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Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Women and their bodies are at the very centre of a prevailing cultural obsession regarding strict standards of body weight, shape and image. The pressure to achieve unattainable body-beautiful standards has given rise to women having a negative relationship with their bodies. This preoccupation with body image has resulted in an increasing sense of body dissatisfaction, chronic dieting and anxieties associated with self-worth and appearance. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship a group of female participants have with their bodies. The major thrusts of this study are: to explore on a deeper level how they make personal meaning of the concepts of body and body image within their own lives. To explore the way in which women understand their broader social context, as playing a role, in relation to their perceptions and attitudes of their bodies. In this respect, a closer examination of their awareness of the more complex gender issues, will be undertaken, by means of the emerging discourses within the research process. Whilst this study generally locates itself within a social constructionist understanding of body image, it actively draws from feminist theories. The literature review outlines empirical, feminist and social constructionist approaches to body image and explores the social constructionist approach more broadly. It utilises discourse analysis and therefore positions itself within a qualitative paradigm. Three one-and-a-half-hour focus groups were conducted with eight women who are psychology honours students. A discourse analysis was carried out on the transcriptions of the three focus groups. The findings revealed that the participants were aware of the way in which the wider cultural context impacted on their perceptions and attitudes regarding their bodies. They understood the way in which body image is socially constructed and specific to the current cultural context. They identified the current body ideal (norm), to be waif like and very slender. Despite this understanding of the body ideal as socially constructed, they continued on a personal level to evaluate themselves against the body ideal, giving rise to personal feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction.

Bakgrund: Minskat antal slutenvårdsplatser och tidiga utskrivningar har lett till att fler patienter behöver fortsatt vård i hemmet. Tidigare forskning visar att region- och kommunsjuksköterskor upplever att de arbetar i olika världar utan förståelse för varandra och att det brister i kommunikations- och informationsöverföringen vilket kan leda till vårdskador, risk för återinläggning och även död. Syfte: Att beskriva slutenvårdssjuksköterskors och kommunsjuksköterskors erfarenheter av patientöverföring från kirurgisk slutenvård till hemsjukvård hos patienter med ett fortsatt vårdbehov i hemmet. Design: Kvalitativa fokusgruppsintervjuer enligt Krueger och Casey. Metod: Semistrukturerade fokusgruppsintervjuer med sju sjuksköterskor från en akutkirurgisk slutenvårdsavdelning och sju sjuksköterskor från hemsjukvården i två kommuner i Mellansverige. Resultat: Studien visar att det är stora skillnader mellan slutenvården och kommunsjukvården när det gäller resurser och förutsättningar för att vårda patienterna. Bristande kommunikation och informationsöverföring gör vården svårjobbad ute i kommunerna som saknar tillgång till patientjournaler, material och läkemedel. Konklusion: Sjuksköterskorna har ett behov av insikt i varandras arbetskontext och tydliga och gemensamma rutiner för patientöverföringen. Bättre teamwork för alla involverade professioner med gemensamma mål och strukturerade metoder för kommunikation. Tillgång till korttidsplatser skulle göra vården och överföringarna smidigare och säkrare. / Background: Reduced number of inpatient care places and early discharges have led to more patients needing to continue care at home. Previous research shows that regional and municipal nurses experience that they work in different worlds without understanding each other and that shortcomings in communication and information transmission can lead to injuries, risk of readmission and even death. Aim: To describe hospital nurses and home care nurses experiences of transitional care of patients in need of surgical care. Design: A qualitative focus group study. Method: Semistructured focus groups interviews with seven hospital nurses and seven nurses from two municipalities in the middle of Sweden. Result: The study shows that there are large differences between inpatient care and municipal health care in terms of resources and conditions for caring for patients. Lack of communication and information transfer makes healthcare difficult to work in the municipalities that lack the access to patient records, materials and medicines. Conclusion: The nurses have a need for insight into each others work context and clear routines for patient transfers. Better teamwork for all involved professions with common goals and structured methods of communication. Access to short-term places would make care and transfers smoother and more secure.

The diploma thesis deals with the obstacles to self-evaluation of primary and secondary school teachers. The aim of the diploma thesis was to find out whether there are any subjectively perceived obstacles that could prevent primary and secondary school teachers in the process of self-evaluation of their working performance. Next aim was to describe such obstacles, find out where they come from and propose measures in order to remove them. The theoretical part is based on the study of professional literature and other available sources. It introduces the basic concepts of the issue, describes the profession of a teacher and shows how self-evaluation is anchored in our legislation. From the point of view of the need for a detailed insight into the issue, qualitatively oriented research and the focus group method have been chosen. The analysis of the obtained data is inspired by the method of grounded theory. The obtained data were first coded and then isolated into categories. Each of the categories has been divided into subcategories for the sake of greater clarity. Through the analysis the four categories were created: the context of the profession, barriers on the teacher's side, lack of support and specific barriers. The category context of the profession includes subcategories such as lack of...

State funded preschool programs are recent phenomena in the United States and the state of Tennessee. The intent of the researcher was to explore the implementation of the preschool program in the Greene County Schools system and to develop a better understanding of the effects of this process at the classroom level. This study may provide significant information for other pre-k programs in the state of Tennessee or nationwide programs in partnership with Head Start. The preschool program in the Greene County Schools system consisted of 16 classes with nine of the classes in partnership with Head Start and one class in partnership with a community child care center. Data were collected from the transcripts of three focus groups, documents, and classroom observations. The constant comparative analysis method was used to analyze the data (Glaser, 2004; Merriam, 1998; Thorne, 2000). Triangulation of the data resulted in the identification of several supports and barriers to teaching and learning in the pre-k classrooms. Supports identified were the curriculum, the use of effective teaching strategies, specific teacher characteristics, specific rules and regulations, services provided by Head Start, and adequate program funding. Participants defined barriers to teaching and learning in the pre-k classroom as specific rules and regulations, teacher isolation by location in the school, teacher isolation from peers, the need for knowledge of early childhood education and regulations of the program, and specific components of the Head Start partnership. The recommendations of this study are to continue the partnership that allows for a powerful combination of the organizational resources between the Greene County Schools Pre-K Program and the Upper East Tennessee Human Development Agency (UETHDA) Head Start to continue. The use of an outside ECERS-R evaluator and monthly Head Start classroom evaluations should be discontinued. New practices to implement are an attendance policy for the pre-k classrooms and regularly scheduled collaboration meetings with administrators of both organizations and classroom personnel. Other districts considering similar programs should identify financial resources and use a collaborative process in the development and maintenance of the pre-k program.

This study utilized focus groups to assess the perceived needs and interests for marriage education among single and married Latino individuals residing in Utah County, Utah as well as the identification of common themes and differences for this population. Male and female groups at various points in the marital developmental life stage were studied including high school students (15-18 years of age), single never married young adults (19-30 years of age), committed (engaged or cohabiting) adults, married persons recently transitioning to parenting, and married people with children. The sample consisted of 10 groups, 5 female and 5 male. In addition, a professional group consisting of professionals who are in daily contact with the Latino population also participated (N=12). A total of 53 Latino individuals and 12 professionals were interviewed in the focus groups. The participants were asked 14 open-ended questions to assess various elements of marriage education including content, cost, convenient locations, sources of information, perceived barriers to getting services as well as strategies on how to get people involved in marriage education programs. The data from the focus groups were analyzed using inductive qualitative methods. The findings showed that most females were concerned about domestic violence and infidelity as topics in marriage education while males were more concerned about having financial stability, improving communication skills and increase their parenting skills. These results support the importance of conducting focus groups as a way to assess marriage education needs and interests of the Latino population. Limitations for future research are discussed, implications for marriage education programming for Latino couples as well as implications for marriage and family therapists.

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<p>ABSTRACT</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>A new group of medically fragile young adults with conditions such as Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is graduating from pediatric palliative care programs with limited expectations to live beyond early adulthood, and there are very limited comparable adult health and social services to support their complex needs. When these young adults leave supportive pediatric services, they are poorly served by adult services that are not prepared to accommodate to their needs. Accessing this population is difficult because of the complexity of the individuals’ conditions, their limited mobility to travel and commit to specific interview times, and divergent communication abilities due to weakness, that lead to the use of computer mediated voice recognition, typing or speech.</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>This case study is among the first research articles to describe the experiences of young adults with pediatric life threatening conditions (pedLTC) who have transitioned from pediatric to adult services. Further, to engage this population of medically fragile participants in the research process, an innovative online data collection method, a bulletin board focus group (BBFG), was utilized.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A descriptive single case study design with embedded units was selected to examine the complexity of the transition process for young adults with pedLTC. Face-to-face interviews or bulletin board focus groups were conducted with 10 young adults with pedLTC and 4 expert consultants. Reviews of six documents were also conducted. Conventional and directed qualitative content analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts and documents; and the existing literature and clinical expert opinions were used to triangulate, develop and confirm final interpretations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After nearly a decade of effort toward implementing programs, protocols and policies to improve transition from pediatric to adult care, very limited progress in new services has been made. Current resources in the adult health, education, and social service systems are inadequate to meet the needs of young adults with pedLTC. Some of the participants in this study demonstrated a striking capacity to navigate through system barriers, whereas others “got stuck” and were delayed and thwarted from pursuing their ambitions. Bulletin board focus groups facilitated an innovative means to reach medically fragile populations and offered creative and richly contextual data.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>System resources are imperative to provide the necessary resources such as counselling and mental health services, support for educational and vocational opportunities, development of community programs, and socioeconomic improvement. Connectedness across levels of practice and policy, and education, health and social systems is important to create synergistic effects of intervention. Young adult hospice programs can provide the resilience lifelines required to counter the risks associated with declining health, and decreasing support from health, social and educational services to support young adults with pedLTC to pursue their ambitions.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)