The aim of this study was to reach a better understanding of voluntary work and its possible influence on the work role. Based on a phenomenological approach, five voluntary workers from the leisure field were interviewed. The interpretation of the empirical data was based on the Humanistic psychology and its theories about personality, self-realization, motivation and emotion. The results show that the motive behind the voluntary engagement varied amongst the participants and all of them stated more than one motive. However, social motives, wanting to learn more and develop their skills and also wanting to help others, were the most frequent motives among the participants. In the light of the theoretical background for this study, these motives can be understood as being due to the need of self-realization and appreciation from others, and also a wish to reach an ideal self.

The purpose was to investigate whether using two type of interventions (i.e., Four rooms of change in school and EQ- workshop) in addition to curriculum guidelines can affect character development in children 10-12 years of age. The data was collected using the test Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (J-TCI; Cloninger, CR, 1994) in three elementary schools among students in fifth grade who had been involved in any of the two interventions for the past two years or no intervention at all.The J-TCI scales were used to, besides the seven personality dimension it measures, create a self-constructed empathy scale. A total of 55 participants were included in the study (girls n = 26 and boys n = 29). Statistical testing with MANOVA showed no significant main effect on empathy or any personality trait. There was however an interaction effect between intervention and gender on the character traits.

AbstractMany of the refugees around the world today are children. Some of these children are travelling alone without anyone looking after them. These children flee from their countries to save their lives and as they are children they need special care and protection. This thesis has investigated the protection given to unaccompanied children during the asylum process in the two key instruments in the area: the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Refugee Convention does not contain any procedural rights and does not specifically acknowledge children, even though they are included in the scope of the Convention.

Då vi har ett stort intresse för fysisk aktivitet på recept (FaR) fick vi en möjlighet att genomföra en intervention i form av viktminskningskurs för en grupp långtidssjukskrivna FaR-patienter. Syftet med arbetet var att planera, genomföra och utvärdera en viktminskningskurs för FaR-patienter. Vi valde att i en enkät utvärdera kortsiktiga mål såsom förändrad motivation, attityder, self-efficacy och vanor beträffande kost och motion hos deltagarna samt genom fysiska mätningar utvärdera långsiktiga mål som mindre midjemått och lägre BMI. Distriktsläkaren Ingrid Bertilsson vid Samverkansteamet i Västra Frölunda valde ut tio lämpliga deltagare, det vill säga motiverade personer som skulle kunna fungera i grupp, varav sex av dessa tio formade gruppen.För att få information om gruppdeltagarna och deras matvanor genomfördes personliga samtal i kombination med en kostintervju (24-h-recall). Ytterligare information som bland annat deltagarnas ålder, ursprung, ekonomi, livsstil och familjeförhållanden erhölls från läkaren och Samverkansteamet.

This essay is from a student at the cultural science program in Karlstad University. The essay in Culture studies deals about the history use and about the cultural-historical values on buildings. The buildings are from a certain area called the neighborhood Almen and have in the past been threatening many times of demolition. The neighborhood Almen buildings survived a huge city fire back in the 19th century. Since then the buildings has been known as a memory and by the inhabitants and as the oldest part of the city left.

Aim: The aim of this qualitative interview study was to describe the nurse's professional role and the role as a patient during different time periods. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, where respondents had a link to the nursing profession, either as a student, now working nurse or retired nurse. Method: The data were analyzed using a content analysis. Result: The older nurses believe that nurses today has a high status and is seen as a well-read and well informed person. Most respondents believe that collaboration between nurses and doctors has improved since past.

During the past few years an increased attention has been paid to environmental issues in the construction and property sector in Sweden. In order to simplify the work with these issues a Swedish environmental certification system for buildings called Miljöbyggnad has been developed. This thesis aims to investigate the opinion of a selected number of selected property owners of Miljöbyggnad. From that basis recommendations and actions for the future work with the system will be presented.The investigation has been conducted through personal interviews with five property owners. The main issues that the interviews have been based on are their purpose, experiences, perceived complications and future prospects in terms of certification using Miljöbyggnad.The system intends to be cost-effective, simple and to offer a relevant environmental assessment of buildings and the result from the report indicates that this is largely fulfilled.

The aim of this study is to investigate leadership in sports organizations and business organizations. The study focused on common and important leadership components and the most important leadership processes in both business context and sports context. The study also investigated common and important leadership components, leadership challenges and which degree leaders used the transformative leadership. The study focuses on leadership components most importantly from the leaders view, including both sport managers and business leaders. The investigation was based on eight interviews, which are analyzed with content analysis.

This study aims to analyse the connection between poverty reduction and sustainable development through strategies used for the reduction of poverty. With the methodology of content analysis of three policy documents to provide and easy overview of how the government of Ethiopia is planning to achieve sustainable and long-term poverty alleviation. The focus of this study will be on Ethiopia, a country with very high economic growth in the past years but still with hight poverty rates. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the already existing and broad knowledge and research of sustainable development and poverty alleviation and contribute with more research in Ethiopia where the research done in this specific area and region is not in abundance. In this study all dimensions of sustainable development, social, economic and ecological are included to get a more holistic picture of the sustainable development in the government?s plans and its challenges.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to study how the comics have been evaluated and debated in the Swedish library press from 1960 to 1999. Have they been seen as something good or something bad? What arguments have been put forward against them or in their defense? What kinds of development can be seen over time? The point of doing this, is of course that evaluation always plays a crucial part in library work. By studying how a "new" medium or art form has been evaluated in the past, we can hopefully gain a greater understanding of how today?s newcomers should best be treated.

This Master Thesis describes how a concept for a new fly fishing reel has been developed. Thethesis has been an interwork with Loop Tackle Design, which is a leading company in the flyfishing industry with their high-quality products. Loop designs and develops all types of flyfishing equipment like fly fishing reels, rods, lines and clothes.The purpose of this thesis is to generate a concept for a new type of fly fishing reel. The new flyfishing reel shall be innovative and reduce the number of components in fly fishing equipment.The solution for this is to create a fly fishing reel that is collapsible and can be used for all typesof fly fishing.The thesis started with a history of fly fishing and the equipments that have been used for flyfishing in the past and what is used today, in order to get an idea how fly fishing haveprogressed. A frame of reference was then compiled to get an idea of the forces and surroundingsa fly fishing reel will be exposed to.

The Private Equity industry has over the past years been booming and major external environmental changes have made the industry transform rapidly. Increased competition between Private Equity firms is one of the reasons why the industry has been and is being forced to focus more on addition of value through increased operational management. Consequently, the focus of value addition is by some said to be transferred away from deal making and financial skills, and into active operative management. This case study investigates how the portfolio management, and more specifically the measuring and management of performance, is carried out in a number of leading Swedish Private Equity funds with investments in the biotech sector. The biotech sector is characterized by extensive research and development, and many biotech companies often lack income and other measurable financial parameters in the initial phase.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how people from Iran experience reading in their mother tongue, Persian, compared to how they experience reading in Swedish and if there was a difference. The questions to be answered in the thesis were: What is the dominant purpose when people read their mother tongue and when they read in Swedish. Do they read because they need information, because they want to relax or do they, when they read, reflect on their own lives? The method was qualitative, interviews were conducted with 8 Iranians living in Sweden. The theoretical background consists of a description of theories on reading and theories on language and identity.

A performance measurement system can be used as a means to evaluate past performances and to communicate prioritizations. It has also been proposed that a performance measurement system can serve as a method to execute strategies, guide in operational decisions and constitute a tool for making the organization more efficient. Yet one may question if such a system will ever reach this capacity if operating managers do not utilize it as a management tool, but rather treat it as a mere report in the bunch. This paper explores how middle managers in fact apply performance measures and what obstacles there are to integrating them in the management of subunits. Furthermore it serves to investigate whether these managers experience a conflict between how they are expected to use the measures and what they deem possible to adopt.

AbstractTo take the role of another is an important and a central part of human interaction. When we take the role of another we not only learn about them but also we learn about ourselves and how we interact with other people.  Social work in this form, working with directly with families in crises, is much about understanding other people?s perspective and feelings. It is important to know the strategy of one?s work and which perspective to work from.