexts.Social Identity theory, Sigmund Freud´s and Carl Rogers models of personal egowere used as models of interpretations.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how people from Iran experience reading in their mother tongue, Persian, compared to how they experience reading in Swedish and if there was a difference. The questions to be answered in the thesis were: What is the dominant purpose when people read their mother tongue and when they read in Swedish. Do they read because they need information, because they want to relax or do they, when they read, reflect on their own lives? The method was qualitative, interviews were conducted with 8 Iranians living in Sweden. The theoretical background consists of a description of theories on reading and theories on language and identity.

With a base in Ian Manners? theory about Normative Power Europe ? that the European Union is to be seen as a normative power instead of a civilian or military ? this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion about identity by examine the normative elements of the union?s policies towards Russia between 1997 and 2013. Which norms are most important and how does the diffusion look? The findings show that democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights are among the most diffused norms, and this is more than often done by using the Russian interest in economic progress. Over time the European Union has taken on a more critical approach against Russia, while still appreciating their prosperous relation when it comes to trade and energy.

Abstract    The purpose of my essay is to understand how language and identity interact in individuals with an immigrant backgrounds? My main focus is rooted in the individual`s identity and my questions are:-        How is the informants talkning about the importance of being able to make themselves understood with the language?-        How do they talk about the creation of identity?-        How does language and identity be linked in their discourse about language and identity?   To accomplish this and to answer my questions I have chosen to use a qualitative method based of interviews. I believe that this method is the most appropriate in order to provide answers to my questions. I interviewed four people who have lived in Sweden between 3-6 years. Two of  the  informants are from Latvia and speak fluent swedish, the two other informants come from Chile and are currently learning swedish.

This thesis aims to analyze the similarities and differences in how identity is constructed by the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament regarding the Polish membership and the potential Turkish membership of the European Union. The construction of identity is analyzed through a social constructivist perspective where identity is constructed by distinguishing ?us? from ?them?. The research metod used is a qualitative text analysis. The arguments of identity are taken from the Commission?s and the Council?s documents, as well as from the debates of the European Parliament.

The purpose of this study is to examine how some people who do not want children construct their identity in a context where children is the norm. The study therefore focuses on how they legitimate and present their identity in this context. 4 women and 2 men with the intention to remain childless have therefore been interviewed, and from these interviews I analyze and describe how intentional childless people construct their identity. My theoretical framework is built up by discourse psychology and gender/heterosexual hegemony theories. The thesis shows that it is hard for the intentional childless to construct their identity as once and for all given, the identity is constructed as a ?norm? against the norm, as well as affected by the norm.

Traditionally and historically certain jobs have been recognized as male or female professions leading to the assumption that the barrier crossing men and women working in these gender atypical jobs are being less masculine and less feminine. The aim of this study is to examine similarities and differences among male social workers and female police officers in the experience of being a gender minority in their workplace and how it effects the construction of their gender identity. Working with a qualitative approach and using semi-constructed interviews the study was conducted by interviewing a total of five social workers and four female police officers, in six different communities, about their personal experiences of being a gender minority in a gender atypical job. The result shows both differences and similarities between the genders and their occupation; on a personal level neither of the respondents seemed to have a problem working in a gender atypical job although admitting that working in a ?female? and ?male? profession  had effects on their personality but not on how they viewed themselves as men or women.

This essay in how to create a brand identity is a result of a case study of the Spanish mobilephone company Xfera and their new brand ?Yoigo?. Our object was to identify the critical variables in the process of building a brand identity. To achieve this we collected data about the company through several interviews with respondents with good insight in the company. The critical variables that we obtained by analyzing the interviews are presented in an empirical driven model.

The aim of this study is to look at the identity of the public library, and to examine one way to make the identity of a specific library strong. PUNKTmedis is a newly opened library in Stockholm, aimed solely at people between 13-19. The question to be answered was: How can it affect the image of the public librarys identity when you aim the activity towards a specific user group? To answer this question, the qualitative method of case-study was used. Five interviews were carried out, with representatives from three different groups: users, politicians and librarians.

Every year a great amount of unaccompanied children flee their homelands without their parents or guardians. This means a journey filled with danger and difficulties. The difficulties don?t only exist during the road ahead but also when the children arrive to the new country. Even if Sweden?s work in receiving refugees is one of the best in the world, it still exist problems.

The purpose of this essay was to explore how the concept of gender identity is constructed, by doing a discourse analysis of texts from two different perspective discussing intersexuals, and to define the areas where the discourses doesn't agree. The two perspectives were; feminist- and medical perspective.How are sex/gender identity constructed in the chosen articles?What themes can be seen in the discourses?My method was discourse analysis. A discourse can be described as a way of talking about and understanding a part of the world. The analytics task is to define the discourses, which the world is constructed by.The areas of conflicts have been found.

Title: Music and adult identity: A study of how students at Malmö Academy of Music look upon their identity from a musical point of view. This study is about adults and how they look upon their identity from a music perspective. I have interviewed four students between 26 to 29 years old at the Malmö Academy of Music. The purpose with my study is to examine how music has affected the identity of the students as adults and to see if their identity still is affected by music. The interviews have then been analyzed and compared with existing research in this matter.

Aim. The aim of this study is to analyze the living conditions of physically disabled people from the viewpoint of sexuality issues with regards to personal assistance services, identity and attitudes in society on disability and sexuality. Background. Not much research is done on sexuality issues for physically disabled people. Even though we live in a society where sexuality takes up a lot of space in the media, the culture and is acknowledged to be of great importance for every person?s wellbeing, the sexuality of disabled people is often not recognized and discussed.

What can make us identify ourselves with places? Why do we feel stronger for certain environments? Is it possible to change the identity and how can we do it? What exactly is building identity on a site, what elements it is safest to hang on to when the wind of change is blowing? In this paper, I?m going to discuss the subject identity in different ways and from different angles. Important questions I have had, has been how to analyze a site and what is the importance of identity and the possibility of changing it?The first part of the paper aims to provide an introduction to the concept of identity. I'm giving a short explanation of what identity is and how places relate to identity.

The aim for this bachelor thesis was to form a deeper understanding of librarians? occupation and professional identity and therefore we have examined library students? and educators? view on professional identity, competence and career possibilities. Our take on this was that there seems to be little interest in managerial positions and we asked ourselves why this is and if we could see a change in interest in the librarians to become. As our theoretical framework, we chose Andrew Abbott?s, 'Theory of Profession'.