Objectives: The majority of individuals who sustain a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) will experience a full recovery within the first weeks or months post-injury. However, some individuals will experience ongoing difficulties, or persistent post-concussion symptoms (PCS), for years following the injury. To date, most researchers have attributed PCS to either neuropathological factors or to psychogenic factors. Lacking exploration has been the role of psychosocial variables and the consideration of PCS from a more holistic, or 'whole person', perspective. As such, the goal of the current study was to undertake an investigation of persistent PCS using a broad, neuropsychosocial framework. Specifically, this was done by investigating how (a) cognitive functioning, (b) susceptibility to anxiety while in the context of a stressful situation (i.e., anxiety susceptibility), and (c) multiple components of identity (including self-perception, TBI- related self-concept, and TBI-related social identity) influence the severity of persistent PCS. The main underlying assertion to this research is that there are multiple factors that underlie the experience of persistent PCS; a purely neuropathological or psychogenic perspective is not sufficient to understand the complex processes inherent in recovery after mTBI. Method: The sample consisted of 21 adults, between 20 and 65 years of age, who had sustained an mTBI at least one year earlier. Following a telephone interview to determine eligibility (and a separate telephone interview with a source of collateral information) the participants completed a number of standardized neuropsychological measures and self- report questionnaires during an in-person, one-on-one data collection session. Results: The only injury-related or demographic variable that had an influence on PCS was injury etiology, whereby individuals with sports related injuries reported significantly less PCS than did those who sustained non-sports related injuries (e.g., motor vehicle accidents). Cognitive functioning had no influence on PCS severity, nor did anxiety susceptibility. However, one's general propensity to experience anxiety (i.e., trait anxiety) was a significant predictor of PCS. Further, multiple aspects of identity influenced PCS with both current self-perception and TBI-related social identity being significant predictors of self-reported PCS severity. Conclusions: Despite the failure to find any impact of neuropsychological factors on PCS in the current study, other lines of research have demonstrated neuropathological changes associated with mTBI – some of which may be chronic. Therefore, cognitive functioning may not be a sufficiently sensitive indicator of possible neuropathology at more than one year post-injury. On the other hand, the current study demonstrates that psychological and psychosocial factors are highly relevant to recovery and outcome following mTBI, and are significant predictors of PCS severity. Overall, the results support the assertion that recovery after mTBI is complex and that there are multiple factors that underlie persistent PCS. Further, the study demonstrates the importance of conceptualizing the process of recovery from a broad, neuropsychosocial perspective. Implications for treatment interventions and future research are discussed. / Graduate

This thesis provides a systematic comparison and analysis on violent and non-violent new religious movements. The purpose of using a meta-analysis as the methodological tool for this research project is that it offers a systematic presentation and synthesis of the characteristics and findings from academic studies that exist on each new religious movement. Of importance is that each study, from the fields of sociology, social psychology and religious studies offers differing truths about each of the NRMs as they each only examine certain characteristics. As these disciplines have a high level of theories, this project utilizes a “measure driven” approach, “in which iterative searches and new computerized search techniques are used to increase the range of publications found (and thus the range of possible analyses) and to traverse time and disciplinary boundaries” (Roelfs et al 2013: 75). This analysis pools together all existing facts to provide a larger estimate of the "unknown common truths" about each movement and provide a fuller picture of the movements and their leaders. By combining studies of new religious movements that are prone to violence with studies of new religious movements that remain peaceful, this meta-analysis will increase the sample size and the power to study effects that may lead to the answer: why do some new religious movements become violent. The general consensus among the research literature has distilled three salient aggregates associated with new religious groups that have become violent: a) each group possessed an apocalyptic worldview; b) each group maintained an organizational structure predicated on charismatic leadership and authority whereby a potent connection between the charismatic leader and devotee was forged; and c) each group established firm social boundaries demarcating the separation between the group and the wider social milieu resulting in social isolation. However, though these attributes were present in and common to all the groups that became violent, they continue to remain insufficient and fail to adequately illustrate why certain new religions become violent. The most notable cases of NRMs that have been mobilized to violence that are analyzed include: the Peoples' Temple, The Order of the Solar Temple, Aum Shinrikyo, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, the Branch Davidians, Rajneeshpuaram, The Church of the Lamb of God, Heaven's Gate and Scientology. These religious movements are compared and analyzed in relation to groups that have not become violent: the early Unification Church, Sikh Dharma/3HO, Chen Tao, Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), and Concerned Christians. By analyzing fourteen individual movements that demonstrate the three central aggregates found specifically in violent movements, hopefully this meta-analysis has overcome the problem of small sample sizes, in order to better detect internal and external effects that can explain why some NRMs become violent.

The focus of this research is on the specific relational and particular circumstances that result in an emerging cancer identity expressed through the daily lived- experiences of emerging adults via personal weblogs. Identity, a complex term in its own right, is discussed here under the rubric of social identity as processual, therefore it is expected that an emerging cancer identity will develop as the participants begin to narrativize their daily experiences with cancer on their weblogs. By critically engaging with notions of emerging adulthood theories with theories on the sociology of death and dying and illness narratives, this research seeks to understand the specific psychosocial changes that occur as the participants engage with their illness on their weblogs, which arguably contributes to an emerging cancer identity.

This research explores two polarised occupations; entrepreneurs and PhD research students. It exposes similarities and differences between them which specifically defuse the species premise that all entrepreneurs are different and often portrayed as superior to the rest of society and that they, entrepreneurs, are diametrically opposed to PhD research students in the objectives of their work and ultimate intentions for that work. An explorative, interpretive approach is taken which helps illuminate how people understand, interpret and employ their self identity to qualify the practices of both entrepreneurship and PhDship. This methodology enabled exploration of perceptions of self and role in a small sample of people of different age, gender, class, ethnicity and economic standing of two externally polarised occupational groups. This approach permits a compare and contrast of both similarity and differences between these two roles. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six entrepreneurs and six current PhD students from two North West of England research-led universities in a multitude of disciplines and industrial sectors. Numerous existing studies have compared entrepreneurs to managers, to leaders and more recently to business students. Other studies have aimed to ascertain why some people become an entrepreneur as oppose to a salaried employee. To date, no previous research that I am aware of considers doctoral researchers in the same way, that is, as individuals making a contribution to society that is of social, economic and intellectual benefit by furthering knowledge and innovation. The findings from this research show that there are overwhelming similarities between these two occupations in both their practical processes and their sense of self. In fact, there are more differences within the two occupations than between them. It is suggested that identification of individual purpose may prove a valuable determinate of whether people select either of these occupations for socioeconomic reasons or for socioemotional ones. The contribution this research and its findings make is in the recognition of the different purposes individuals express as their primary reason for engaging in either PhD research work or venture formation. This recognition helps expand our understanding beyond the existing opportunity-necessity or push-pull hypothesis to demonstrate a more sophisticated intention based form of inquiry. Individuals in both occupations are subsequently sub categorised as conformists, alterpreneurs, changemakers or vocationalists. Conformists aim to meet perceived social expectations of them; Alterpreneurs are those who buy-a-job; Changemakers intend to improve or fix a self identified problem; Vocationalists intend to develop their skill and expertise in their chosen field.

Orientador: Paulo Ferreira de Araújo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação Física / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T10:42:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lopes_KeylaFerrari_M.pdf: 916485 bytes, checksum: b6d4bbb5e0a58ac1fa50675f0a4624e6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A atualidade tem revelado dentre muitos fenômenos plausíveis de estudos, aqueles relacionados à atividade física e à pessoa em condição de deficiência. Neste sentido, este estudo busca refletir sobre a identidade social e auto - conceito do dançarino em cadeira de rodas no contexto de espetáculos abertos ao público e nas relações estabelecidas entre os dançarinos e os expectadores. Assim entende-se, para os fins propostos deste estudo, que a dança se faz relevante na medida em que cria um ambiente para a comunicação entre grupos ou identidades sociais, construídas na relação com o "outro". Como técnica de coleta de dados, realiza-se entrevistas com dançarinos atuantes em grupos e companhias de dança em cadeira de rodas, utilizando procedimentos da técnica de análise de conteúdo, a fim de levantar indicadores para análise das respostas dos dançarinos entrevistados. Por meio do material coletado nos foi possível tecer considerações sobre a identidade social e o papel social do artista dançarino com deficiência mediado pelas relações estabelecidas entre a dança, corpo com deficiência, sociedade e auto - conceito mediado pelas relações e feedbacks entre dançarinos e expectadores nos contexto dos ensaios, espetáculos e pós- espetáculos / Abstract: Present time has shown, among many study plausible phenomena, those related to physical activity and to person presenting a disability condition. In this sense, the purpose of this study is to reflect about social identity and self-concept of wheelchair dancer, within context of spectacles open to the public and relations created between dancers and audience. Thus, for this study purposes, it is understood that dance becomes relevant as it creates an environment for communication between groups or social identities, built in relation with the "other". As a data collection technique, interviews are carried out with dancers from wheelchair dance groups or companies, applying content analysis technique procedures, to find indicators for interviewed dancers' answers analysis. Collected material enabled us to comment disabled dancer artist's social identity and social role, mediated by relations established among dance, disabled body, society and self-concept, mediated by relations and feedbacks between dancers and audiences, within context of rehearsals, spectacles and post-spectacles / Mestrado / Atividade Fisica Adaptada / Mestre em Educação Física

The purpose of this study was to provide an initial evaluation of the effect of ‘Together for Sweden’s (TFS) storytelling method regarding anti-religious prejudice, based on a social identity perspective. Furthermore, the aim was to understand the possible self-perceived changes that the storytelling method contributes to regarding anti-religious prejudice. The study applied a mixed-method approach with a quasi-experimental design. The quantitative data collection consisted of a pre-and posttest with an experiment and control condition. The qualitative data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with participants from the experiment condition. The quantitative results point to a positive self-perceived change in anti-religious prejudice. However, the change was small and not statistically significant in relation to the control condition. The qualitative find suggests that for some participants, the storytelling could provide an opportunity for a positive intergroup contact, counter-examples, counter-stereotypic information as well as addressing the categorization process through multiple and shared group memberships. The qualitative findings also point to a change regarding the view of religious people but not concerning the view of religion. This, together with a mixed response regarding affective shifts and a lack of intentional shifts, can help to explain the quantitative results. The findings of the study address the need to evaluate prejudice-reduction intervention in a school context as well as the need to test a social identity perspective outside a laboratory context. It also provided a first and tentative assessment of TFS’ storytelling method, which can contribute to a further adjustment of the method or future in-schools interventions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the football supporters’ perspective on problems and the police in a Swedish football context. More specific, the study examined the indirect effect of legitimacy on perceived violence/disorders and the supporter-police relationship through social identity, aggression and morality. The study is quantitative in nature and a web-based survey was distributed to recruit football supporters to participate. The sample consisted of 800 football supporters who were minimum 15 years old. The results showed that Swedish football supporters, in general, perceive a small amount of problems with violence/disorders in a football context and, further, supporters perceived the supporter-police relationship as bad with a need for a change. The present study’s mediation analyses showed that legitimacy had a statistically significant indirect effect on the supporter-police relationship through both social identity and aggression. Based on the result, future research should continue investigate supporter-police relationship from the supporter perspective. The police could use this information in their development of future strategies to work for a better relationship and mutual respect with supporters. Concluding remarks of this study highlights the essential aspect supporters contribute in the work of safety and order in a football context in Sweden. The legitimacy of the Swedish police is low from the supporter’s point of view which damages the relationship between them.

An outgroup can be defined as that which is perceived as different or dissimilar from oneself. The Interspecies Model of Prejudice (TIMP) predicts that negativity to human outgroups align with animal negativity. Human-centered and anti-egalitarian beliefs have shown to correlate with outgroup rejection. Experiencing a close relationship to nature has, on the other hand, been linked to outgroup acceptance. The aim of this study was to investigate the valuation of animal charismatic appeal overall, and as a function of outgroup acceptance - rejection. An online survey collected data on animal image ratings, attitude instruments, psychosocial and demographic factors from 231 high school senior students in the greater Stockholm area. Images of human-similar (anthropomorphic highcharismaticmammals) versus human-dissimilar (feral low-charismatic insects) animals were used to, respectively, predict the attitudes anthropocentrism, ethnocentrism and nature relatedness. Overall, mammals were rated significantly more positively than insects. The findings also suggest support for TIMP. It may be inferred that animal charismatic appeal is linked to individual differences in outgroup cognitions. Anthropocentrism and ethnocentrism associated negatively with general animal liking, and were predicted by insect negativity once significant covariates adjusted the models. Nature relatedness correlated positively with animal liking and was predicted by insect positivity. Our valuation of animal charisma may, thus, be linked to our appraisal of their more or less human-like qualities. Our valuations are proposed as underlied by identification mechanismsthat may guide our varying tendencies to divide the world into ‘us and them’. The findings could be informative of psychological factors involved in intergroup behaviors and environmental concerns.

In recent years, there has been a growing need and popularity for sustainable development as well as research within the field. One of the research fields within sustainability is corporate social responsibility (CSR), i.e., how organizations act and commit to sustainable endeavours that benefit the immediate environment. CSR research on the meso- and macro-level has been studied extensively since the last century, but the subfield of micro-level CSR research is quite underdeveloped and has only in the last few years obtained popularity (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Micro-level CSR research focuses on stakeholders associated with an organization (customers and employees) and examines how organizations ought to conduct CSR initiatives so that these stakeholders become engaged with them.  Within micro-level CSR research, scholars have examined how to increase employees' engagement with CSR, how employees' perception of CSR could be influenced by different mediators, amongst others. A recent study by Hejjas et al. (2019) examined how organizational culture might influence employees' engagement and perception. Hejjas et al. (2019) concluded that future research ought to examine subcultures' potential influence on employees' perception and engagement with CSR, which this thesis attempts to do. To examine subcultures' potential influence on employees, the thesis makes use of interviews because of the current Covid-19 pandemic, together with prior research advocacy for qualitative research in the field of micro-level CSR research.  The dissertation found elements that have given insight and understanding that would suggest that subcultures do have an influence on employees' perception of CSR as well as their engagement with the concept. The author argues that it is due to factors such as subcultures' decision-making power, their geographical location, the heterogeneity of employees, amongst others. Lastly, the thesis advocates for future research within a similar subject when the pandemic is over and with an observational methodology as prior research recommends it when examining cultures.

Within the sociolinguistic field of accent attitudes, it has often been shown that both native and non-native speakers show preference for certain accents, especially for native varieties. This ‘native speakerism’ can have a negative impact on second language speakers, as the stigmatisation they may experience can hinder their willingness to speak. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate accent attitudes of an English as a second language speaker group: Swedish L1 speakers of English, focusing on their attitudes towards their own English accents and their attitudes towards other Swedes’ English accents. The relationship between these attitudes were also examined. In doing so, the study drew on Standard Language Ideology and Social Identity Theory as the theoretical frameworks. In order to answer the research questions, data was collected through a questionnaire which collected 612 responses. Respondents’ answers were then quantified into descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that most respondents were positive towards their own and other Swedes’ English accents. However, there was a strong conformity to the Standard Language Ideology amongst the participating Swedes. The participants generally did not have a strong need to express their Swedish identity through their Swedish accents, which could also be attributed to the strong native norm. The results also showed that native norms were stronger in English L2 settings, while Swedish identity was more important for those living in a native English-speaking country. Finally, those who were positive towards Swedes’ English accents were more likely to value their Swedish identity, while those who were negative towards other Swedes’ English accents were themselves more likely to conform strongly to native norms.