Introduction: This research portfolio set out to examine service user defined recovery in psychosis. A systematic review was undertaken to examine the evidence-base for the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on personal recovery, empowerment and other recovery-related outcomes. An empirical study was conducted to examine the relationships between self-stigma, decisional capacity for treatment and personal recovery in service users with psychosis. Methods: A review of published literature identified ten randomised controlled trials investigating the effects of psychosocial interventions on personal recovery. A narrative synthesis was reported for findings relating to primary and secondary outcomes, and standardised effect sizes were calculated to quantify within-group change from pre-to post-intervention and follow-up. Studies were assessed for risk of bias. The empirical study recruited twenty-four participants with diagnoses of non-affective psychosis. Semi-structured interviews and self-report measures were administered to assess self-stigma, decisional capacity for treatment, psychopathology, emotional distress and personal recovery. Results: A small number of studies found that recovery-focused psychosocial interventions improved personal recovery. There were more consistent effects on psychiatric symptoms, functioning and depression. The empirical study found that self-stigma and personal recovery were associated with each other. Large effect sizes were found for the associations between self-stigma and symptoms. These associations persisted when controlling for personal recovery scores. Understanding of treatment was predicted by excitement symptoms, but no other prediction model emerged for decisional capacity. Conclusion: Taken together, the systematic review and empirical project support service user definitions of recovery which highlight the role of psychosocial factors. The systematic review found some evidence for the role of recovery-focused psychosocial interventions in improving personal recovery. Further research is needed so that interventions specifically targeting the processes in personal recovery can be developed. The findings from the empirical project suggested that interventions designed to overcome self-stigmatising beliefs and reduce emotional distress are likely to improve personal recovery outcomes in psychosis. More research is needed to develop a broader conceptualisation of decisional capacity in psychosis, to support the active participation of service users in their recovery journey.

abstract: ABSTRACT Epilepsy is a neurological condition that sometimes pervades all domains of an affected child's life. At school, three specific threats to the wellbeing of children with epilepsy exist: (1) seizure-related injuries, (2) academic problems, and (3) stigmatization. Unfortunately, educators frequently fail to take into account educationally-relevant epilepsy information when making important decisions. One possible explanation for this is that parents are not sharing such information with teachers. This study surveyed 16 parents of children with epilepsy in order to determine the rate at which they disclosed the epilepsy diagnoses to their children's teachers, as well as the difficulty with which they made the decision to disclose or withhold such information. In addition, the relationships between such disclosure and parent-participants' perceptions of the risks of epilepsy-related injuries, academic struggles, and stigmatization at school were examined. Results indicate that all participants disclosed their children's epilepsy diagnoses to their children's teachers, and most (69%) reported that making this decision was "very easy." There were no statistically significant associations between disclosure and any of three parental perception variables (perceptions of the threats of injury, academic problems, and stigmatization at school). Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Psychology 2011

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to examine retrospective experiences of bullying among a diverse sample of ethnic minority and lesbian, gay, and bisexual college students. This study examined the language that college students used to describe forms of peer aggression that they may have experienced or observed during their elementary, middle school, or high school years. The ways in which they made meaning of their experiences of peer aggression and interpreted effects of such experiences were assessed. The specific meanings that participants attached to the term `bullying' were also explored. This study attended to the influence of multicultural group memberships on language usage and meaning-making of peer aggression. Finally, this inquiry included an exploration of the impact of stigma upon assuming or avoiding personal identification as a victim of peer aggression. This qualitative investigation employed individual interviewing with college students in order to explore the primary research questions and utilized constructivist grounded theory methods and analysis. According to the results, issues of cultural identity and cultural context emerged as strong themes in this investigation. Peer aggression experienced by culturally diverse individuals often involved identity-specific peer interactions which occurred within or emerged out of cultural context. The implications of these results are that attending to culture and context may be crucial to gaining an understanding of the social worlds of minority-identified people and to developing more culturally relevant research and practice. The findings also support calls for continued research on the role of culture in the nature of and meanings associated with bullying. Moreover, the results indicated that the participants tended to minimize experiences and outcomes of bullying and to distance themselves from stigmatized victim identities. These factors may undermine constructions of bullying as a social problem and thus warrant further attention by claims-makers interested in drawing attention to this issue.

Adhd är en av de vanligare neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningarna och det talas allt mer om denna diagnos i samhället. Detta är en kvalitativ intervjustudie som avser att undersöka om adhd påverkar identitetsskapandet samt se till samhällets påverkan i detta avseende. Frågeställningarna som förväntas kunna besvara detta är; hur påverkar individens identitet av en ADHD diagnos? Vilken roll har samhället för individens identitetsskapande i relation till diagnosen? Teorier som studien utgår ifrån är Meads teori om “jaget”, Goffmans teorier om stigma och identitet samt Jutels perspektiv som berör diagnoser ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv. Studien fann att diagnosen blir en stor del av identiteten vid diagnostiseringen. Genom diagnosen fick studiedeltagarna förståelse och ökad självkännedom. Skolan och arbetsplatsen hade en betydande roll för identitetsskapandet för studiedeltagarna. I skolan blev vissa beteenden och svårigheter som kan härledas från adhd tydliga. Därmed kunde studiedeltagarna komma i kontakt med stigmatisering baserat på diagnosen. På arbetsplatsen kunde istället dessa stigmatiseringar ta en vändning och istället bli fördelaktiga för studiedeltagarna. Denna studie bidrar med en ökad förståelse av identitetsskapande i relation till adhd.

-A study about identity formation for people who has isolated themselves from the surrounding world. This is a study that focuses on identity formation for individuals who has isolated themselves from the outside world. My aim with the study is to contribute to the knowledge base about identity and identity formation for this specific group of people. The study is based around three main questions about what the individual choice looks like when it comes to isolation,  what the process of identity formation look like from pre to post isolation and finally how the respondents talk about stigmation as a result of the isolation itself and being called a Hemmasittare, witch is a term used by professionals to describe the people who has isolated themself.

Magister Artium - MA / People's attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS remain a major community challenge. There is a need to generate a climate of understanding, compassion and dignity in which people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) will be able to voluntarily disclose their status and receive the support and respect all people deserve. However, many people expereince discrimination because they have HIV/AIDS. In a certain area in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, a young woman was killed after disclosing the HIV status after being raped by five men. While many previous studies have focused on the external stigma in the general population, there is a dearth of studies on stigma among PLWHA themselves and hence the aim of the present study was to investigate stigma attached to HIV/AIDS from the perspective of PLWHA. / South Africa

Tidigare forskning visar att HBTQ-personer uppfattar stress och lider av psykisk ohälsa i samband med komma ut-processen. Syftet med studien är att utforska hur HBTQ- personer uppfattar förväntningar i komma utprocessen och undersöka vilka effekter dessa förväntningar har på komma utprocessen. Studien är kvalitativ och genomförd via semistrukturerade intervjuer och studiens urval är 6 homo- och bisexuella personer i varierande åldrar från 18 år. Studiens empiri analyseras via av en kvalitativ analysmetod. Tidigare forskning och empiri från intervjuer ligger till grund för resultat och analys. Studiens resultat visar på att det bland intervjupersonerna inte finns några mönster på hur förväntningarna uppfattas i komma ut-processen. Resultatet visar att intervjupersonerna uppfattar både tilldragande och frånskjutande faktorer som försvårar och möjliggör komma utprocessen. Trygga miljöer, positiv respons och normalisering av intervjupersonernas egna sexuella läggning möjliggör komma ut processen. Rädsla, oro och utsatthet är faktorer som försvårar. Resultatet visar också att stigmatisering, heteronormer och sammanhang problematiserar komma utprocessen. Behovet för intervjupersonerna att komma ut påverkas av sammanhang, normer och attityder. Intervjupersonerna uttrycker både negativa och positiva uppfattningar om förväntningar i samband med att komma ut.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / South Africa has one of the highest HIV and AIDS prevalence rates and the pandemic shows no signs of abating. Challenges facing South Africa in combating this pandemic include the social responses of fear, denial, stigma and discrimination. Stigma related to HIV and AIDS poses a major barrier to treating and managing HIV and AIDS. Stigma is defined as involving an attribute which significantly discredits an individual in the eyes of others or society. This attribute is therefore seen by others as being negative, something which devalues, spoils or flaws an individual. Perceived or felt stigma is described as being the anticipation of rejection and the shame of having the stigma, whereas enacted stigma refers to actual incidents of discrimination. The aim of this study was to determine, from the experiences of people living with HIV and AIDS, whether stigma manifests within the South African primary health care system. / South Africa

Social support for people living with HIV in rural America remains a considerably understudied aspect of HIV/AIDS prevention. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) require extensive support in order to remain in care, and reduce their viral suppression, and other disease complications. Without support, the likelihood that PLHA will refrain from or drop out of treatment options is gravely heightened, which consequently poses a significant threat for efforts to eliminate HIV as a public health issue. Using a mixed-method approach to Social Network Analysis, this study examines the principal role that social support plays in a person’s likelihood to adhere to care and consequently, attain viral suppression. Specifically, it looks at the roles of the family, friends, partners/spouses, and healthcare providers. The study also explores how social relations serve as mediators to stigma and discrimination, especially for disproportionate groups. Closely linked to social support availability is the perceived level of significance of the type of support that is available to the subjects. The study therefore goes further to explore the subjects’ perception of the support they receive (emotional, informational, and instrumental) and their satisfaction with it. This is imperative in that it sheds light on the role that the subjects’ social relations plays in their retention in care. This research again takes an interdisciplinary approach by exploring the contribution of both communication and health communication strategies to effect behavioral change. It contributes to research on HIV/AIDS health equity, and infectious disease management. It also contributes to efforts to identify strategies to control the spread of HIV by proposing efficient ways to optimize social support through the stages of the Care Continuum and consequently, facilitate an increase in the number of people who attain viral suppression. Keywords: Social Network Analysis; Social Support; Rural HIV; PLHA; Stigma.

Detta är en kvalitativ studie i vilken sex personer som identifierar sig som transpersoner berättade om hur de upplever bemötandet från kuratorer. Dessa upplevelser samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer samt möjlighet att skriftligen svara på frågor utifrån olika teman. Det fanns inget krav på var deltagarna skulle ha mött en kurator, men alla uppgav att de hade träffat kuratorer inom vården. I berättelserna beskrev deltagarna sina upplevelser av dåligt respektive bra bemötande, samt om relationen till kuratorn. Resultatet av studien utmynnade i tre kategorier; förväntningar inför bemötande, hur bemötandet upplevs, samt framgångsfaktorer för ett adekvat bemötande. Dåligt bemötande visade sig vara diskriminering, användande av felaktiga eller föråldrade begrepp/pronomen, samt att kuratorn lägger onödigt fokus på transidentiteten. Resultatet visade även att deltagarna upplevde en skillnad att gott bemötande var vanligare inom transvården än övriga vården. Gott bemötande präglades av respekt och transkompetens. Resultatet analyserades utifrån queerteori/heteronorm, stigma samt Husserls livsvärldsteori, för att förklara hur samhälleliga normer påverkar både vilket bemötande som erbjuds samt hur det uppfattas. Slutsatserna var att bemötandet varierade beroende på om kuratorn arbetade inom eller utanför transvården, men att dåligt bemötande kunde förbättras med hjälp av ökad kompetens genom utbildning.