The aim of the study was to examine whether parental leave can serve as capacitating period in life. More specifically our aim was to get a deeper comprehension of the abilities and competencies developed through parental leave and how these can be of use to the individual when at work. 12 semistructured interviews were conducted with employees from a large organization in the south of Sweden. The results were analyzed using a hermeneutic approach. The results of the study show that competencies and abilities such as effectiveness, organizing, multitasking, leader abilities, communication, sensitivity, limiting skills, mindfulness, acceptance, self-confidence and life balance were enhanced during parental leave.

De flesta företag använder sig av något slags system för att kontrollera arbetsflödet. Dessa system används av alla på företaget och därmed är det viktigt att undersöka, hur medarbetarna upplever detta system. Med en explorativ utgångspunkt gjordes en enkätstudie på ett företag i Västsverige. Resultatet visade att deltagarna, förutom några få procent i stort sett hade liknande positiva upplevelser. Ingen skillnad fanns heller mellan grupperingarna ung/gammal eller antal år de arbetat på företaget.

The way society categorize different people into groups is problematic in the sense that the categorization can seem stigmatizing and have social consequences for those being categorized. Immigrants are one of those problematic categories.The following essay studies this categorization of ?immigrants? based on a governmental investigation of structural discrimination that took place in 2002-2008. The aim is to study the use of the category ?immigrant? and the consequences that follows such a categorization.

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..

The aim of this study was to investigate the individual meaning of experiences of migration and day-to day life experiences before and after migration, of women that had migrated from the Middle-east area to Sweden. This was to be done with a psychological health perspective looking for stressors and salutogenic factors. A phenomenological approach was used. Eleven women where interviewed with three open questions on a trajectory theme. The analysis was supported by software Sphinx Lexica and software MCA-Minerva.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to facilitate increased understanding of immigrant's experience of the meaning of work with focus on how that meaning can change as a part of the acculturation process. Participants (n=13) from eight countries answered an open question. The responses were analysed using Meaning Construction Analysis (MCA)-Minerva and the individual's life-worlds were made visible and discussed. The themes meaning of work, work, unemployment, education, adjustment, immigration, Sweden/country of origin, dreams, possibilities and self appeared as jointly shared important aspects. The results indicate that work is of central importance, and although the individuals share certain experiences, the meaning associated with the themes is of a complex and individual nature..

This study is about youths, democracy and school. It seeks to describe and problemize the school's role in the democratic society. Firstly, using Social Representations Theory, 44 upper secondary shool pupils? representations, or conceptions, of democracy are described and discussed. These representations are then analyzed in relation to the school's role in the democratic society, as it is described by different researchers.The results show that many of the youths have a rather simplistic and abstract view of democracy, describing it only in terms of general principles and the main features of the representative democracy, such as voting in national elections.

By the same time as the recent enlargement of the European Union, where Poland became a member, it was officially stated that the gender mainstreaming-policy was to be integrated into every area of EU. NGO:s working as entrepreneurs for the gender mainstreaming norm in Poland supported the accession largely because they believed it would help spreading the norm also on a national level. Qualitatively analyzing the Polish case and the difficulties gender mainstreaming as a norm candidate meets with I contrast expectations with what could actually be EU:s role in this matter.Arguing that EU is a context with room for spreading norms by both bargaining and socialization, this paper takes a social constructivist approach. Gender mainstreaming as a norm is difficult for EU to apply on their members, and thus was not widely discussed during accession negotiations. In the same time.

Denna studie ville undersöka om en viss bild i det perceptgenetiska testet DMTm (Defense Mechanism Technique modified) kan vara på väg att bli omodern. Flickan i bild K1 (som visas för kvinnor) skulle idag kunna misstas för en pojke. En design med två beroende grupper på 30 män i varje användes. En grupp såg M1-bilden med en pojke och den andra såg K1-bilden med en flicka. Syftet var att undersöka om det fanns någon skillnad i gruppernas förmåga att korrekt kunna identifiera barnets kön.

This paper examines whether membership in the European Union has contributed to democratic stability and integration in an ethnic diverse society. By studying the Latvian multicultural society, before and after membership in the EU, the author is looking for evidence of enhanced ethnic stability in the country brought through European integration. The author will analyze what the consequences have been, by adopting European regional policy, for a country that yet has to create a unified national identity. By analyzing different areas of the Latvian society, the author has concluded that the EU has played a small but yet not insignificant role for the Latvian domestic integration process..

The aim of this study about post-conflict economic, social and political reintegration of ex-combatants is to understand how such a process should be prepared for in order to help as many traumatized and sometimes destructive or disabled soldiers as possible to re-establish themselves as functioning civilians as well as preparing communities for their return. In order to do this I have focused on Africa and in particular the DDR-process of post war Sierra Leone. My study concludes that the relation between ex-combatants and civilians and the prospect of a positive future are crucial to a successful reintegration process..

Previous research in the area of leadership and stress has shown that the leader plays an important role but in what way is still an issue to explore. A qualitative approach was used in this study to develop an increased understanding of the leader's experience of stress using four themes; leadership, stress, control and organizational factors. A total of 12 semi-structured and un-structured interviews were carried out with 6 leaders, three females and three males. The data was transcribed and thematic as well as narrative analysis was conducted.The results indicates that leadership stress is caused by a lack of control and that factors intrinsic to the role as a leader both facilitates and complicates the leaders situation when facing stress..

Personlighetspsykologin har dominerats av forskning kring fem- faktor-modellen under framförallt 1980-90 talet. (Pervin, 1990). Det finns idag ett antal studier som sökt att beskriva individers prestation utifrån fem-faktor-modellen. Det finns dock inga entydiga resultat som indikerar att vissa specifika personlighetsfaktorer kan förklara en individs prestation. Föreliggande undersökning omfattade 455 personer på ett medelstort företag i Mellansverige.

This paper investigates the usability of the intelligence test Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability (WNV). Twenty four children in two different age-groups were tested with WNV, 10 children between ages 5 - 6, and 14 children between ages 9 - 10. The WNV turned out to be a useful test when some verbal communication was used in the test situation. This was especially apparent among the younger children, who needed extra verbal instructions and verbal support through the different subtests. The test also contained standardized verbal instructions for all ages.

The purpose of the following study is to examine whether or not differences can be found between a group of aspiring police students (N=59) and a student group (N=20). Comparisons were made between the following variables: general illhealth, subjective experienced stress, trait anxiety and the three coping strategies, which are emotion focused coping, problem focused coping and seeking social support. In addition the results were compared with former research on the general illhealth and trait anxiety of the police students with that of a group police officers with several years of experience (N=69).The result of this showed that the police students had a significantly better level of general than the studentgroup. Several positive relations between the variables were found, among others between illhealth and trait anxiety, subjective experienced stress and trait anxiety and also between different types of coping strategies and subjective experienced stress..