The aim of the thesis is to explore socially shared ideas about mental illness in everyday contexts. Drawing on social representation theory, organizations for users of mental health services and self-help groups are regarded as communities where social knowledge is constructed that makes intersubjective understanding of illness experiences possible. In order to investigate such knowledge as a resource in joint construction of meaning, a theoretical model is introduced where a distinction is made between a discursive level of situated ‘representational work’ and an underlying level of sociocultural resources. A focus group study was carried out with 27 participants who label their health problems as anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder, and were members of service user organizations. The focus group conversations were analysed with regard to thematic, interactional and discursive features to answer the questions: 1) how is mental illness represented, 2) how is the mentally ill person represented, and 3) how are others’ views on mental illness represented. The results show how mental illness is represented as a complex phenomenon that is contextualised to a number of frames of reference. Further, the analysis identified different types of resources that are utilized in representational work: local knowledge of the communities, medical concepts, different explanatory models, narrative structures, metaphors and conceptual dichotomies. It also revealed dialogical properties of the representational work that have rhetorical functions for self-presentation as a team performance. The discussion suggests that widely shared resources are put to use in group- and situation-specific representational projects, and that representations that are produced in group discourse can be characterised as ‘polemical social representations’ that respond to a double stigma of mental illness in everyday life where mental illness is regarded as a sign of ‘weakness’ as well as ‘otherness’.

Requirements are features or attributes which we discover at the initial stage of building a product. Requirements describe the system functionality that satisfies customer needs. An incomplete and inconsistent requirement of the project leads to exceeding cost or devastating the project. So there should be a process for obtaining sufficient, accurate and refining requirements such a process is known as requirement elicitation. Software requirement elicitation process is regarded as one of the most important parts of software development. During this stage it is decided precisely what should be built. There are many requirements elicitation techniques however selecting the appropriate technique according to the nature of the project is important for the successful development of the project. Traditional software development and agile approaches to requirements elicitation are suitable in their own context. With agile approaches a high-level, low formal form of requirement specification is produced and the team is fully prepared to respond unavoidable changes in these requirements. On the other hand in traditional approach project could be done more satisfactory with a plan driven well documented specification. Agile processes introduced their most broadly applicable technique with user stories to express the requirements of the project. A user story is a simple and short written description of desired functionality from the perspective of user or owner. User stories play an effective role on all time constrained projects and a good way to introducing a bit of agility to the projects. Personas can be used to fill the gap of user stories.

Health and eating healthy has become increasingly popular during the recent decades. On television, countless numbers of food commercials claim their products to be healthy, and fit good looking people propagate for the benefits of the products. At the same time, there are many studies showing these marketing messages to be highly misleading. Consequently, a great extent of existing research within this field treats the subject of consumers, children in particular, and television in relation to eating habits. However, in this study, we are not interested in confirming these facts; instead we focus on the attitudes that consumers have towards these marketing messages with underlying health claims shown in TV commercials. Today, many new types of communication channels exist, nevertheless, watching TV is an increasing activity, especially among young consumers. It was found that research including young adult consumers was scarce, why the segment of university students belonging to the generation Y was chosen for this study. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the attitudes that Swedish generation Y university students have towards TV commercials with underlying health claims. The aim is also to investigate why these consumers react to the commercials the way they do. In this thesis both a quantitative and a qualitative method was used, where the qualitative method was the most dominating. Thus, it can be considered a mixed methods approach. However, the quantitative part is dominating. For the empirical study we conducted tests where a number of persons in focus groups were exposed to different TV commercials, all with an underlying health claim. The respondents answered an in-group questionnaire and thereafter during the group discussion they were asked to describe their reactions to the TV commercials. Finally, the respondents were also asked what factors they believed important to them when they consider buying a product. The Swedish generation Y university students presented a number of attitudes towards the chosen television commercials. The students did recognize the underlying health claims and furthermore indicated other factors noticed within the commercials. Also, we could see that factors such as memory, unconscious influence as well as positioning of thecommercials had an influence on the attitudes. The results also specified that factors influencing these consumers in their purchasing decision, except the TV commercial itself, were; whether they had bought the product before, what family and friends used and recommended, as well as price and quality. The above features also had an influence on how these consumers reacted to the marketing messages. The study shows that the model of the emotional process by Holbrook and O‟Shaughnessy (1984) could be followed. We furthermore built on Bagozzi et al.‟s (1999) classification of advertisements by introducing the multi message ad. To conclude, it can be stated that factors influencing these consumers‟ attitudes of TV commercials with underlying health claims had different aspects and explanations, although common patterns could be seen. / Hälsa och att äta hälsosamt har blivit alltmer populärt under de senaste decennierna. På tv hävdar ett oräkneligt antal reklaminslag för matprodukter hur hälsosamma de är och vältränade, snygga människor propagerar för fördelarna med produkterna. Samtidigt finns det många studier som visar att dessa reklambudskap är vilseledande. Följaktligen handlar en stor del av forskningen i ämnet om sambandet mellan konsumenter - i synnerhet barn, och TV i relation till matvanor. I denna studie är vi inte intresserade av att bekräfta dessa fakta, utan fokus är istället inriktat på hur tittarna tolkar reklambudskap med underliggande hälsopåståenden. Idag finns många nya typer av kommunikationskanaler, men trots det ökar TV-tittandet, i synnerhet bland unga konsumenter. Forskning kring generation Y och deras syn på TV-reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap är hittills begränsad. Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera de attityder som svenska universitetsstudenter tillhörande generation Y har gentemot TV reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap. Syftet är också att undersöka varför dessa konsumenter tolkar reklamen som de gör. I rapporten användes både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder, där den kvalitativa var mest dominerande. Man kan därför säga att en blandad metod användes för att få fram bästa resultat. För den empiriska studien gjordes ett test där ett antal personer i fyra fokus grupper fick se olika TV-reklaminslag, alla med ett underliggande hälsobudskap. Gruppmedlemmarna fick individuellt svara på ett antal frågor ur ett formulär och därefter i gruppen diskutera sina reaktioner på reklaminslagen. Hur dessa påverkade dem och vad de anser som viktigt när de själva ska köpa en produkt var andra frågor som diskuterades. Det visade sig att reklaminslagen uppfattades på olika sätt av studenterna i fokus grupperna. De identifierade de underliggande hälsobudskapen i reklamerna och även andra uppfattningar om reklambudskapen kunde utläsas. Ur resultaten kan utläsas att faktorer såsom minne, undermedvetet inflytande och även reklaminslagens position i förhållande till varandra var av vikt för hur de uppfattades. Resultatet visar också att studenterna påverkades av många fler faktorer än själva reklamen i sig, exempelvis huruvida de köpt produkten innan, vad familj och vänner använde och rekommenderade, samt pris och kvalité. Dessafaktorer påverkade även hur studenterna tolkade reklammeddelandena. Dessutom visar vi hur Holbrook och O‟Shaughnessy‟s (1984) Model of the Emotional Process, stämmer överens med resultaten i denna studie. Vi bygger även vidare på Bagozzi et al.‟s (1999) två klassificeringar av reklam och introducerar en tredje; multimeddelande-reklam. Sammanfattningsvis kan konstateras att många olika faktorer påverkade dessa konsumenters attityder gentemot TV-reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap. Trots det kunde ändå vissa gemensamma mönster utläsas.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2010. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

There is a perception that drug use is a serious and growing problem to be solved by medicine, social work and drug enforcement agencies. This thesis takes a critical standpoint again such populist views and interprets drug use as one of any number of normal activities that people engage. This qualitative research utilising a bricoleur ethnographic methodology focuses on the drug taking of non-treatment seeking illegal drug users. The data reveals that they manage several social identities and the potential stigma of being discovered as an illicit user of illegal drugs utilising several strategies to remain intentionally unseen. The thesis explores how and in what way socially competent drug users differ from visible treatment seeking drug users. In order to develop this understanding, several gatekeepers were identified and within their social networks the participants were recruited into this research. The participants (n=24) were recruited from a wide range of age groups (21-52) and geographical locations within Scotland. One to one interviews, a focus group, and several pair bonded partners were interviewed together providing rich sources of data. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically from a social constructionist perspective. The findings illuminate the ways in which the intentionally unseen identify and manage risks from drugs, drugs policy and the potential shame and stigma were their hidden social worlds revealed. The practical implications of the results of this thesis are explored and recommendations for future research are discussed.

This study primarily investigates the conceptions of democracy held by young Swedes: What conceptions can be found? How are these conceptions similar to and different from each other? My main intention is to present nuanced pictures of different ways of viewing and of arguing for and against democracy. Some attention is also paid to possible differences between different youth groups, in terms of age, gender, and socioeconomic background. In addition, I will relate the investigation to research concerning school and the socialisation that is supposed to take place there. What concepts of democracy do Swedish schools seem to inculcate in students? Theoretical discussions of democracy serve as the framework of the study, and throughout the work democracy is regarded as an ambiguous concept. I have designed an analytical tool by depicting the discussions of democratic theory from three perspectives. The first concerns what democracy is and how the rule of the people should be designed. The second deals with the justifications for democracy, and why it is or is not to be preferred. The third perspective focuses on some crucial matters in discussions of democracy. The empirical material analyzed consists of ten focus group interviews with students in two age categories: 14–15 and 18–19 years old. The groups were composed so that the members would include both genders and a range of socio-economic backgrounds. The main idea of focus group interviews is to take advantage of group-interaction dynamics. Opinions are often formed in interaction with other people, and since consideration and reflection are central concerns of this thesis, focus group interviews are thus very suitable. The findings indicate that there is a dominant understanding of democracy. The young people interviewed emphasize that democracy means that everybody has a right to participate in decision making, that, for example, universal suffrage and freedom of speech are necessary features and that democracy in practice connotes an elite/electoral democracy (at the national level) with politicians as the real power holders. Although some features of Sweden’s existing democracy are widely criticized, democracy as a fundamental concept is celebrated. The main justification for this support is that democracy includes everybody. A view of everybody’s equal value is implicit. The critical matters highlighted concern human nature in relation to democratic requirements, how to handle extremist political movements, and the limited possibilities and unequal opportunities for people to participate in the existing democracy. Within this overall picture, somewhat different conceptions can also be detected. Two themes are particularly prominent in the discussions. Without overtly mentioning the word, the young people interviewed strongly emphasize the concept of equality. One line of discussion concerns the participants’ own experiences of being subordinate to adults, another the concept that equality presupposes equal opportunities to influence society. Democracy is also considered to be a human matter. Notably,when speaking of equality and freedom, the interviewees rarely mention these words directly. Mention of political institutions is also lacking from the discussions. Some of the findings can be regarded as reflecting the conceptions of democracy manifested in and passed on by schools. The study may also provide some guidance concerning how to approach social and political issues in the school.

När den svenska klimatdebatten intensifierades under 2000-talets första decennium tilldelades allmänheten en särskild roll. I den mediala och politiska debatten verkade lösningen på miljöproblemen intimt förknippad med individers livsstilar. I den här avhandlingen betraktas det synsättet som del av en pågående individualisering av miljöansvar. Med en poststrukturalistisk feministisk utgångspunkt hanteras det individualiserade miljöansvaret som en specifik diskurs. Diskursen beskriver individer som de centrala aktörerna som ska motverka miljöproblemen. Hur individer förhåller sig till rimligheten i en sådan ansvarsfördelning eller förstår innebörden av ett sådant ansvar är emellertid oklart. Syftet med avhandlingen är att utforska hur individer begripliggör och förhandlar diskursen om individuellt miljöansvar i gruppsamtal. För att förstå hur individer kan positionera sig i relation till diskursen analyseras tolv fokusgruppsamtal med personer som befinner sig i olika livssituationer och har olika erfarenheter av miljöfrågor och resande. Samtalsdeltagarnas förhandlingar av diskursens innebörd och relevans analyseras. Avhandlingen undersöker vilka andra diskurser som stödjer, konkurrerar med eller utgör motdiskurser till den individualiserade miljödiskursen. Därmed framgår hur individer kan införliva eller göra motstånd mot miljödiskursens verklighetsbeskrivning. I avhandlingen undersöks även vilka subjektspositioner som görs problematiska respektive oproblematiska i relation till ett individualiserat miljöansvar. Det bidrar med insikt om hur diskurser knutna till genus och klass kan positionera individer som i olika grad eller på olika sätt ansvariga för sin miljöpåverkan. Analysen visar hur individuellt miljöansvar förknippas med resursstarka och oberoende individer, individer som kan tänka sig att agera utan stöd från vare sig omgivningen eller stödjande samhällsstrukturer. Samtalsdeltagare i studien beskriver det individualiserade miljöansvaret som alltifrån moraliskt viktigt och positivt till orimligt och orealistiskt. Konkurrens mellan individer följer i diskursens spår. Både personer som tar på sig stort ansvar och de som inte förmår eller vill leva upp till idealet om att förändra sin livsstil pekas ut som problematiska. Samtidigt hamnar andra potentiella ansvarstagare och politiska arenor ofta i skymundan. Därtill riktar vissa samtalsdeltagare misstro mot samhällets förmåga att överhuvudtaget hantera miljöproblem, vilket tolkas som en aspekt av det individualiserade miljöansvarets dominans. / Over the last decade, the behaviors and lifestyles of the Swedish public have been depicted as having important environmental effects by both politicians and the media in Sweden. In this thesis, this is regarded as part of an ongoing tendency to individualize environmental responsibilities. Using a feminist poststructuralist point of departure, this individualized environmental responsibility is understood as a particular discourse that frames individuals as essential actors in handling environmental problems. How individuals position themselves in relation to the reasonableness and meaning of these responsibilities, however, is still an open question. The aim is to explore how individuals make scnse of and negotiate the discourse of individual environmental responsibility in group discussions. Twelve focus group conversations involving people in various life situations and with various expericnces of environmental issues and travelling are analyzed. The analysis investigates how the focus group participants position themselves in relation to the discoursc and, thus, negotiate its meaning and relevance. The analysis seeks to understand what other discourses support, compete with, or challenge the discourse of individual environmental responsibility in order to illuminate how individuals can incorporate or resist this particular discursive description of the world. The thesis also investigates what subject positions are made troubled or untroubled by the focus group participants, which reveals how gender and dass discourses position individuals as in various ways or to various degrees responsible for their individual impact on the environment. The analysis suggests that the discourse of individual environmental responsibility privileges independent, self-governing individuals, that is, people who assume responsibility without demanding either societal or social support. Some focus group participants depict individual environmental responsibility as morally significant and beneficial, while others depict it as unrealistic and unacceptable. The discourse seems to engender competition between individuals. Both people acting as highly environmentally responsible and people acting as unable or unwilling to take environmental responsibility are framed as troubled individuals in the conversations. Concurrently, other potential environmentally responsible actors and political scenes are often neglected. The discourse of individual environmental responsibility dominates; for some focus group participants, this discourse leads toa lack of faith in societal ability to handle environmental problems.

The aim of this dissertation is to study learning through deliberative dialogue, the social climate of the classroom, and certain aspects of student participation in civic education in upper secondary schools, as well as aspects of deliberative didactics. It takes its theoretical point of departure in John Dewey’s texts on democracy and education. An additional perspective on the social and moral aspects of democratic life is provided by Axel Honneth’s studies on disrespect and a morality of recognition. An empirical study is presented in which students and teachers were interviewed in focus groups about their opinions and experiences, on the basis of the aim of the dissertation and the research questions addressed. The analysis reveals a potential to learn civics thorough dialogue and discussion. A dialogue with deliberative qualities is characterized as one with a clearly defined purpose and relevant knowledge content. In the course of such a dialogue, the participants apply and develop certain abilities, some of which are identified in the study. Regarding the social climate in the classroom, especially during learning through dialogue and discussion, several difficulties and problematic situations were mentioned in the focus group interviews. These were problems related to “disturbing silence” and “troubling speech”. Honneth’s theory of moral recognition is in such situations seen as a basis for teachers’ professional reflections and for deliberative dialogues involving teacher and students. Concerning student participation and the civic education classroom as a form of democratic community and a public sphere, both students and teachers interviewed spoke of a balancing act between many different interests, some of which are discussed with a focus on the formation of interests. Other aspects studied are how a sense of community can be created and how the private and individualistic meet the public and common in civic education. It is concluded that the civic education classroom, considered as a public sphere, can be an arena for deliberation and thus develop a sense of community and a deliberative competence for use in a wider citizenship perspective. In the final chapter it is concluded that deliberative didactics can be seen as a didactic dimension of reflexive cooperation. It is characterized as a reflexive approach whereby the teacher invites the students to deliberate on issues of subject content, ways of working, the social climate of the classroom, and different aspects of participation and common interests. It is also argued that the practical cooperation – the actions and their consequences – following from intersubjective speech are as important as the dialogue itself.

This research investigates the new psychological contract phenomenon in an organisational case study. The research question underpinning this study is - What are the core attributes of the new employment relationship? To investigate this research question, the researcher applied Noer's (1997) new employment relationship model to a disproportionate stratified sample of 19 participants from three organisational perspectives in an Australian-based international travel retail organisation, Flight Centre Limited, which specialises in the sale of discount international airfares. Data from a survey instrument were analysed using a "Multi-source Assessment" instrument. The data analysis method was used to create a schema to guide and inform a series of focus groups. The research findings validated Noer's five attributes of Flexible Employment, Customer-focus, Focus on Performance, Project-based Work and Human Spirit & Work. In addition, three other attributes of the new employment relationship emerged from the data, namely, Loyalty & Commitment, Learning & Development and Open Information. The research findings validate eight core attributes of the new employment relationship and therefore make a contribution to the expanding body of research in this field. The research approach also provides organisational practitioners with a unique consulting methodology to merge the changing needs and interests of individual and organisation.

Despite decades of research about educational interventions to correct parents' childhood fever management their knowledge remains poor and practices continue to be based on beliefs about harmful outcomes. The purpose of this thesis was to 1) identify Australian parents' fever management knowledge, attitudes, practices and methods of learning to manage fever and 2) undertake a theoretical exploration of the determinants of parents' intentions to reduce fever using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Two studies were undertaken: a qualitative study with 15 parents; and survey of 401 Queensland parents with a child aged between 6 months and 5 years. Parents determine childhood fever through behavioural changes they have learnt to associate with fever. Few were aware of the immunological beneficial effects associated with fever and most believed fever harmful causing febrile convulsions and brain damage. To prevent harm they monitored temperatures, used antipyretics, dressed children in light clothing and sponged them with tepid, cool or cold water. Despite believing antipyretics harmful most parents reduced temperatures of 38.3 degrees Celsius ± 0.6 degrees Celsius with antipyretics, alternating two antipyretics when fever was not reduced or returned. In addition to temperature reduction antipyretics were used to reduce distress or general unwellness and pain or discomfort. Multiple factors were used to determine antipyretic dosage including temperature, irritability and illness severity. Over one-third of parents had overdosed their child with too frequent antipyretic administration; more frequently with ibuprofen than paracetamol, 12:1. Fever management information was learnt from numerous sources. Doctors were the most frequently reported followed by personal experience. With the variety of information sources nearly half received conflicting information about how to manage fever increasing concerns and creating uncertainty about how to best care for their child. Despite this many believed they knew how to manage fever. Some parents' practices changed over time as a result of either positive or negative experiences with fever indicating more positive or negative attitudes toward fever. Positive experiences reduced antipyretic and medical service use; negative ones had the adverse effect with increase in antipyretic use including alternating antipyretics and double dosing with one antipyretic. Child medication behaviours also influenced attitudes and practice intentions. Parents of children who readily took antipyretics had more negative attitudes and intended to reduce their child's next fever with antipyretics. Negative attitudes were a significant determinant of fever management intentions. Parents' practices were strongly influenced by their perception that doctors and partners expected them to reduce fever. This expectation from partners is understandable; from doctors it is not and indicates doctors' propensity to recommend reducing fever. There is an urgent need to identify doctors' fever management beliefs and rationales for practice recommendations. Parents also learn to manage fever from nurses and pharmacists; their beliefs and management rationales must also be determined and addressed. There is an urgent need to educate parents about evidence-based fever management and reduce their unnecessary antipyretic use. They must be encouraged to delay antipyretic administration using them to reduce pain rather than fever. Findings from this thesis have identified the determinants of parents' intentions to reduce fever; negative attitudes and normative influences and positive child medication behaviours. Future studies should examine the efficiency and cost effectiveness of fever management educational programs for parents using different presentation methods in multiple settings.