En France, dans une société hétéronormative à domination masculine, quelles représentations les mères lesbiennes ont-elles du genre et de la socialisation de genre de leurs enfants ? L’hypothèse principale qui sous-tend la recherche est que la position particulière des lesbiennes dans le système du genre – à la fois dominées et transfuges de la classe des femmes – leur permet un point de vue critique des normes dominantes et les prédispose à transmettre des modèles qui remettent en cause l’ordre du genre. Dans un contexte français d’institutionnalisation progressive de l’homoparentalité marqué par un débat public très houleux (2012-2013), 36 entretiens semi-directifs longs ont été réalisés entre 2011 et 2014 avec des femmes lesbiennes ayant des enfants de moins de douze ans conçus en contexte lesboparental. Malgré une certaine homogénéité des profils qui classent les enquêtées parmi les catégories sociales privilégiées, on constate une hétérogénéité des représentations et des pratiques pour composer avec les normes dominantes. Les mères lesbiennes rencontrées me semblent être des « résistantes ordinaires » à la domination : sans adhésion idéologique aux normes qui les assujettissent, elles sont animées d’une volonté d’intégration. Pragmatiques dans leur lecture du contexte et du contrat social, elles sont attentives à se préserver et à préserver leur famille des effets de l’homophobie. Elles déploient leur résistance du côté de l’infrapolitique pour repousser les limites établies par le cadre contraignant. / In the French heteronormative, male dominated society, what are French lesbian mothers’ representations of gender, and specifically of their children’s gender socialization? The main hypothesis is that being dominated as women and sex-class transfuges at the same time, lesbians have a particular position within the gender system, allowing them a critical point of view on the dominant norms. They are thus predisposed to transmit to their children gender models that challenge the gender system. In France, the gradual institutionalization of homosexual parenting is accompanied with a heated public debate (especially in 2012 and 2013). This research is primarily based on semi-structured interviews conducted between 2011 and 2014. The 36 interviewees are lesbian women with children under 12 years old, conceived within the frame of lesbian parenting. Despite the homogeneity of their social positions (middle and upper class), the interviewees have heterogeneous representations of the dominant norms. They also develop different sets of practices to face these norms. These lesbian mothers seem to develop ordinary forms of resistance to domination. While they show no ideological endorsement to heterosexist norms, they express a real will to be integrated within society. They interpret the context and social contract in a pragmatic way, and seek to protect themselves and their families from the effects of homophobia. Their resistance is mainly infra-political: pushing against the established limits of a framework that restricts them.

A considerable amount of scholars, researchers and international actors have labeled the practise of female genital mutilation (FGM) a social norm, a large majority of these have failed to consider why they have made such a classification. This thesis investigates whether considering FGM a social norm is justifiable. This is done by applying the practise to Cristina Bicchieri’s model for diagnosing collective behaviour. The material which is used include quantitative data derived from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), as well as qualitative data in the form of previously conducted interviews. The social norms theory, and secondary analysis as a method, are used. Applying the practise of FGM to Bicchieri’s model showed that FGM fulfills the criteria suggested by the model which indicates that a collective practise is a social norm, which led to the conclusion that FGM can be justifiably considered a social norm.

In the debate on how to present and prevent climate change, the opinions have been conflicted. Some argue that a pessimistic projection will trigger a doomsday-effect and others argue that an optimistic projection enhances the risk of remaining passive. However, there is a fine line between what is too optimistic and too pessimistic. With the basis from choice architecture and the Zero Contribution Thesis, this study has dealt with how, and if, different projections could influence people's attitudes through nudges. By conducting two surveys which project different outcomes of climate change, one pessimistic, and one optimistic, this study aims at contributing to a greater understanding of how the use of communication can influence peoples’ attitudes and commitment towards climate change. When being a choice architect and constructing a nudge, it is crucial to carefully consider the design of the nudge since it is vital to understand that small details have a significant effect on the choices a person makes. By making small changes in our everyday life, we can reduce the impact of our ecological footprint. With the results it can be concluded that a purely pessimistic or optimistic projection may not be the most effective method when trying to influence environmentally friendly behaviour. Therefore, it could be beneficial to use a combination of both an optimistic- and pessimistic- projection of climate change. Furthermore, nudges could be considered as a legitimate policy tool when trying to create environmentally friendly behaviour.

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Violating social norms often elicits a negative public response aimed at punishing norm violators and dissuading others from following their lead. One way to understand reactions to norm violations is through the moral panic framework. This framework identifies the reactions that an emergent norm-violating social group is likely to experience. These reactions are characterized as overexaggerated, often blaming the group for the consequences of their norm violation and suggesting that the public should fear the group. I hypothesized that social attitudes towards female breadwinner relationships (FBRs), which violate heteronormative gender norms, would reflect these, and other, moral panic characteristics. However, I expected that these characteristics would be less extreme, and thus I proposed that social reactions to FBRs would reflect a kind of moral anxiety. To test this hypothesis, I conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of 94 magazine and newspaper articles concerning FBRs, and five themes emerged. First, the articles emphasized the social change that these relationships represent. Second, gender role expectations were often discussed, with many more articles reinforcing traditional gender role expectations than non-traditional gender role expectations. Third, most articles described costs of FBRs while only a minority described benefits, and most costs concerned the couple as a whole instead of either partner individually. Fourth, societal reactions to this change were often described, and most reactions were negative. And fifth, many articles offered tips for FBRs, often focused on overcoming the costs associated with such bonds. This pattern of reactions to FBRs ultimately demonstrated many of the characteristics of moral anxiety. Overall, these media articles portrayed FBRs as undesirable relationships involving stressed women and emasculated men: a stigmatizing portrayal that could dissuade others from pursuing such relationships. / Graduate / 2021-04-08

This thesis deals with the attitudes of students of two secondary schools to marihuana, alcohol use and their users. Attitudes to alcohol, marihuana and to their users are topics frequently discussed in connection with changing perception of these two substances. This trend can be best seen in adolescents during the period of late adolescence which is the period of secondary school studies. The main aim of the thesis is to find out which factors influence the attitudes of students to alcohol and drug use and if there are any differences concerning those factors between the observed schools. These factors come from theoretical considerations which are subsequently tested in research. As the research showed, the students' attitudes to marihuana and alcohol use, and also to alcohol users are primarily influenced by significant others, among which belong mainly peers and their parents or their own experience. While the individuals form their attitudes to alcohol primarily according to their parents, in case of marihuana, the individuals, who have experience with it, follow mainly their peers and their own experience. Those individuals also tend to be more positive towards other marihuana users. There have not been found out any significant differences concerning the attitudes to marihuana and alcohol...

Visual aesthetics play a vital role in today’s Western society. We built up a society where physical appearance represents high values in our everyday life. Not only the way we consume things and engage with the internet have a connection to how we see and place ourselves in society but the way the system works and treats us. Under the word “system” I refer to the intertwined connection of patriarchy and capitalism. With this project, I explore this connection as well as how the system influences social norms, body aesthetics and acceptance. More specifically, I take shaving and myself as an example and examine the question of “Why do women shave?”. The representation of women in our current society shapes our idea and opinion on shaving therefore I work with questions such as: How are social norms created and how do they influence us? What are the ways to challenge and break these norms, if it is possible at all? How can our capacity for developing autonomy remain while being influenced by the system? My practice investigates these questions comprehensively and addresses the importance of discussions and the understanding of the roots of our behavior as well as how we as individuals contribute to the influence of society and the system.

Before vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became available, a set of infection-prevention behaviors constituted the primary means to mitigate the virus spread. Our study aimed to identify important predictors of this set of behaviors. Whereas social and health psychological theories suggest a limited set of predictors, machine-learning analyses can identify correlates from a larger pool of candidate predictors. We used random forests to rank 115 candidate correlates of infection-prevention behavior in 56,072 participants across 28 countries, administered in March to May 2020. The machine-learning model predicted 52% of the variance in infection-prevention behavior in a separate test sample—exceeding the performance of psychological models of health behavior. Results indicated the two most important predictors related to individual-level injunctive norms. Illustrating how data-driven methods can complement theory, some of the most important predictors were not derived from theories of health behavior—and some theoretically derived predictors were relatively unimportant. / New York University Abu Dhabi / Revisión por pares

A survey of 274 adolescents aged 14-16 years in rural Appalachia showed that unhealthy eating habits were prevalent. A few adolescents were teased about weight whereas 20.1% witnessed weight teasing almost everyday. Perception of parents' healthy eating and better social support for healthy eating were associated with healthier eating habits.

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