This thesis proceeds from the Toni Morrison's novel Sula and it mainly concentrates on a mutual relationship between an individual and society as reflected in the book. It consists of two main parts. The first one describes some aspects of the African-American history; the second one focuses on the individual characters in Sula and analyzes the Bottom society, charted against principles of US society in general. Individuality as the basic point of this thesis is shown as the moving element in the development of the society that also gives the direction of that development. Relationship between an individual and society is considered dialectic - on one hand, particular individuals participate in the development of the society, destroy stereotypes and violate dogmas; on the other hand, these people are often subdued and limited for the sake of the proper functioning of the society. Primary basis of this work is an assumption of the necessity of individual driving elements in the society for its (social) ceaseless development and subjectivism as the basic point of view on human existence. Key words: human being, gender, race, society, subjectivism, womanism.

O presente estudo visou investigar as estratégias interativas, de manipulação de impressões e de gerenciamento de identidades vigentes no ambiente de sociabilidade de Second Life, um mundo virtual determinado. Nele, indivíduos munem-se de inúmeras ferramentas para administrar a exposição de informações pessoais, o que proporcionaria elevado controle sobre a impressão causada nos demais. A pesquisa compôs-se de uma observação participante em um primeiro momento e posteriores entrevistas com adeptos, selecionados a partir de uma metodologia do tipo bola-de-neve. A análise das regras e táticas de sociabilidade do ambiente em questão deu-se à luz de interpretações sociológicas de Erving Goffman, Georg Simmel e, em menor medida, Pierre Bourdieu. Por meio delas, conceitos como o de manipulação de impressões, cuidado com a face, sociabilidade e coquetismo foram aplicados e adaptados para a compreensão do fenômeno. Após a etapa exploratória, buscou-se situar os valores e mecanismos sociais percebidos em Second Life com relação à sociedade contemporânea fora das telas do computador, conforme apreendida por proeminentes autores atuais como Ulrich Beck, Mike Featherstone e Kenneth Gergen. A partir deles, aplicou-se a visão da liberdade precária, a noção de sociedade de consumo e suas implicações para o gerenciamento de identidades, além da suposta situação de saturação do self notada por Gergen (1991) como dominante em sociedades ocidentais do fim do século passado. Como objetivo norteador do estudo, buscou-se questionar a validade da ideia, propagada por desenvolvedores e adeptos desse mundo virtual, que o percebe como uma alternativa significativa às formas de existência típicas das sociedades ocidentais contemporâneas. Tal abordagem, nem sempre exposta clara e diretamente pelos próprios desenvolvedores desse programa de computador, está implícita em seu próprio título segunda vida. Em suma, após uma exploração das regras de sociabilidade típicas do ambiente em questão, contesta-se até que ponto é possível confirmar a existência da produção de identidades e realização plena de liberdade quando da imersão dos indivíduos em mundos virtuais / This study aimed to investigate the interactive strategies, manipulation of impressions and identity management prevailing in the sociability environment of Second Life, a determined virtual world. In it, individuals are provided with several tools to manage the exposure of personal information, which would allow high control over the impressions made by one user on others. The research consisted of participant observation at first and later interviews with users, selected from a methodology such as \"snow-ball.\" The analysis of rules and tactics of social environment in question took place in the light of sociological interpretations of Erving Goffman, Georg Simmel, and Pierre Bourdieu to a smaller extent. Through them, concepts such as \"management of impressions\", \"facework,\" \"sociability\" and \"flirting\" were applied and adapted to the understanding of the phenomenon. After the exploratory stage, we sought to place the perceived values and social mechanisms in Second Life in relation to the contemporary society out of computer screens, as perceived by prominent present authors like Ulrich Beck, Kenneth Gergen and Mike Featherstone. Important ideas were applied, like the vision of \"precarious freedom,\" the notion of \"consumer society\" and its implications for identity management, and the supposed state of \"saturation of the self\" noted by Gergen (1991) as dominant in Western societies in the end of the last century. As a guiding objective of the study, we sought to question the validity of the idea, propagated by developers and adepts of this virtual world, that perceives it as a meaningful alternative to the typical ways of living of contemporary Western societies. Such approach, not always clear and exposed directly by the developers of this computer program, is implicit in its very title - \"second life\". In short, after an exploration of the typical rules of sociability of the environment in question, it is disputed how far it is possible to confirm the production of identities and full realization of freedom when individuals are immersed in virtual worlds.

John Rawls's theory of justice, which he calls "justice as fairness," has proven to be most influential with regard to the course of contemporary political theory. In both of Rawls's books, A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, his aim was to present a theoretically-compelling defense of deontological liberalism, and to present a set of principles by which to fairly order a just society. While Rawls's project has attracted a fair number of proponents over the years, it has also been a popular target for liberal and nonliberal critics alike. A recurrent theme among these criticisms has been an objection with Rawls's conception of the self as presented in A Theory of Justice. This thesis will focus on feminists' criticisms of Rawls's conception of persons. In general, feminists contend that Rawlsian liberalism suffers a structural gender bias resulting from Rawls's conception of the self. Rawls's notion of the self, feminists argue, rests on male or masculine attributes. I will demonstrate in the course of this thesis that feminists' charges fail on two accounts. First, feminists do not present an accurate reading of Rawls's conception of persons in either A Theory of Justice or Political Liberalism. Second, in reviewing feminist approaches to gendering the self (which is integral to their critique), it will be shown that feminists are unable to gender the self in a theoretically defensible manner. Thus, feminists cannot make the claim that the Rawlsian self is a male or masculine concept. It follows from these twin defects that feminist contentions fail to prove that Rawls's theory is gender biased.

Bakgrund: Människor har olika preferenser och därför triggas vi igång av olika saker. En belöning som motiverar en person kan däremot vara demotiverande för andra. Därför skulle ett helt individuellt belöningssystem kunna vara det ultimata sättet att motivera till prestation.   Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka varför företag inte har ett belöningssystem som är helt individualiserat, vilket skulle kunna anses vara idealet. Vi vill få fram de faktorer som gör att företagen har ett belöningssystem som är mer kollektivt än individuellt. Uppsatsens metod: För att genomföra undersökningen har vi valt att göra intervjuer på tre olika företag. Uppsatsen kommer att baseras på en hermeneutisk vetenskapsteori och vi har valt att tillämpa en deduktiv metodansats.   Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorier om motivation, belöningssystem samt olika former av belöningar och vår modell som visar vilka faktorer som kan påverka graden av individualitet i belöningssystem.   Empirisk metod: För att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar graden av individualitet i ett belöningssystem har vi valt att göra en jämförande fallstudie i vår undersökningsprocess. Därmed använder vi oss av en kvalitativ metod.   Slutsatser: Genom vår undersökning har vi kommit fram till att merparten av faktorerna i vår modell från teorikapitlet påverkar graden av individualitet i belöningssystem. Endast hypotesen om kultur förkastades. / Background: People have different preferences and therefore are we triggered by different things. A reward that justifies one person can, however, be demotivating for others. Therefore, an entirely individual reward system would be the ultimate way to motivate performance. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine why firms do not have a reward system that is completely individual, which could be considered as the ideal. We want to obtain the factors that enable firms to have a reward system that is more collective than individual. Thesis method: In order to carry out the study, we have chosen to do interviews at three different companies. The essay is based on a hermeneutic theory of science and we have chosen to apply a deductive method approach.   Theory: The theoretical framework consists of theories of motivation, reward system and different forms of rewards and our model showing the factors that may influence the degree of individuality in the reward system.   Empirical method: To investigate factors that affect the degree of individuality in a reward system, we have chosen to make a comparative case study in our investigation process. Thus, we use a qualitative approach.   Conclusions: Through our research, we found that most of the factors in our model from the theory chapter affect the degree of individuality in the reward system. Only the hypothesis of culture was rejected.

Certain contemporary philosophers (e.g. Dainton, 2008; Strawson, 1999; Foster, 2008) have thought that the first-person, qualitative aspect of conscious experience should be taken seriously when it comes to our thinking about personal identity through time. These philosophers have thus argued that experiential continuity is essential to a person’s ability to persist identically through time. This is what I will call ‘the phenomenological theory’. In this thesis I describe the phenomenological theory and then discuss three problems that have plagued the history of this theory: the bridge problem, the token problem, and the ontological problem. I will argue that a recent version of the phenomenological theory proposed by Barry Dainton and Timothy Bayne (2005) provides satisfactory answers to two of these problems, but not the third. I will conclude this thesis by proposing a superior version of the phenomenological theory—one that can handle all three problems.

Syfte: Syftet med den här kandidatuppsatsen är att undersöka hur medarbetare ser på begreppet medarbetarskap. Undersökningen syftar också till att undersöka hur personer inom organisationer förhåller sig till individualister och karriärister och tror medarbetarna att organisationerna kan upprätthålla en tydlig organisationskultur och främja ett starkt medarbetarskap med en självförverkligande arbetsstab? Metod: Data till studien är insamlad med hjälp av en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer har legat till grund för majoriteten av insamlingen Teoretisk referensram: Den teoretiska referensramen för denna studie består av teorier som behandlar medarbetarskap, empowerment, individualism, byråkrati och nyinstitutionell teori. Empiri: Empirin till studien har insamlats genom nio intervjuer med personer med olika befattningar i fem olika organisationer. Intervjupersonerna skiljer sig i ålder och utbildning. Slutsats: Synen på medarbetarskap är att det är en ledningsfråga och innebär att de anställda blir mer delaktiga i utformandet av arbetsuppgifterna. Synen är också att det är en social delaktighet på och utanför arbetsplatsen. En viss skepsis mot att medarbetarskap verkligen existerar finns och det liknas vid demokratur, en blandning av demokrati och diktatur. Synen på individualism är överhängande negativ och inget samband mellan individualister och karriärister står att finna. / Purpose: The aim of this paper is to study how employees view the concept co-workership (Scandinavian expression “medarbetarskap”). The paper also aims to examine how individuals in organizations relate to individualistic co-workers and careerists; can organizations maintain a clear organizational culture and promote a strong co-workership with a self-employment staff? Method: The data for this study is collected using a qualitative approach in which semi structured interviews formed the basis for the majority of the collection. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework for this study consists of theories that deal with co-workership, empowerment, individualism, bureaucracy and new institutional economic theory. Empiricism: The empirical data for this paper have been collected from nine interviews with people with different positions in fem different organizations. The interviewees differ in age and education. Conclusion: According to the opinion co-workership is manager’s responsibility to maintain and Co-workership means that the co-worker is participant developing their own tasks. The opinion is also that it means social participation in, and outside of, the place of work. There is a small amount of skepticism against co-workership’s existence and some compare it with the term democratorship, a mix of domcrazy and dictatorship. The opinion about individuality is impending negative and no correlation between individualistic people and careerists is seen.

There is a paucity of research that explores how people with Fibromyalgia (FMS) relate to themselves and others, with a particular focus on childhood experiences, mentalization and attachment theory. Ten people with FMS participated in semi-structured interviews, which explored the following areas: Important current relationships, experiences with others and childhood experiences of relationships. Stress and coping were also explored. Interview transcriptions were investigated using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003). The following three superordinate themes were identified: “The power of painful childhood experiences”, “the connection between stress and relating to others” and “interpersonal stress is wedded to illness”. Among the participants, childhood was characterised by abuse, illness, bereavement or parental discord. These early events related to various adult consequences in terms of how others and the self were related to. Mirroring childhood experiences, adult relations were often described as destructive. Interpersonal stress was wedded to illness in that others were perceived as invalidating or as ignorant of the suffering experienced. Illness tended to be described as leading to isolation and increased vulnerability to abuse. Literature pertaining to FMS, attachment and mentalization theory was useful in informing the interpretation. Limitations, clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Social identity theory maintains that individuals define themselves according to their social groups, which in turn impacts self-esteem. Valued social roles are assumed to influence identity and self-concept. Being a trainer represents a valued social role for people with learning disabilities (PLD) and research suggests it impacts identity. However, there is a paucity of empirical literature explicitly exploring this relationship in learning disabled trainers. Using narrative analysis, this study explored how being a trainer impacted the lives and identities of nine PLD. Being a trainer contributed to progression and stability in participants’ lives and they positioned themselves as trainers in different positive roles (e.g. go-getter, helper). This study highlights the value of the trainer role for PLD, suggests a role for clinical psychologists in contributing to the sustainability of training organisations, and highlights a need for further research employing standardised measures, longitudinal and comparative designs.

Section A is a review of the literature pertaining to positive environmental influences on sexual identity development amongst sexual minority (SM) adolescents. Extant research suggests SM adolescents are at risk of adjustment difficulties; there is a dearth of research regarding positive influences on development. Positive influences include micro-­system factors, such as friend and family affirmation, with limited understanding of macro-­system factors. Section B reports the research study, which took an ecological approach to investigating protective factors in the lives of sexual minority adolescents. It aimed to investigate affirming experiences, exploring whether sexual minority ‘affirming messages’ (AM) are experienced, the process of experiencing AM and their perceived effects. A mixed-method cross sectional design with three phases of qualitative and quantitative data collection was implemented. Phases included a 12 participant focus group, an online survey completed by 107 participants and respondent validation with five participants. Participants reported AM were experienced, but were not accessible enough. AM were less accessible when first considering sexual identity, a time of negative feelings. Participants were actively engaged in seeking AM, most commonly on-line and from friends and least commonly from school. The importance of role models, similar others and self-acceptance was recognised. Results suggested that although AM are not considered accessible enough, they have a positive impact. This has implications for provision of AM within educational settings and the media.

Šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje vykstančios permainos, psichinė įtampa kaupiasi ir atsispindi šeimose, keičiasi jų gyvenimas, buitis. Šeimos susiduria su naujais, iki šiol nepatirtais ir sunkiai suvokiamais procesais bei problemomis. Keičiantis sąlygoms, vyksta pokyčiai ir šeimų vertybinėse orientacijose. Sparčiai nyksta būdingi tradiciniai šeimos bruožai. Šeima yra pirmoji socialinė grupė, su kuria vaikas labai glaudžiai susijęs. Pirmiausia šeima nuo pat kūdikystės yra pagrindinis tarpininkas tarp visuomenės bei jos kultūros ir vaiko. Čia vaikas girdi, kas vyksta aplink jį, čia vertinami ir jautriai išgyvenami gyvenimo įvykiai, o tam nelieka abejingas ir pats vaikas. Skyrybos vaikams - ne vienadienis įvykis, o ilgas procesas, kuris prasideda dar prieš oficialią ištuoką ir tęsiasi ilgą laiką. Vaikai kenčia dėl tėvų konfliktų, žeidžiama jų psichika, kuri nespėja prisitaikyti prie nervinės įtampos šeimoje. Tėvams išsiskyrus, vaiko psichikoje prasideda negrįžtamas procesas - savo vertės sumažėjimas. Vaikui reikalinga abiejų tėvų meilė, todėl jis savo elgesiu protestuoja prieš savavališkus tėvų jausmus ir santykius. Skyrybos keičia ne tik įprastas socialines sąlygas, bet dažnai iki pat gelmių sukrečia vaiko psichiką. 3-10 metų vaikų pagrindiniai raidos principai yra tokie, kad jie pradeda kurti santykius su bendraamžiais ir kitais bendruomenės nariais, vystosi moralinė raida, formuojasi empatija, vaikai turi didesnes galimybes, valdant vidinius impulsus, formuojasi savęs suvokimas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Changes and psychical stress happening in the modern society concentrate and reflect in families. Families are confronted with new, till now inexperienced and hardly realized processes and problems. Also changes happen in families’ value orientation by changing conditions. Traditional family features disappear expeditiously. Family is the first social group, which child is closely connected with. Firstly, family from the infancy is the main intermediate between society and its culture, and a child. Here a child hears what is happening around him/her. Here life events are judged and experienced sensitively. So and a child is not apathetic to all this. Divorce for children is not a one day event but a long process, which starts before the official divorce and lasts for a long time. Children suffer parents’ conflicts when their mind which is not in time to adjust to nervous strain in a family is injured. When parents brake up, an irreversible process starts in a child’s mind that is called his /her value reduction. A child needs the love from both parents; therefore, he/she protests by his/her behavior against high-handed parents’ feelings and rapport. Divorce changes not only everyday social conditions but also shocks deeply a child’s mind. The main development principles of children from 3 to 10 years are such that children start creating relations with other children of the same age; moral development, empathy and self perception as a self capable and competent individual... [to full text]