The aim of this study was to examine the relations between sense of coherence (SOC), perceived social support and mood, the study also included gender and civil status in the analysis. In the analysis mood was the dependent variable. The study included 81 respondents, all students from Växjö university, who answered a survey with three parts: SOC 13, Mood Adjective Checklist (MACL), and an own constructed instrument that measured perceived social support. The result showed that those with a high SOC tended to have a greater mood. High scores on perceived social support also were related to a greater mood.

In today?s Europe, migration has become a security issue rather than a humanitarian issue. Previous research highlights how migrants have become prisoners of bureaucracy in Europe by their mobility being hindered. The present study critically analyses the migration governance in Europe by highlighting labour market integration in Sweden. The study highlights migrants with a specific focus on foreign-born women. The research questions chosen to examine this phenomenon is: How does migration governance in Europe affect member states' policies for labour market integration, with a particular focus on Sweden? How do foreign-born women in Sweden experience labour market integration processes within the framework of the governance mechanisms that exist in Europe? Foucault?s theory of power and the theoretical concept of choking composes a theoretical framework which is used to analyse focus group data and text analysis data.

Background: During the last decade physical activity among Swedish adolescents has decreased. Changes regarding physical fitness can also be seen, for instance the cardio respiratory capacity has decreased mainly among young men while muscular capacity has decreased in both genders. Physical inactivity and impaired physical fitness are both important health related parameters. 18-year olds have fulfilled their physical development and are physically on top of their development, it makes this group interesting to examine. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate differences between physically active and inactive young men and women, concerning cardio-respiratory fitness, muscular fitness and balance.

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.

The murders of Pela Atroshi, Sara Abed Ali and Fadime Sahindal, started a debate concerning the underlying motives of honour related violence. This paper aimed to describe and explain in what way honour related violence is perceived in publications by academics, public authorities and voluntary organisations to name a few. Different types of literature were thematically analysed as well as analysed using a model by Lorentzon. The scope of this paper was narrowed down to Swedish conditions and excluded men as victims of honour related crimes.The conclusion suggests a definition of honour related violence as a result of general patriarchy with different features. For example, men?s honour is connected to women?s behaviour and retaining of virginity.

The purpose of this study was to identify exerciser athlete?s motivational orientation, coping strategies used and stressors that primarily is perceived in gym training. The study also studied gender differences in relation to motivation orientation, coping strategies and stressors. A survey was conducted with a quantitative design. The study included 118 participants (43 women and 75 men) aged 18 - 42.

AbstractThe main purpose of this study is to examine which essential traits floorball coaches for men?s and women?s team require. One issue was to see if there was any distinction between which leader traits and behaviors the players and the coaches regarded as essential. Another issue was to see if the coaches? behaviors differed whether he was coaching men or women.

This study has the purpose to reveal whether gender stereotypes are manifested or challenged in the children comic Bamse - världens starkaste björn based on six different stories widespread over 40 years. The results will be studied in the light of the contemporary gender development in society and emanate from theories about power, discourse, representation, queer and gender. An eclectic analysis based on semiotics and critical discourse analysis will be the method to reveal the underlying gender perspective in Bamse. The conclusion of the study shows an ambiguous perspective in the comic where both men and women occasionally are represented in a manifested as well as a challenged stereotypical role. In some of the stories the gender is erased and all characters are represented based on their individual attributes instead, meanwhile in some stories men are represented as active heroes while women are portrayed as passive nurturer.

In this study I compare the donor portraits on wallpaintings in Scanian churches from the 12th and the 15th century and relate them to medieval society.I find that women were equally capable of owning and donating land during the entire period. The image of the ideal woman changed during the 14th century from a married woman to the unreachable mistress of the chivalrous culture and the holy virgin. Women had a natural place beside their husbands in 12th century donor portraits, while single male donors are more frequent in the 15th century. While 12th century donors were supposed to show their position in society by offering plentiful donations directly to God, donors in the 14th century instead strived to present themselves as humble and pious. The individualisation of late medieval society meant that people had to depend on themselves to achieve salvation..

In this essay, I have studied the image of the drug abusing mother and her motherhood as seen in some of the social science literature on drug abusing women. This I did with a qualitative research design and with the questions:How is the drug abusing mother and her motherhood portrayed by social scientists?What signification is her motherhood given in her life by the researchers?What approach towards the drug abusing mother in the research process, and hence in the creation of the images of her, does the scientists have?I found that there are distinct patterns and themes in the research on mothers with a drug abuse. The researchers studied the women with the goal to understand them and to give them the opportunity to speak for themselves through the researcher. The drug abusing mother is in short portrayed as a woman who cares for her children, whose motherhood is one of the most important factors in her life and who is anxious that her substance abuse should not threaten it.

In the latest years the Swedish armed forces have gone from an armed force with conscripts to voluntary men and women. When the basic training is voluntarily may the question be if the new men and women have the same approach to Desirable competences and pedagogy that is used by their officers during their training. Desirable competences are a part of the model transformational leadership and are divided into task related competence, management competence, social competence and capacitate to cope with stress.To deal with this problem I have used questionnaires from conscripts and a new questionnaire made on voluntary recruits.I have compared the results in a case study method and it shows a positive progress from the recruits view how the officers use examples from the transformational leadership. The study shows that recruits want officers to make demands, motivate and inspire them. The recruits want to know the goal with the education and they want the officers to make demands on them..

Information technology (IT) penetrates more and more areas in the community. The Commission for Information Technology is of the opinion that the use ought to be widespread but states that this is not yet a reality. Differences exist between groups, e.g. between women and men. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to examine how female university students enrolled in two different programmes experience and use IT and to compare this with society's picture of the relationship between IT and women.

In this report female farmers use of technical equipment is investigated. There is little research made on this subject in Sweden, therefore this report can be seen as an explorative study. Research makes it clear that machinery, throughout history and even today, has been seen as a male area. Heavy machines are often associated with the same attributes as masculinity. Force, power, efficiency and control are some examples.

In the early 1860´s, the author and opinion former Fredrika Bremer made a large donation of books to Högre lärarinneseminariet, which is the first governmental institute for higher education of women in Sweden. The aim of this thesis is to describe the collection of donated books as well as to extract information regarding Bremer's international network of contacts, her views on women's education and her relation to Högre lärarinneseminariet. Furthermore, the aim is to highlight the unique relationship between Fredrika Bremer's private collection of the books and the library of Högre lärarinneseminariet from a gender perspective. A handwritten list of the 321 titles constitutin the donation has been preserved in the seminar archive and three quarters of the books have been re-discovered in a bookcase at Årsta castle. The donation is characterized by its double origin as stamps and personal dedications remain as permanent traces in the books.

This qualitative study aimed to examine which discourses can be found within the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (BUP) and women?s shelters against domestic violence, concerning children that have experienced violence within the family, from two perspectives: the child?s need of father and of protection from violence. The study also aimed to examine which discourses can be found within the organisations concerning children?s well-being, how they define their mission concerning domestic violence and how this can affect the practical work with children that have experienced violence and their parents. The questions that the study aimed to answer were which discourses can be distinguished within BUP and the women?s shelters against domestic violence and how they can affect the different agencies? view of the child?s need and well-being.