The purpose of this examination was to make a qualitative study focusing on children's influence from a gender perspective. The study is based on interviews. We wanted to investigate teachers' perception of children's influence in the preschool. Earlier research on children´s influence and gender has also helped us in the conclusion of this examination. The survey consists of ten interviews with teachers of varied work experience in the preschool. We also chose to interview teachers in other positions, since this is often the case in preschools today. From the result we can see that there are different levels of skill and awareness regarding the topic of children's influence from a gender perspective. Our researches shown that preschools are at different stages in their work on children's interests and that it is not always certain that girls and boys have the same amount of influence during their days at preschool. We concluded that those who claimed to work consciously with equality were more familiar with the subject, and that they had many thoughts about it. Another aspect that proved to be important was the impact of the learning environment to the children´s opportunity to affect their everyday lives. In conclusion, all the teachers said that children's influence is an important part of children's daily life at preschool as it is also a way to teach children democracy, consideration and respect for their environment.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka pengarnas möjliga negativa påverkan på studenter och hur studenter resonerar om pengarnas värde i vardagen. Empiriskt behandlar uppsatsen varför studenter skulle kunna försöka lura den statliga myndigheten Centrala studiestödsnämnden (CSN) på låne- och studiebidrag. Två fokusgruppsintervjuer har gjorts för att samla in material. Intervjuerna har kodats enligt grounded theory-metoden. Resultaten visar att pengar har en stor inverkan på informanterna – både på ett negativt och positivt sätt. Studenternas beslut ifall de skulle kunna tänka sig att lura CSN beror på ens egna omständigheter och vilka kan påverka deras moraliska principer. / This study aims to investigate the possibility of a negative impact of money on students, and how they reason in relation to the value of money in everyday life. Empirically, the purpose deals with interviews concerning why students might defraud the government authority the Central Study Aid Council (CSN) in loans and grants for their own profit. Two qualitative focusgroup interviews were conducted to collect materials. These have been encoded according to grounded theory method. The results show that money has a huge impact on the informants – both in a negative and positive way. Students' decision to deceive CSN depends on their own circumstances and thereby changed their moral principles.

The purpose of this thesis has been to; based on interviews with four teachers in Stockholm city, get at picture of preschool teacher’s viewpoint on children’s influence in preschool. Research questions: How is the children`s influence looked upon by the teachers in preschool?, In what ways do children’s influence affect their learning, In what ways are the interviewed preschool teachers working with democracy in preschool? To carry out this thesis, I used the qualitative method. In the qualitative method, use is made of the interview method to collect empirical data with interviews. I interviewed four preschool teachers from three different preschools. This thesis is built upon John Dewey’s philosophical thinking as a theoretical base. The result of this thesis shows that all preschool teachers felt that the application of children’s influence in the daily activities, although complicated, is essential in their work. At the same time the opinion of the teachers varied a lot concerning to what extent the children shall take responsibility on deciding upon their activities. One teacher claimed that it is not possible to plan activities based on 19 children’s wishes and the other that she had to limit the influence of the children because it is the teacher’s obligation to lead the children to discover new activities, not just to continue with the old ones. By using children’s influence, considered another preschool teacher, the children expand their frames of reference which allow the kids to discover new areas to work with. All the teacher´s also agreed about the importance of letting the activities being built upon the children`s different interests.  Preschool teachers use children’s councils, planning with children or voting on what activities they should have in the pursuit of the children to take part of what democracy means.

Research suggests that the position of subsidiaries within the multinational corporation (MNC) network has been strengthened over time and as a result, the subsidiary’s ability to exert influence over decisions taken by headquarters and other MNC entities has improved. One of the drivers behind this changed corporate structure is the need of the MNC for innovation, which has lead MNC headquarters to recognize entrepreneurial activities at subsidiary level. In this paper, the connection between subsidiary entrepreneurship and subsidiary influence is examined and it is argued that internal traits held by subsidiaries, which promote entrepreneurial performance, can function as a resource that other entities within the MNC network become dependent upon. From this dependence, influence is received by the subsidiary holding this resource, in accordance to resource dependence theory. Hypotheses are formed and tested using data collected through 60 questionnaires completed by subsidiary managers. The analysis suggests that a quite large portion of the influence subsidiaries obtain can be explained by their internal entrepreneurial capabilities. Recommendations for future research are suggested.

While it has been long known that the behaviour of others can influence individual behaviour, norms (the views and behaviours of others) are not generally reported as strong motivators of physical activity. Using the theory of normative social behaviour as a guiding framework, the purpose of this research was to examine if descriptive norms (the perceived prevalence of others behaviour) would be more important in predicting activity than previously suspected. A secondary purpose was to extend this examination to another health behaviour, healthy eating. Three independent studies were conducted. The first two studies examined what individuals thought motivated their physical activity (Study 1) and eating (Study 2) as well as the relationship between descriptive norms and participants own activity behaviour and healthy eating intentions. Results revealed that, despite being rated by participants as less motivating, descriptive norms were stronger predictors of activity behaviour and healthy eating intentions than other well-established non-normative reasons. It also was found that descriptive norm perceptions about a group proposed to be high in group identity (i.e., friends) was most related to physical activity behaviour and healthy eating intentions. To extend these results, a third study manipulated normative and non-normative messages to examine effects on physical activity. Participants were grouped into one of four conditions (descriptive norm, health, appearance, and control) and received motivation-based email messages specific to their condition encouraging them to be active. It was hypothesized that participants in the descriptive norm condition would experience the greatest increase in physical activity but results did not support this hypothesis, as participants across all conditions significantly increased total physical activity after receiving the messages. A secondary hypothesis examining the focal nature of the targeted behaviours was supported in that responses to normative messages were greatest with the most focal behaviour (using the stairs). Taken together, the results of the first two studies provide preliminary evidence to suggest that the relationships between both descriptive norms and physical activity and descriptive norms and healthy eating may be going undetected. In light of the results of the third study, however, future studies are needed.

The research focuses on the role of top-down influences on selective attention across the attentional visual field. The attentional visual field is the subset of the visual field in which attentional processes take place. The size of the attentional visual field is relatively large compared to the areas considered by most empirical studies of visual attention to date. Three possible forms of top-down influence are examined: 1) the expectation of the size of the area in which the target is likely to occur; 2) the expectation of the direction in which the target is likely to occur; and 3) existing unconscious bias in the spatial distribution of attention. Results from Experiment 1 suggest that participants modify the size of the attended area according to their expectation of the location of the target. Experiment 2 demonstrates that focus of attention can be oriented toward the expected target direction. Experiment 3 reveals that, even when no conscious control is involved, the distribution of attention is biased toward certain areas. Theoretical considerations are discussed, including the introduction of a simple statistical model to assist in conceptualizing the modifications of the distribution of attention over the attentional visual field. Practical applications of the results are also discussed.

Although physical activity has been identified as important for children and adolescents health, a majority are not active enough to receive health benefits. Given that physical activity lapses have been identified in adolescents, and social influences have been related to physical activity, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to explore the social influences that occur following a lapse by using a social control framework. Three studies were conducted to examine whether physical activity lapses would be associated with parental use of social control (Study 1 and 2) as well as whether this use of different social control types would be associated with changes in behaviour (Study 2 and 3) and affect (Study 3). Results from Study 1 revealed that parents reported the use of three types of social control (i.e., positive, collaborative, and negative) following a hypothetical physical activity lapse. Results from Study 2 revealed that adolescents who experienced a lapse reported greater increases in the use of positive and collaborative social control if they had an active family. Changes in social control also were associated adolescents recovery from a lapse, with collaborative social control emerging as the strongest social control type. Results from the third study revealed that each of the three types of social control were associated with behaviour change, but in a different way. Behaviour change was associated with the use of collaborative social control, the need for congruence between preferences and use for positive social control, and the perceptions of negative social control as supportive. Perceived supportiveness for all tactics was related to affect. These results provide preliminary support for the suggestion that social control may be one framework to help explain the use of parental social influences following a lapse. Future directions and complementary theories are discussed.

Changes in work and family roles as more women are entering the work force prompt a re-examination of how couples make work and family decisions. Research confirms that influence is an important component of the decision-making process. Because of the recent changes in women's paid work roles, women may now use more influence strategies than when they were not in the paid work force in such large numbers. From a family decision-making perspective, investigations of the different influence strategies used in making work and family decisions have not occurred in past research. The purpose of this study was to investigate how couples make work and family decisions, examining the impact of gender role traditionality and influence strategies used in decision making. In addition, the association between influence strategies with marital satisfaction was investigated. The sample of this study consisted of 61 couples who had made a work and family decision in the past 6 months. A mail questionnaire was developed assessing the husbands' and wives' use of different influence strategies from Spiro (1983), their gender role traditionality, their satisfaction of the outcome of the decision, and marital satisfaction. The first research question addressed gender role traditionality and influence strategies. Pearson's correlations indicate that traditional wives were more likely to use reward\referent influence than nontraditional wives and that traditional husbands were more likely to use legitimate influence than nontraditional husbands. Also, the connection between gender role traditionality, influence strategies, and decision making satisfaction was investigated. Using hierarchial regression, decision outcome satisfaction accounted for 24 percent of the variance in wives' marital satisfaction. Furthermore, prediction of wives' marital satisfaction was improved 16 percent with the inclusion of influence strategies and gender role ideology to the model. Results for wives found their marital satisfaction to be greater if they used less emotional and legitimate influence but more reward\referent and impression management influences. A similar model was attempted on husband's marital satisfaction with decision making satisfaction, influence strategies, and gender role traditionality. This model accounted for 8 percent of the variance. These findings suggest that a relationship exists between gender role traditionality and the use of different influence strategies for both husbands and wives. For wives, decision making satisfaction, the use of different influence strategies, and gender role ideology all had an effect on their marital satisfaction. / Graduation date: 1991

The market for philanthropic donations in America has been thriving since the 1950s. 89 percent of U.S. households make annual monetary donations to charitable organizations, contributing to 20 percent of all revenues in the nonprofit sector. Majority of the factors contributing to this growth in donations can be divided into three general categories: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and marketing influence tactics. My thesis examines a plethora of past research to develop a comprehensive guide on the current theories of human behaviors as they pertain to charitable giving.

I want to focus on three specific “modes and orders” that Machiavelli wrote about in his Discourses on Livy and The Prince and examine and analyze the influence that the ancient city of Rome had on them. The three modes and orders are: the role that religion should play in governing a state, the kind of army a state should employ, and how to rule over a newly acquired territory.