The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard.

This study aims at describing if discrepancies can be found between the rhetoric in Swedish political parties? electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and their representatives? actual behavior in the European Parliament and to develop plausible explanations to these possible discrepancies. The research method that is being used is content analysis, aiming to answer four research questions regarding the electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and the behavior by the parties? representatives during the following term of office. The main findings are that some discrepancies can be found regarding which questions are raised most frequently in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament, but that no discrepancies can be found regarding the positions taken in questions in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament.

This essay is a qualitative study whose aim is to see how to find a good balance between family life and managership. The result could give concrete proposals on how help can be designed to prospective female managers. The study is based on interviews with eight female managers. The interviews have been inspired by the narrative approach with the focus on how these women have tried to find a balance between management and family life and which obstacles they faced and the support they have had. The results of the study has shown that the support that the woman has been given by their spouse / partner has been one of the best and most important support for her to full fill her mission as being a manager as well as a mother.

The purpose of this study was to get a client perspective of the different ways to exit from a different role as a drugabuser, and furthermore, how to maintain a drugfree life.The questions of issue were:- What kind of social-psychological conceptions rules the process?- Which motive powers are essential to maintain drug-independence?- Are there any difficulties on the path to social adaptation?Our research was based on interviews with eight persons; five men and three women, from a treatment home in the south of Sweden. The method we used was semi-structured and with a thematic questionnaire. We chose this form due to the fact that we did not want to influence the interviews, as we wanted to know the persons opinions.The result of our study showed that the interviewed persons have some difficulties to adjust in the society and to find new friends especially the interviewed persons with maintenance treatment. Marginal problems as, for example, the lack of not having a work or a home can complicate a further development for the group with maintenance treatment.

AbstractThe aim of the thesis was to examine some older people's experiences of everyday life and how it is to grow old in Namibia today. Because everyday life is a broad concept, we chose to focus on some specific parts of everyday life. These are chores, family, work/education, elderly past and present and the government/society. Furthermore we chose to look at the similarities and differences between the experiences on the basis of gender, race/ethnic groups and class.We chose to use a qualitative research method and to be inspired by life stories. We used a semi-structured interview guide and interviewed six people between 70 and 89 years.

Introduction: Sex and education level has demonstrated effects on health status.Osteoarthritis is a widespread disease that causes reduced health-related quality of life and isthe most common reason for total hip replacement. Osteoarthritis was ranked as the 11thhighest contributor to global disability as reported in the Global Burden of Disease 2010.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore how sex and education level together affectedhealth-related quality of life after total hip replacement. The aim was also to examine whatdimensions of EQ-5D that changed.Methods: The study is a prospective observational study with a quantitative approach. Dataconsisted of education level, obtained from Statistics Sweden (SCB) and health-relatedquality of life before and one year after total hip replacement from the Swedish HipArthroplasty Register (SHAR). Health-related quality of life was measured with astandardised instrument, the EQ-5D, and the study population consisted of 39,141 patients.Results: Womens? EQ-5D-value, before and one year after surgery, were lower in alleducational categories compared with men.

The aim of this paper is to analyze and problematize the content in the teaching media Känslan för ord through an integrative perspective. This is done by using two sets of questions based on two of the didactic questions what and how. How is the content of the Swedish subject constructed in Känslan för ord? and How is this content integrated in Känslan för ord? The used material consists of a fairly large amount of literature which provides different approaches, priorities, and methods about the Swedish subject. This literature forms the base for the model used to analyze the course books.The results are based on an analysis of the exercise culture (uppgiftskultur) in the two books and are extensive.

Sexuality has an important role in human life and there are many opinions about how to handle questions about sexuality. The attitudes have change over time and differ between different cultures, gender and age. This study deals with the question about youth attitudes to sex and personal relationships and what impact the education in this filed have on the youth. We have also studied how the education is organized. To get answers to these questions we have performed a questionnaire study among 116 students in grade seven to nine in an elementary school in Western Sweden.

The study - Hur skapas en journalist? - examines why so many people choose to turn tothe journalist profession when the conditions for a secure position on the labor market ispoor. The study also highlights how recently graduated journalist perceives their temporary and insecure position on the labor market.The study was performed trough ten biographical interviews with recently graduated journalists. Via the interviews I examined what has formed the individuals to perceive journalism as a rational or pragmatic choice for a career. The study shows that journalists, who come from families with high cultural capital, have been shaped by a particular culture of education, which focuses on education as a step towards selfrealization.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers who worked with financial assistance perceived their work situation and the impact work-related stress had on their health and quality of work. Further, the study intended to find out if they felt that they received support from their employer that could prevent stress-related sick leave. The following two research questions were to be answered: In what way does work-related stress affect social workers? health and job quality according to their own experience? What kind of support and help experienced social workers were available within their organization? To receive answers to the questions semi-structured interviews with five social workers were conducted, analyzed and interpreted. The results showed that when social workers have a heavy case burden, high stress and a risk of deteriorated job quality occurred.

For my advanced degree in archival science, I have organized and catalogued the Blomqvist family archive.  The Blomqvist family archive consists of records from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21th century. The records in the archive depict and describe different aspect of the Blomqvist familys life and work. Specific problems and theoretical questions that appeared during the cataloguing of the Blomqvist archive were related to the great presence of objects and photographs in the archive. A discussion concerning the role of objects in archives and within archive institution took place. The problem with cataloguing photographs as well as the problem of searching for photographs in archives, were also discussed.       .

AbstractThe aim of the thesis was to examine some older people's experiences of everyday life and how it is to grow old in Namibia today. Because everyday life is a broad concept, we chose to focus on some specific parts of everyday life. These are chores, family, work/education, elderly past and present and the government/society. Furthermore we chose to look at the similarities and differences between the experiences on the basis of gender, race/ethnic groups and class.We chose to use a qualitative research method and to be inspired by life stories. We used a semi-structured interview guide and interviewed six people between 70 and 89 years.

AbstractDuring the last five years there has been a considerable immigration from the Netherlands to Värmland in Sweden. INVA, Invest in Värmland, wanted to highlight this phenomenon and therefore contacted Karlstad University to make a survey about how extensive the immigration is and what consequences it brings for the business life and municipalities in Värmland. We were luckily chosen to perform this research and the main focus in this study has been the following questions:? Why do the Dutchmen choose to buy their house in Värmland?? What are the main reasons for leaving the Netherlands?? What consequences does the immigration cause for the business life in Värmland?? How do the Dutchmen experience the contact with Swedish authorities?To answer the questions we designed a questionnaire that was sent to 200 Dutch house purchasers. The ambition was to survey all the Dutch house purchasers in Värmland, but with the time constrains and the municipalities having problem to find complete data, we limited the survey to 200 households.

The conversion in the Viking Age and the High Middle Agea in Scandinavia and how this affected women is discussed. Did women get a better life when the people had converted to Christianity or not. Our written sources are later than the conversion to Christianity. Instead the material culture, graves, grave goods and runic stones, can help us understand the life of women. Nordic mythology presents a contrast between faith in the Viking Age and Christianity..

The aim of this study was to investigate factors that ex-criminals believe have been of importance to them when they decided to leave a lifestyle of criminality behind. The study was based on eight semi-structured interviews with informants who had committed various forms of crime. Common to all informants is that they are now members in the Swedish association KRIS (In English: CRIS, Criminals Return Into Society), living a life without crime. The stories of the informants have been analyzed on the theoretical basis of social ties, the exit process, role loss, motivation and the life course perspective. Our study showed that the informants have been affected and motivated by various life events that could be identified and pin-pointed during the interviews.