Background: Every year 56 million people die around the world and it is estimated that 60% of these people are in need of palliative care. It has been shown that patients in the palliative care experienced their situation as uncertain. When life no longer was certain, the patients tried to live their life day by day and make the best of it. Problem: When patients were diagnosed with an incurable disease the future became unsure, because their life would come to an end. Therefore patients with a palliative diagnosis could be in need of experiencing feelings of security.

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge and understanding of what impact support-groups, such as represented by Qvinnoqulan, can have on women with drug-addiction. The questions at issue for the essay was: How does a selection of women who participate in Qvinnoqulan describe their thoughts, experiences and reflections of the group? What sense has Qvinnoqulan made for the women on a personal level and for contributing to live a life without drugs? To answer the questions a qualitative method was used and five interviews were made with women who participated in the activities of Qvinnoqulan. To analyze the data a social constructionist perspective and an empowerment perspective was used. The result of the study showed that the women were in the process of rebuilding a new life without drugs and reconstructing a new identity.

The aim was to describe the experiences of couples where the male partner had undergone radical prostatectomy due to prostate cancer. Furthermore, the study explored how the operation had affected their sexual life, whether the couples had received enough post surgical support and information concerning these issues, and to describe the kind of support and information these couples desired. Twenty men and ten partners participated. All the men experienced a varying degree of post surgical erectile dysfunction and only five men had received support concerning their sexual life. Eleven men desired professional visiting support activities.

The aim of this study was to examine if performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender predict the value of own or others life-stress (VLS). The aim was also to examine whether the variables were correlated significantly with each other. The investigation was conducted in a town in the mid-south of Sweden. The instrument consisted of two forms where the first measured Type A personality and the second tapped perform-ance-based self-esteem, perceived stress and the level of life-stress. The results showed that the level of life-stress could explain, on the basis of the predictors, performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender.

The purpose of this essay is to try to understand the relationship between the structures of modern working life and the development of burnout. By using the method of qualitative interviews we wanted to see if the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model could be applied to the data we had collected. Two questions have been highlighted in our research:        ? Is it possible to establish a relationship between the structures of modern working life and the development of burnout among the subjects interviewed?  ? Is it possible to explain the development of burnout among our interviewed subjects through the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model?    Our theoretical frames are the general theories of the modern society and the modern working life as developed by Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman. We have also used Johannes Siegrist?s medical-sociological Effort-Reward Imbalance Model (ERI-Model).

The aim of our thesis was to gain greater knowledge of how young people relate to religion, religiosity and life, and this behavior might show influences of a gender perspective. Part of the aim was also to have greater awareness of how our education should include a gender perspective. To get to this goal, we have assumed the qualitative investigation method which we discussed with a number of students who read last year of high school. First, the interviews were aimed to let students talk about matters concerning religion and life. The next step was to examine their thoughts with a gender perspective as a starting point.

This case study attempts to examine how students of Religionswissenschaft at Södertörns University reflect about their philosophy of life and if their studies have some impact on their tendency to reflect. Also what aspects the students tend to reflect over will be investigated. In this study the term ?philosophy of life? includes humans thought and conceptions of the world and their outlook on mankind. To answer these question an interview study with 6 students took place, and the transcriptions produced 5 categories; ?The philosophy of life, to believe or not believe?, ?Development of concepts?, ?Outlook on mankind?, ?The founding of meaning? and ?Understanding and progress?.

The purpose of this paper has been to examine the heavy metal band Sabatons use of history and to relate it to societal trends in today?s Sweden. I have examined Sabatons music, album covers and music videos in order to define a certain use of history. To do this I have used a use of history theory and a heavy metal theory. My results showed that some of Sabatons use of history could be defined as commercial and that the societal trends in today`s Sweden have in some cases affected the selection and presentation of events and characters that`s been portrayed by Sabaton.

The question of euthanasia has kept pre-occupying and agitating the minds of thinkers, sweeping the globe, pummelling pedagogy, assailing assumptions, and bludgeoning biases. Both the moralist, ethicist, theologian, psychologist, educationist, anthropologist, politician, physician, patient as well as the common man in the street are interested in it. This pervading interest simply arises out of the fact that euthanasia involves the question of life, and life is something that is a common denominator to all men.The controversy hinges on the fact that, there are divergent views on the moral question of euthanasia. While some would unflinchingly opt for euthanasia others would prefer to oppose it to the best of their strength, yet others will remain agnostic about it. But the issue here remains: is euthanasia in any way morally justified? Has human life an intrinsic value? Or is human life valuable only when it is healthy? Are we the ones who decide when to die? Has the physician any right to either assist or terminate the life of the patient simply on account of suffering? Has the patient any right to end his/her life? Are there some conditions in which euthanasia could be allowed? Is suffering meaningless?The topic of my project is: THE MORALITY OF EUTHANASIA IN THE LIGHT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?S TEACHING.

The study presented here is about how to make the special needs user who has a profound intellectual disability and additional disabilities more involved in their implementation plan. Based on a life story interview the study aims at analyzing perceptions of procedures to enhance special needs users? influence. The method used in this study was a qualitative research approach as an overall approach in order to use a narrative method where life history is the method. The focus has been to study a part of an individual life history - a specific domain in the life of the interviewee?s working career.

The aim of this study was to compare unemployed and workers' life situation and the way they cope with different situations and to determine their degree of Type A. We used two different instruments: Friedman and Rosenman?s Type A-test and Carver?s cope test. The total number of respondents amounted to 169 participants. The participants were selected from a convenience sample at the employment service and from three different companies.

The aim of this study was to examine differences between happy and unhappy people, with respect to individuals interpretations, their attributonal style and in what way the priming effect is related to their attributional style and well-being. The participants were 74 senior high school and 21 undergraduate college students. Participants were asked to read a short story, some words were in bold type, and thereafter for their subjective perception of the words in bold type loading and memory of them in a recognition list. Attributional style was operationalized with an own constructed instrument. The results show that happy individuals interpreted more words as positive than negative in comparission with unhappy individuals.

Background: Patients with cancer of the lung have to endure a quantity of physical, psychological and social difficulties. In their exposed position they are in need of help and support to pull through the situation. With the knowledge of factors effecting lung cancer patients? quality of life, it will be easier to give the help and support they need. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe factors effecting lung cancer patients quality of life from the patient?s perspective.

The purpose of this literature study was to describe how patients experience their quality of life while undergoing a pacemaker implantation. Searches were carried out in the databases Academic Search Elite, Ebsco Host, Pub Med, Pub Med Central, Science Direct and manually. Keywords used were quality of life, treatment outcomes, emotions, pacing and life. This resulted in nineteen peer rewieved articles that were selected for the study results. The results showed that patients undergoing a pacemaker implantation experienced an improvement in their physical health with increased functional status, more energy and strength.

This joint study has researched the use of non-European history in a Swedish textbook for the High School course History 1a1 as well as internet based material regarding the same issue. The aim of this study was to clarify the use of non-European history in regards to the Eurocentric theory.As for the textbook analysis the purpose was to research what non-European history was mentioned in the material with regards to geographical location and the events that were mentioned, as well as to study how much non-European history was included in the material compared to European or Western history.The study of internet based material aimed to show what kind of teaching material could be found on internet based databases by and for teachers. The study aimed to show how well the material handled non-European history, as well as to what degree the material used European perspectives when dealing with non-European events and geographical areas.In our thesis we have created our own definition of the theory regarding eurocentrism. The method used was a combination of a quantitative and a qualitative discourse analysis of the texts.Our results showed that the textbook was overwhelmingly Eurocentric, not only giving vastly more focus to the European parts of world history, but also using European perspectives and ideals to describe non-European events and areas. The internet based material, on the other hand, proved more diverse and less biased, but also more difficult to find and less plentiful.Our conclusion, then, is that teachers have to choose between the risk of letting their students develop a severely limited and heavily Eurocentric view of the world, and the additional workload required to find and organize non-textbook material to broaden their students horizons.We hope our study will contribute to the discussion of the place of Eurocentrism in today?s global and multicultural society..