Coworking is a shared office environment for independent workers, they offer extra service in contrast to what ordinary office-hotels normally do. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe what the essence of the phenomenon of coworking is, i.e. what characteristics make coworking perceived as coworking. This has been conducted through a phenomenological method called the EPP-method. Which makes it possible to find the essence of a phenomenon. This was done through analysis of transcribed interviews. The participants were asked to tell about their experiences of being members of a coworking place and about the interaction with other members. This provided an opportunity to answer questions about what and how individuals perceive about coworking and what meaning they attribute to their experiences. The result of the study was several essences of coworking: Coworkers, Coworking Manager, Professional Diversity, Small Business, Social Rooms and Flexible Workspace. The essences are meaning content that has been found in all seven transcriptions in the study material, ie. that the participants agreed that these points are crucial for one to perceive coworking. / Coworking är delade kontorsmiljöer för fristående arbetare, de erbjuder extra service utöver vad vanliga kontorshotell, där man bara hyr ett arbetsrum, gör. Studiens syfte var att undersöka och beskriva vad essensen av fenomenet coworking är, alltså vilka kännetecken som gör att coworking uppfattas som just coworking. Detta har undersökts med en fenomenologisk metod som heter EPP-metoden, vilken gör det möjligt att hitta just essensen av ett fenomen. Detta skedde genom analys av transkriberade intervjuer där deltagarna ombads berätta om sina upplevelser av att vara medlemmar på ett coworking-ställe och om interaktionen med andra medlemmar. Detta gav möjlighet att besvara frågor om vad och hur individerna uppfattar coworking samt vilken mening de tillskriver sina upplevelser. Resultatet blev sex essenser av coworking: Coworkers, Coworkingmanager, Yrkesmångfald, Småföretag, Sociala rum och Flexibel arbetsyta. Essenserna är meningsinnehåll som funnits i alla transkriptioner i studiens material, det vill säga att deltagarna varit överens om att dessa punkter är avgörande för att man ska uppfatta coworking. Essensen Coworkers visar på behovet av en kollegial samvaro inom kontexten coworking. Essensen Sociala rum handlar istället om den fysiska avgränsningen mellan områden som innefattar arbete och områden för sociala interaktioner. Coworkingmanager är en essens därför att den rollen påverkar huruvida deltagarna upplever coworking positivt eller negativt. Småföretag visade oss vikten av att det finns flera mindre företag på coworking-ställen och att detta leder till Yrkesmångfald som också är en essens av coworking. Avslutningsvis var Flexibel arbetsyta en framträdande essens därför att det är avgörande att medlemmarnas olika förväntningar på en fysisk arbetsmiljö tillmötesgås. / <p>2022-06-08</p>

In this dissertation, the author provides an account of his therapeutic interaction and experience, as an intern clinical psychologist, in working with a patient in psychotherapy who was eventually diagnosed with a “factitious disorder”. This study descriptively addresses how the therapeutic interaction impacted upon the therapist’s thinking of the process both diagnostically and in terms of therapeutic goals. This study consists of a single case, qualitative research design. It concerns the interactions and experiences of the therapist with a specific patient (diagnosed with a factitious disorder) in the context of a multidisciplinary academic hospital setting. The study aims to be predominantly descriptive of this therapy, and as such employs the psychological phenomenological method of Giorgi (1985) in order to provide a specific description of the situated structure of the therapy. As such, this study is able to contribute to the sparse psychological and therapeutic information available on factitious disorders. There are few detailed accounts of actual therapeutic interactions – specifically from a psychological perspective – for patients diagnosed with factitious disorders. The specific description of the situated structure of the therapy is also compared to the available literature on factitious disorders. Although the aim of this study was not evaluative in nature, the author does provide some tentative comments on the aetiology and therapeutic considerations for factitious disorders – with regards to this particular case. The author suggests a strong link to personality and character deficits underlying factitious behaviour. The author further suggests the importance of acknowledging the “sick role”; allowing for “face-saving” strategies; providing consistency (on behalf of the therapist); and the setting of rigid, overt, therapeutic boundaries in the psychotherapeutic treatment of factitious disorders. / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Psychology / unrestricted