Problem formulation: What factors affect the consumers perception of credibility in influencer marketing on social media? How and why do certain factors affect the credibility of influencer marketing? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand what factors affect the perception of credibility in influencer marketing on social media. Moreover, the aim is to understand how and why certain factors affect the credibility in influencer marketing in order to elaborate a conceptual model consisting of factors generating credible influencer marketing. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this paper consists of existing theories regarding social identity theory, perception, brand communication, word-of-mouth (WOM), celebrity endorsement and social influencers. Methodology: This study is conducted through both a quantitative and a qualitative study with a deductive approach. The collection of primary data consists of an online survey where 120 respondents participated followed by five qualitative interviews. In order to determine what aspects to examine, a conceptual model was created based on the previous findings within credibility in WOM and celebrity endorsement. The secondary data building the theoretical framework of this thesis are collected from peer reviewed articles published in scientific journals as well as books. Empirical findings: The empirical findings consist of the result from the qualitative and quantitative study. The result of the quantitative study presents the outcome from 24 Likert scale items presented in text, charts and tables. The empirical findings from the qualitative study presents the outcome from the interviews conducted through personal communication face to face or through Skype and are presented in text that are strengthened with citation from the interviews. Conclusion: The findings show that the credibility in influencer marketing is positively affected by the perception of the influencer being a credible source and the influencer and the brand being a good fit.

Esse estudo teve como objetivo identificar e descrever as representações sociais e a construção identitária do professor, para acadêmicos de licenciaturas. Utilizou-se um referencial teórico interdisciplinar, referente às representações sociais e a formação da identidade social, numa perspectiva psicossocial. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em quatro Instituições de Ensino Superior, localizadas na Cidade de Santarém/PA, sendo duas instituições públicas e duas privadas. A população pesquisada foi composta de 1.488 estudantes de graduação, matriculados nas instituições pesquisadas. Trata-se de um estudo realizado por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória e descritiva, com abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa, que teve como amostra 580 graduandos, matriculados em nove cursos de licenciatura. Como ferramenta de coleta foi utilizado um questionário, desenvolvido por Chamon (2003), composto de questões abertas e fechadas, por meio do qual se buscou identificar as crenças, as atitudes e os valores dos sujeitos da amostra, sobre o objeto de pesquisa: `ser professor. Algumas das questões fechadas permitiram aos respondentes a livre escolha de uma ou mais respostas entre as alternativas propostas, outras solicitavam o posicionamento dos mesmos sobre determinadas proposições, sendo que para esse tipo de questão se utilizou a Escala de Likert. Os dados quantitativos foram tabulados com o auxílio do software Sphinx, possibilitando a sua apresentação na forma de figuras e de tabelas, assim como a análise a partir da estatística descritiva sobre os valores máximos e mínimos, da média e do desvio padrão. Os dados qualitativos foram coletados a partir das respostas formuladas pelos licenciandos, para a última questão do instrumento de coleta de dados. Trata-se de uma questão aberta, respondida por 506 sujeitos, cujas respostas foram categorizadas com o auxílio do software ALCESTE, que permitiu a posterior análise por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados sociodemográficos encontrados no presente estudo corroboram os encontrados em outras pesquisas desenvolvidas no país, demonstrando que os acadêmicos matriculados nos cursos de licenciatura, em geral, são provenientes das famílias pertencentes aos extratos sociais desfavorecidos, com renda de até três salários mínimos. As representações sociais sobre o objeto do presente estudo caracterizam a docência como uma ocupação desvalorizada e pouco reconhecida, porém muito útil socialmente e que exige criatividade e dedicação por parte dos professores, sendo também muito complexa e que acumula diversas funções além do ato pedagógico. A construção da identidade social e profissional dos licenciandos ocorre por meio das dinâmicas de afirmação e confirmação identitárias. / This study aimed to identify and describe the social representations and identity construction teacher for students of undergraduates. We used a theoretical interdisciplinary method, relative to the social representations and social identity formation, in a psychosocial perspective. The research was conducted in four higher education institutions located in the city of Santarém/PA, two public and two private. The research population consisted of 1,488 undergraduate students enrolled in the institutions surveyed. This is study using an exploratory and descriptive, with quantitative and qualitative approach, which had a sample size of 580 undergraduates enrolled in nine courses. As collection data tool was used a questionnaire developed by Chamon (2003), composed of open and closed questions, through which it sought to identify the beliefs, attitudes and values of the sample, on the subject of research `be a teacher. Some of the questions were closed and allowed to the respondents the free choice of one or more responses among the proposed alternatives, in other questions was requested the placement of the interviewed about certain propositions, and for this type of question was used the Likert Scale. The quantitative data were tabulated with the help of the Sphinx software, allowing its presentation in the form of figures and tables, as well as analysis from the descriptive statistic on the maximum and minimum values, mean and standard deviation. The qualitative data were collected from the responses formulated by undergraduates, for the latest question of data collection instrument. It is about an open question answered by 506 subjects, whose responses were categorized by the help of software ALCESTE enabling later analysis by the technique of content analysis. The sociodemographic results found in this study corroborate the findings of other research carried out in our country, showing that the students enrolled in bachelor degree usually come from families belonging to the lower social classes, which receive up to three minimum wages. The social representations about the object of the present study characterizes teaching as an occupation undervalued and unrecognized, but very useful socially and that requires creativity and dedication by teachers, is also very complex and it accumulates various functions beyond pedagogical act. The construction of social identity and professional undergraduate occurs through the dynamics of identity affirmation and identity confirmation.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur identiteten hos unga vuxna som vuxit upp inom Jehovas Vittnen påverkas av en uteslutning. Detta utifrån den sociala identitetsteorin och Marcia´s teori om identitetstatusarna i en identitetsutveckling. Studien var kvalitativ med semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta unga vuxna fd. Jehovas Vittnen som vuxit upp i organisationen. Den induktiva tematiska analysen gav tre huvudteman; In- och utgrupps tänkande; underordnande och lydnad samt begynnande distansering och uppvaknande. Ett av resultaten var att deltagarna hade lärt sig redan som barn ett in- och utgruppstänk. och att utifrån denna sociala identifiering begränsades deltagarnas umgänge, till att endast umgås med ingruppen och undvika att umgås med personer i utgruppen. Detta fick effekter vid uteslutning i uppbyggandet av nya sociala relationer, där de saknade referensramar om hur de skulle agera i vissa sammanhang, de visste inte vad som förväntades av dem i samhället, de saknade helhetsbilden av samhället och dess sociala samspel. / The purpose of the study was to examine how the identity of young adults raised within Jehovah's Witnesses is affected by exclusion. This is based on the social identity theory and Marcia’s theory of the identity statuses in an identity development. The study was qualitative with semi-structured interviews with eight young adults formerly. Jehovah's Witnesses who grew up in the organization. The inductive thematic analysis yielded three main themes; In- and out-group thinking; subordination and obedience as well as incipient distancing and awakening. One of the results was that the participants had already learned an in- and out-group thinking as children. and that on the basis of this social identification, the participants' contact was limited to only spending time with the ingroup and avoiding contact with people in the outgroup. This had the effect of exclusion in the building of new social relationships, where they lacked a frame of reference on how to act in certain contexts, they did not know what was expected of them in society, they lacked the overall picture of society and its social interaction.

abstract: This study provides insights into expanding the concepts of community arts in general and more specifically community-based art practices (CAP); highlights the participatory characteristics in the processes of CAP, and seeks to discern the mechanism that contributes to the formation of community collective identity. Revolving around Bhattacharyya’s (1995, 2004) conceptualization of community development, this study found it essential for exploring the fundamental concept of community in relation to community identity. To examine the concept of community identity, this research anchors the inquiry by studying how community-based art practice contributes to community identification and seeks to discover the connection between identity process and social change. The research also discusses the emergent concepts that serve as influential factors to the formation of community identity and proposes an alternative identification mechanism, ‘jen-tung’ process, which provides a needed new dimension to the existing theories of social identity formation and community efficacy development. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2020

This paper investigates how an administrative border affects the identity making of peopleliving in the border region of Rundu, situated in northern Namibia adjacent to Angola. Thepurpose of the study is to investigate how ethnic and national identity is dependent on thespace it is fostered in. The focus has been on the state boundary from a micro level; to seehow the Namibians living in the area perceive their ethnic belonging and how they look uponthe border, hence taking an interest in the narratives of the people. It applies Social IdentityTheory in order to investigate the process of identity making, both in regard of a nationalidentity and ethnic identity, which goes well in hand with the angle of borders having a binarydistinction e.g. here and there, inclusion and exclusion. Thus, the study draws on theoriesfrom both cultural geography, social anthropology and social psychology. The result of thestudy indicate that people in Kavango have a national identity which is superior to their ethnicidentity, but it is fragile and they easily turn to their ethnic identity. The result also shows thatthe people have accepted and emphasise the differences between Namibia and Angola, whichwas first imposed as a strategic act from the colonials, and this indicates that the border actsas both an institution and a process.

The overall aim of this thesis was to examine the development of PR practitioner professional identity. The purpose was to examine how PR practitioner reason/talks about the image of the profession and how communicators use discursive tools to create their professional identity. The primary theoretical framework of the thesis is social identity and discursive psychology to understand how the professional identity is created. The chosen method was interview method where six interviews were conducted from the private and the public sectors in Umeå. The private organizations included are Punkt PR, which is a private PR agency and Polarbröd. The public sector organizations included are Umeå Kommun, Region Västerbotten, Polisen Nord and Vakin. The result of the analysis shows that the PR practitioner perceive that the image given by their profession is incorrect and largely based on ignorance of how their work look like. PR practitioner also see their profession as important for both the organization and the community. The thesis conclusions were that the PR practitioner build their identity by focusing on how and why they are important in society and for the organization. Another opinion from the PR practitioner was that the media often producing that a large part of the PR practitioner´s work is to deal with journalists and make the journalist's work more difficult, which the PR practitioner´s think is wrong.

Recently, some men have taken their wives' last names upon marriage rather than following tradition. The goal of this study was to examine the attitudes that men and women have toward these nontraditional men. Ideological hegemony and social identity theory comprised the framework for examining participants' beliefs. A survey first elicited participants' extant sexist beliefs about men and the characteristics of a nontraditional man compared to a traditional man. An open-ended question further explored participants' opinions. The results indicated that benevolent sexism influences respondents' attitudes towards nontraditional men and that most respondents view nontraditional men as more nurturing and committed to their marriage than traditional men. The results further revealed a dichotomy of positive and negative attitudes towards nontraditional men indicating that society's feelings about nontraditional men are changing.

30 years into the existence of a unified German Republic, the emphasis of differences, the use of stereotypes and the existence of economic inequalities remain. This affects the younger post-unification generation - children that were born after 1989. The study is concerned with the investigation into the process of identity construction along the East-West binary and the effects this process has on said binary division. Thereby, the Eastern German perspective is stressed by using in-depth interviews with Eastern German respondents for a narrative analysis that is based on structural, interactional and performative principles. This thesis sees its contribution in the renewal of the deadlocked debate about the German East-West discourse by taking a postmodern stance on identity while applying a sociological theoretical framework and postcolonial concepts. The ambivalence in identity construction and the indication for a hybrid form of identity point at the existence of a Third Space, in which socio-political transformations can take place.

After the cessation of violent conflict, societies have to undergo several changes to re-establish asense of harmony and repair the broken intergroup relationships. These changes can be summarized as the process of reconciliation. The different levels of reconciliation are in this thesis described as emotional-, motivational-, and structural reconciliation. I argue that the reconciliation process is facilitated by means of a recategorization of social identities. According to the Common ingroup identity Model, a shared identity will increase positive intergroup dynamics and reduce hostility and antagonism. This study has sought to find evidence for the suggested hypotheses through a structured focused comparison on the post-conflict countries, Rwanda and Burundi. The theorized relationship has found some support, as the post-conflict reconciliation processes of the case-studies showed the expected variation, and for one hypothesis the expected mechanism. However, the findings show that social identity recategorization on its own cannot account for all the variation in outcomes, and another possible mechanism has been detected. This warrants future research into the topic.

The Hispanic population is the largest and fastest growing population in the United States, which necessitates research on the acculturation process, especially because of the current events regarding the Texas–Mexico border. Although research has indicated the need to develop coping skills to support positive mental health during acculturation, there is a lack of empirical information regarding acculturation and mental health among Mexican alumni of U.S. colleges and universities. Based on social identity theory and acculturation theory, this quantitative, correlational study was conducted to examine the relationship between acculturation and psychological well-being (PWB) among Mexican alumni of colleges and universities in the United States. Forty-seven participant surveys were obtained via an online survey on acculturation, as measured by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II, and PWB, as measured by the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being. An ANCOVA was implemented with a hierarchical multiple regression with gender and amount of time spent at the U.S. college or university as covariates. However, the results were statistically nonsignificant regarding relationships between levels of acculturation and PWB, gender, and number of years at the college or university. Thus, the results promote positive social change by encouraging the development of updated instruments and inclusion of additional demographic information in the research of Mexican alumni.