Normal children acquire the necessary social habits without being consciously aware of this, they learn instinctively. (Author?s translation from Swedish to English) (Asperger & Frith, 1998, s. 21) This essay is about people who do not learn to socialize, the social habits, instinctively but through conscious learning. We have interviewed three adults with the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome with the aim to let them tell us about what it means to have a neuropsychiatric disability.

The purpose of this study was to examine the professionals´ views concerning self-harm behaviour in adolescents they meet. We interviewed nine different professionals. Our questions were: What do the professionals believe are the reasons to self-harm? How do the professionals experience self esteem and identity in adolescents with self-harm behaviour? How do the professionals look at the self-harm behaviour from a gender perspective? How do the professionals think a diagnosis can affect adolescents with self-harm behaviour? In our responses we noticed beliefs about the cause as a combination of environmental relationships and the individual who is born with a certain vulnerability. The professionals believe that the adolescents have trouble finding their identity.

The thesis explores what is meant by multiculturalism in today's Sweden based on burial grounds and funerals in a minor municipality. This is done through an ethnographic case study of the municipality of Vara. The study aims to investigate how multiculturalism looks and is responded to. The study maps which aspects are placed on multiculturalism in a minor municipality and which adaptations and compromises are highlighted. This is done within the framework of theories concerning multiculturalism and social identity, and the result of the empirical case study is presented by applying the theories to the material. From burial places and funerals, social collective and individual identities are analysed based on the social categories of religion/faith/secularity and place belonging, based on the perspectives of rituals and traditions as well as the location of the grave. The study finds that there are several aspects of multiculture in the burial grounds, as multiculture not only includes cultural influences from immigrants but also the different preferences of the local villages, in combination with the development of society, and Sweden in general.

This thesis investigates and emphasises on the way students at Växjö police academy describe their socialization into their profession as police officers and the creation of profession identity. The scientist?s main questions are: In what way do the students at Växjö police academy describe their socialization process into the police profession? What role does the organisation play in the socialization process of the police students? How do the students develop their police identity? Which qualities are encouraged? The study is based on qualitative interviews with nine police students, performed in groups of three. Group theory, role theory, and organization theory are applied to the material to provide an understanding through which it is possible to understand the process of socialization. The study shows that there seems to be patterns in the description of a professional identity.

This master?s thesis has the intent of showing that the tattoo can be regarded as an individuals document according to prevailing notions in archival science. Suzanne Briets definition of the concept of document is used in this thesis as a widening definition, a document does not have to presented in a defined form, it is only required to represent an object or intellectual phenomenon and to be informative.Tattoos are presented in this thesis as informative with regard to the status and position of russian/soviet convicts and as such presenting an individuals identity within a specific context. As documents they also provide the individual with the essential evidence of his or her endeavours in a criminal environment. Also, they have the ability to function as an individuals memories of relationships, hardships and comradeships.

When discussing nation branding, there are three perspectives that correlate with each other: National Identity, Nation Brand Identity and Nation Brand Image. This thesis explores the nation branding of Sweden, and describe the three perspectives with a focus on Sweden. When comparing how the perspectives are comported with each other, there is the possibility of gaps existing when one perspective does not comport with another. We have compared our empirical material on the different perspectives and looked for possible gaps..

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study how generational identities are conveyed in the reception of two debut novels, Jack by Ulf Lundell and Allt by Martina Lowden. Both novels have been considered literary and social expressions of their generations. The empirical material consists of 14 reviews in Swedish daily press from the time of publication of Jack and Allt, respectively. The thesis revolves around the following questions: How is the generational identity defined in terms of lifestyle practices, milieus and other social circumstances? To what extent are structured factors such as gender and class considered? How are the critics considering the reflexive project of the self? I base the theoretical framework on Anthony Giddens' theories about identity creation in the late modern society.

We have examined how the dependence, identity and social bonds affect customer loyalty and attachment to a training centre. The method used is a survey on SATS Karlstad city where 128 respondents were asked, out of which 118 surveys were used in the final analysis. The data was analyzed using ANCOVA and multiple regressions.The result showed significant relationships on attachment between identity and dependence. Social bonds had no significant effect on the attachment a member have towards training centre. Customer loyalty was measured by how long the individual has been a member and his or her training frequency.

The intention of this study was to create an understanding of how multi-professional interaction could convert into inter-professional collaboration, which takes advantage of and acknowledges the individual professional identity. The intention was to understand the meaning of collaboration through the study of meetings between professionals who use different symbol systems. In particular, we wanted to study inter-professional interaction from a symbolic interactional perspective with a focus on Self, Identity, Symbols, Meaning and Professional community. The employed method was semi-structured interviews with ten questions. A convenience sample was used to identify working groups composed of different professions, such as teachers, social workers and therapy assistants.

Today Europe is faced with an identity crisis concerning its borders. Turkey stands at the threshold for an EU-membership while the EU-Commission is trying to formulate what constitutes a European identity. This identity seeking process will determine the future not only for Turkey, but also for immigrants now living in Europe.In this thesis a discourse analysis, underpinned by socialconstructionist theory, is conducted to explore how the European identity has been constructed throughout history up until today. A starting point is that identity always is defined through a dialectical relationship to "otherness". Therefore the analysis is focused not only on what a European identity consists of but also what and who it excludes.

This study is based on interviews with six students from Stockholm that have shared their feelings/opinions about how they experience their identity as a student. The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine how the identity of students is constructed but also how the post modern society affects the life that the students are living. With a higher demand on education and responsibility of making the right decisions, the student?s main concern is not only her studies, but also the goal to succeed in her life.

The aim of this study is to analyze how individuals experience their eating disorder, the focus being if anorexia may be perceived as a secure safe zone in the new modern world. The aim is to examine if individuals affected with anorexia nervosa understand the disorder as a solution to the modern worlds changes and the new individual freedom that it entails. This will be analyzed with the help of terms in Erich Fromms theories about escape mechanisms and Catarina Kinnvalls theories about the modern worlds ontological insecurity.The study is based on data collected from four informants of different ages and gender. The interviews were conducted through email and informants were chosen based on a strategic selection and snowball sampling. For the analysis of the empirical material Fromms escape mechanisms (authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity) and Kinnvalls theories of identity in the modern world have been used.The results of the analysis show that the eating disorder has a great significance for the individual construction and maintenance of identity and that the eating disorder becomes a safe zone to retreat to in a world of performance anxiety.

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'.

Individual identification of pigs could be used in commercial herds for production monitoring, disease monitoring and breeding evaluation. This study investigates the possibility of using microchips designed for dogs and cats to identify individual pigs from birth, through rearing to carcass at the slaughter plant. Two different sizes of microchips, and two different ages of the pigs at injection were tested. Castrates and gilts from ten litters were evenly distributed between chip sizes and injection ages. All pigs were identity marked with both electronic ear tags and injected with microchips.

Our findings show that depending on the contextual setting and what sort of merger an organization goes through, the identity strategies will differ. We see that symbols and values are two objects of relevance in our case companies? identity strategies, but that there are differences in how they are being used. There is consensus around the fact that values are important to have, however their meaning to each organization differs and it has also proven to be dependent on what position you possess in the company. We have developed a four-fielder in order to further illustrate our findings.