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.

Impression management (IM) handlar om enmedveten eller omedveten process att styra intrycken av sig själv som ges tillomgivningen i syfte att imponera och söka erkännande. Tidigare forskning har istor utsträckning berört anställningsrekommendation utifrån intervjuer och demest framgångsrika resultaten har visat sig vara självförbättrande IM taktik.Studiens syfte vara att undersöka hur självförbättrande IM taktik i personligtbrev, två kvalitéer av meriter, påverkar ett beslut omanställningsrekommendation, samt undersöka hur en uppsättning personliga egenskaperrelaterar till självförbättrande IM taktik. Deltagarna var studenter, 57kvinnor och 32 män. Studien var experimentell 2 x 2 x 2 mellangruppsdesign. Deviktigaste fynden var att, högre kvalité av meriter innebar högre skattning avanställningsrekommendation samt att högre skattning av egenskaper vidsjälvförbättrande IM taktik skattats.

Bakgrund: Studien undersökte hur deltagarna affektivt och kognitivt upplever en fallbeskrivning som simulerar en oförutsedd situation i en kontorsmiljö. Det beskrivna fallet handlar om en personalfråga och kräver ett omedelbart beslut eftersom en försening kanske inte bara påverkar arbetsprestationen och klimatet i organisationen, men också kan leda till att organisationen förlorar ett kontrakt med en långsiktig inkomst.Method/DesignStudien är en explorativ och oberoende design som genomfördes vid Karlstads universitet. Deltagarna var 72 studenter i två olika kurser, personal- och arbetsliv och psykologi. Data för denna undersökning samlades in genom en enkät som mätte deltagarnas kognitiva (Situationsuppfattning efter Kleins RPD-modellen, 1993) och affektiva reaktioner (PANAS, Watson, Clark, & Tellegen 1985) på fallbeskrivningen. Den affektiva och kognitiva reaktionen backades upp av två tester som mäter en persons priorierade sätt att bearbeta information (PMPI, Burns och D'Zurilla, 1999) och att hantera situationer (Personal Temperament efter MBTI-skala).

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 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..

There are a large number of studies on colour and its influence on human feelings, but thereare only a few studies on the association between feelings and colour combinations. Thisstudie investigates the association between colour combinations consisting of three equallysized colours and the feelings they convey. The methodology used in this studie follows theinstructions from the Nippon Colour & Design Research Institute (NCD) in Japan, NCD havestudied consumer psychology towards colour and colour combinations for several decades.This study used semantically differential scales to evaluate existing colour combinations fromNCD to descriptive adjectives and creation of new colour combinations to explore therelationship between colour combinations and conveyed feelings. A total of 69 peopleparticipated in the tests. The main conclusions formed by this study are: (1) the feelingsconnected with the colour combinations differ partly between the Swedish population and theNCD and (2) the Swedish population have similar feeling associations to most colourcombinations, except for trend dependent adjectives such asmodern, cool etc.

The aim of this study was to acquire knowledge about the working conditions of people's gainful employment. The research was conducted at one of the regional social insurance offices of Malmö with participation of ten of their employees. The research method of choice was a phenomenological approach. One open question about the working situation was answered freely. The results indicate a rather severe discontent about the workplace.

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.

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.

The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge about the meaning of being internationally adopted for individuals living in Sweden. Through group discussions with young adults data was retrieved, and then analysed with a qualitative phenomenological approach. The study revealed three main themes: 1) experiences of being Swedish, 2) experiences of ethnic origin, and 3) the interaction between the two aspects of the identity, how the internationally adopted individual integrate's his/her ethnical origin with his/her Swedish identity. With regards to previous studies about adoption and psychological theories the meaning of being internationally adopted in Sweden is discussed..

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.

Tidigare studier har gett stöd för att igenkänningsminnet understöds av minst två processer: erinring (recollection) och familjaritet. Detta testades i två beteendeexperiment, inom ett Remember/Know paradigm (experiment 1) och ett Ja/Nej paradigm där Receiver - Operating Characteristics (ROC) beräknades (2). I ett påföljande Event - related potentials (ERP) experiment undersöktes vidare distinktionen mellan minnesprocesserna under återvinning. Deltagarna studerade namn med två former av pre - experimentell familjaritet, namnfrekvens och celebritet, vilka kombinerades till ortogonala variationer av dimensionerna. Frekvens operationaliserades som antalet träffar i den nationella telefonkatalogen och celebritet som antalet träffar i massmediala webbsidor.

I två oberoende studier undersöktes om experter och noviser skiljer sig iuppfattningen om sin egen okunskap, men också om hur mycket som äroutforskat, inom ett givet ämnesområde. Deltagarnas kunskapssyn ochtankestil studerades med två epistemologiska skalor. Totalt deltog 380experter och 401 noviser verksamma inom ämnesområdena fysik, historia,medicin och psykologi. Resultaten visar att noviserna upplever en störreokunskap inom det egna ämnesområdet än experterna. Vid bedömning avhur mycket som är outforskat inom respektive område fanns däremot ingenskillnad mellan experter och noviser.

This is a paper about the effects from smoldering fire on lithic objects from an archaeological view. The introduction gives the background to this paper, a short orientation to forest wildfires and why the work is limited to: flint, quartz, quartzite and slate. Material and methods describes the stone materials and the setup that was used in the temperature logged tests with three replications for each type of material. The fuel in the burnings was peat on a bottom of sand. Flint showed a more drastic effect from heat compared with the other materials. Slate seems to have greater tendencies to change to darker colour and luster at lower temperatures than the other materials.