This dissertation explores cannabis industry workers’ experiences of stigmatization. I conducted 23 interviews over a period of seven months with people who had been or were currently employed in the state-legal cannabis industry. I thematically analyzed and organized participant responses around significant moments of concept formation and understanding about cannabis. Participants shared first-time stories which served as initial encounters with either cannabis itself or the stigmatizing attitudes that sometimes surrounded it. There were discussions of how friends, family, and adults in general talked about cannabis and the impact that talk had on participants’ own attitudes toward cannabis. Perhaps most importantly, participants shared and described strategies for managing cannabis industry stigma. The interviews are presented within the context of an account of the contemporary social environment surrounding cannabis. The result of a long and political history rife with larger-than-life real world and fictional characters alike, much of our understanding of cannabis is influenced by the way it has been treated over the past century. As our collective discussion about the legitimacy of drug prohibition gains momentum, there is a growing need to consider the unintended social and material consequences that may beset those who would consider deriving their livelihood from these developing industries. Industry regulators, state representatives, company owners, and the industry as a whole must make efforts to support the needs of the growing workforce and reduce barriers to entry.

In this study we seek to understand how ordinary Chinese people perceive Westerners as the Other through examining their intercultural experiences. In contrast to the numerous studies of social elites’ Occidentalism, this study shifts the attention to ordinary people’s perceptions in a fast changing Chinese society. From an interpretive perspective, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants living in a coastal city in Mainland China. The key findings suggest that the Chinese public has its own way of perceiving and presenting the Western Other. Also, this Other, being defined in an on-going process of intercultural interaction, connotes a wider meaning – a unity of opposition and complementarity, exclusion and inclusion. Thus this study has deepened our understanding of the Chinese construction of the Western Other. The findings can be used in developing intercultural communication training programs to facilitate deeper contact and better dialogue between the Chinese and Westerners.

In this study we seek to understand how ordinary Chinese people perceive Westerners as the Other through examining their intercultural experiences. In contrast to the numerous studies of social elites’ Occidentalism, this study shifts the attention to ordinary people’s perceptions in a fast changing Chinese society. From an interpretive perspective, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants living in a coastal city in Mainland China. The key findings suggest that the Chinese public has its own way of perceiving and presenting the Western Other. Also, this Other, being defined in an on-going process of intercultural interaction, connotes a wider meaning – a unity of opposition and complementarity, exclusion and inclusion. Thus this study has deepened our understanding of the Chinese construction of the Western Other. The findings can be used in developing intercultural communication training programs to facilitate deeper contact and better dialogue between the Chinese and Westerners.

This thesis is concerned with the lived life-world of Swedish soldiers that have worked in Afghanistan as part the ISAF mission. It studies the soldiers' experiences by drawing on five qualitative, open interviews and analyses these from a phenomenological perspective. In the thesis some existing research on soldiers is reviewed critically and it is argued that there is a need for an exploratory study of those that execute international peace operations. The analysis of the soldiers' experiences results in a thematic understanding around, first; reasons for going to Afghanistan and how they handle the different life-style and level of control they have on their work and situation. Second, how they perceive their stay in Afghanistan which mostly consists of working, with small possibilities and desire to relax, apart from working out and play games. The third theme concerns perceptions of their bodies, thoughts about being and having been there as well as gender differences. Lastly it is noted that the soldiers hold rather limited experiences of the Afghan people, both the security forces and civilians.It is also argued that their experiences can be understood in a wider context as, first, a self- realizing job or adventure rather than a vocation, and second as being divided along modern and post-modern logics consisting of different values and regimes of control of the individual.

In this study we seek to understand how ordinary Chinese people perceive Westerners as the Other through examining their intercultural experiences. In contrast to the numerous studies of social elites’ Occidentalism, this study shifts the attention to ordinary people’s perceptions in a fast changing Chinese society. From an interpretive perspective, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants living in a coastal city in Mainland China. The key findings suggest that the Chinese public has its own way of perceiving and presenting the Western Other. Also, this Other, being defined in an on-going process of intercultural interaction, connotes a wider meaning – a unity of opposition and complementarity, exclusion and inclusion. Thus this study has deepened our understanding of the Chinese construction of the Western Other. The findings can be used in developing intercultural communication training programs to facilitate deeper contact and better dialogue between the Chinese and Westerners.

No description available.

Motherhood is stereotypically considered one of the main characteristics every woman has. It’s congenital, something that naturally belongs to women and that, because of that, represents one of the main and necessary ways to really complete the path of womanhood. You fulfill your being a woman by being a mother. Therefore, if you do not become a mother, you are also seen as only for half woman, pitied or judged as selfish and arid for that.The research has the purpose to analyze how this social conception of motherhood and non- motherhood affects women’s choice to become mothers in Italy. Through qualitative interviewing and a feminist phenomenological perspective, 6 women (both mothers and childless) who are currently living in Italy reported their experience.It was thus feasible to observe how the influence of social conception of motherhood and non- motherhood manifests itself (1), the role played by the so-called “natural instinct” in it (2) and the way in which a reflection on the choice of becoming or not mothers was developed (3). In conclusion, it was also possible to frame how social change can be promoted in this field and recognize the importance that education and learning have in it.

No description available.

In this thesis I use both Dense Clarity - Clear Density as well as qualitative interviewing as methods to guide me through this examination of sound design. Through studying other works and executing personal tests I try to find out if there is a need to use sound and silence in a creative way to evoke emotion. I examine films as well as literature from the 1960s all the way to the 2000s, to see how the use of silence has unfolded over the years. I also create a visual production that strengthens my theory that silence affects narrative more than its credited for. But the essay isn’t just about silence, it’s revolved around sound too, expanding into how sound correlates with emotion and how one can apply it to their production. / I detta kandidatarbete använder jag både Dense Clarity - Clear Density samt Kvalitativ Intervju som metoder för att vägleda mig igenom denna forskning om ljuddesign. Jag kommer att studera andra verk och utföra egna experiment, med detta vill jag se om det finns ett behov av att använda ljud och tystnad på ett kreativt sätt för att väcka känslor. Jag granskar, samt undersöker både film och litteratur från 1960-talet, ända fram till 2000-talet för att se hur användningen av tystnad i film har utfällt sig genom åren. Med att jag skapar en visuell produktion, så stärks min teori, som är att tystnad kan påverka filmens narrativ, oerhört. Men denna uppsats kretsar inte bara runt tystnad, utan även runt ljud som korrelerar med känslor och hur man kan använda sig av deras relation för att skapa en starkare produktion.

The purpose of this study was to propose and evaluate a procedure for revising an existing self-administered survey that is in need of item revision and/or scale reduction while maximizing validity and reliability. The procedure was demonstrated using the Client Evaluation of Self and Treatment (CEST; Joe, Broome, Rowan-Szal, & Simpson, 2002), a self-administered survey used in drug and alcohol treatment agencies. The procedure included confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses of a large dataset of completed CEST surveys, a readability analysis, and cognitive interviewing of two different groups of respondents to determine what problems they might have with CEST items. The cognitive interviewing revealed a number of issues that led to confusion among respondents, including items with two distinct concepts embedded, items containing absolutes and vague qualifiers, misinterpreted items, and terms and phrases respondents had difficulty understanding. The CEST was also judged to be long and potentially burdensome to respondents. Based on the results of this evaluation, a new survey—the Brief Assessment of Self in Context (BASIC)—also intended for use by substance abuse treatment providers, was constructed. First, factor analyses of the CEST and advice from an expert panel were used to determine which scales to retain. Next, quantitative analyses and cognitive interviewing helped determine which CEST items to retain and which to revise. Readability, sound item writing principles, and response format and scale requirements were also used to determine which items to include in the initial draft of the BASIC and guided item construction when needed. After the panel of experts provided feedback on the first revision, a final draft was prepared. Another round of cognitive interviewing was followed by administration of the final draft of the survey to a representative sample. The results indicated that the BASIC’s items are clear, unambiguous, and easy to interact with and understand, and that the instrument is an improvement over the CEST. In brief, the procedure demonstrated in this study produced a psychometrically sound instrument composed of items that are easy for respondents to access. / text