The diploma thesis deals with the topic of quality of life in people with mental, respectively psychotic, diseases. It is a serious illness that affects all the personality and has a great impact on the quality of life. In the theoretical part is defined the concept of quality of life, its history, different angles of view and methods of measurement. Then you can find a detailed description of psychotic disease and life with it, and it is also more closely devoted to the quality of life of people with mental illness and its measurement. In the empirical part quantitative research is presented, whose aim is to determine which areas of life perceive people with psychotic illness as inferior to those without mental illness. Another aim is to find out whether social workers who work with people with psychotic illness at social housing shelter perceive the quality of life of these patientsin a different way than the patients themselves. The results obtained with the SQUALA subjective quality questionnaire show that these patients feel a lower quality of life in the area of health and close relationships than the general population. Furthermore, the results show that social workers are well aware of the quality of life of their clients with a psychotic illness, where they differ only in the area of...

The overall aim of this thesis was to increase our understanding and knowledge of patients’ experiences of living with multiple sclerosis (MS). A mixed-method design was used, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. Thirty-one immunologically treated MS patients were randomly selected and matched with patients without immunological treatment. Matching criteria were gender, impairment, time since diagnosis and age. One patient dropped out and therefore the final sample consisted of 61 patients. All 61 were interviewed (Studies I, III and IV) and completed the 36-item Short Form health survey questionnaire (SF-36), the Subjective estimation of Quality of Life questionnaire (SQoL), the Self-reported Impairment Check-list (SIC) (Study II) and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale questionnaire (MADRS) (Study III). The interviews were subjected to content analysis. Initial symptoms and being diagnosed with MS were described in terms of becoming vulnerable and remaining in that vulnerability long after the diagnosis. Eventually the patients were able to manage this emotional distress and acquired strength in their illness situation (Study I). In the matched analysis, 29 pairs of patients were included after internal drop-out. There were no statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups. Concerning the total group of 61 patients, the self-reported impairment check-list showed that they had various problems of impairment, most evident in balance and walking. The score on health-related quality of life (SF-36) was reduced, disclosing a negative influence on vitality, physical role and function. However, subjective quality of life (SQoL) was not reduced, showing that the patients estimated their well-being to be quite unaffected (Study II). Thirty-eight of the 61 patients (62%) experienced chronic sorrow (Study III). The group were not depressed in general, only four having mild symptoms of depression, revealing that chronic sorrow is a particular form of emotional distress in MS. Chronic sorrow was experienced in terms of loss of hope, loss of control over the body and loss of integrity and dignity. When the patients could not adequately manage their sorrow and lacked support, they were struggling with their vulnerability. In the successful management of MS, losses and emotional distress are managed in such a way as to enhance personal growth, appreciation and trust in life. The theoretical model of chronic sorrow facilitated the sorting of the empirical data and the linking of these data to theory, showing the usefulness of the model (Study IV).

The presented diploma thesis in its theoretical part introduces the reader to the issue of the quality of life. This polysemantical term, which can be hardly defined, is based on a wide range of views and applicable approaches. The first chapter deals with the definition and description of basic and related concepts. The second part describes the instruments of social policy, employment policy and its division. The conclusion of the thesis offers an objective and subjective measures of the quality of life, which were applied to the author's examined districts, whose respondents were young unemployed within thirty years of age.

(in English): This paper is devoted to indicator of subjective quality of working life (SQWLI) equivalence of measurement and testing of this instrument over time. The theoretical part introduces the concept of equivalence, from its inception, through the definition, types, methods used to test different kinds of equivalence and programs that can be used for this purpose. Furthermore the tested data files from 2009, 2011, 2013 to 2014 are presented. The analytical part contains a description of confirmatory factor analysis for multiple groups which is the most common method for testing equivalence of measurement. Presented are the results of several testing methods - analysis of reliability, exploratory factor analysis and the confirmatory factor analysis for multiple groups. According to the results it is shown how it is possible to approach comparisons over time and finally the development of SQWLI and it's individual changes in terms of the functionality of the whole tool is discussed. 2

Syfte: Undersöka huruvida föräldrar med och utan barn med kroniska tillstånd skiljer sig åt gällande: psykologisk flexibilitet (generell och föräldraspecifik), utbrändhet, psykologiskt lidande och subjektiv livskvalitet. Samt undersöka om prediktorerna: huruvida föräldrarna har barn med kroniska tillstånd, nivåer av psykologisk flexibilitet (generell och föräldraspecifik), samt nivåer av medveten närvaro och kognitiv defusion förklarar föräldrars utbrändhetssymtom, psykologiska lidande och subjektiva livskvalitet. Metod: Oberoende ttest och Mann-Whitney U test genomfördes i syfte att undersöka medelvärdes skillnader mellan föräldrar till barn med kroniska tillstånd (N=51) och föräldrar till barn utan kroniska tillstånd (N= 28) gällande psykologisk flexibilitet, utbrändhet, psykologiskt lidande och subjektiv livskvalitet. Hierarkiska multipla regressionsanalyser (HRA) (N=79) genomfördes i syfte att undersöka möjliga förklaringar till föräldrars utbrändhetssymtom, psykologiska lidande och livskvalitet. Resultat: Oberoende t-test och Mann- Whitney U-test indikerade enbart signifikanta skillnader mellan föräldrar till barn med kroniska tillstånd och föräldrar till barn utan kroniska tillstånd avseende generell psykologisk flexibilitet, utbrändhet och psykologiskt lidande. Således ingen signifikant skillnad mellan de två föräldragrupperna avseende föräldraspecifik psykologisk flexibilitet och subjektiv livskvalitet. HRA indikerade att generell (inte föräldraspecifik) psykologisk flexibilitet var en signifikant prediktor beträffande föräldrars utbrändhetssymtom, psykologiska lidande och subjektiva livskvalitet. Att ha barn med eller utan kroniska tillstånd predicerade enbart föräldrars utbrändhet. Medveten närvaro och kognitiv defusion predicerade utöver generell psykologisk flexibilitet, föräldrarnas subjektiva livskvalitet. Slutsats: Psykologisk flexibilitet som enhetlig modell för mänskligt fungerande, antas vara användbar i framtida forskning gällande föräldrar till barn med kroniska tillstånd samt till föräldrar över lag som har lägre grad av psykologisk flexibilitet. Mer forskning om specifika psykologiska flexibilitets relaterade processerna behövs, samt studier som inkluderar bakgrundsinformation om föräldrarna såsom kön och ålder. / Objective: Whether parents with or without children having chronic conditions differ in regard to; Psychological flexibility (global and parent-specific), burnout symptoms, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. As well as to investigate whether following predictors; having a child with a chronic conditions or not, levels of psychological flexibility (global and parentspecific) and levels of mindfulness and cognitive defusion explain parents burnout symptoms, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. Method: Independent samples T-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used in order to investigate mean differences between parents to children with chronic conditions (N=51) and parents to children without chronic conditions (N=28) regarding psychological flexibility, burnout symptoms, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses (HRA) (N=79) were conducted in order to investige possible explanaitions to parents burnout symptoms, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. Results: Independent samples T-tests and Mann- Whitney U tests indicated sicnificant mean differences regarding global psychological flexibility, burnout and psychological distress. No significant differences were found between the two groups in regard to parent-specific psychological flexibility and subjective quality of life. HRA indicated that global (and not parents-specific) psychological flexibility was a significant predictor in explaining parents burnout symptoms, psychological distress and subjective quality of life. Having a child with or without a chronic condition, only predicted parents burnout symptoms. Mindfulness and cognitive defusion predicted over and beyond global psychological flexibility, parents subjective quality of life. Conclusion: Psychological flexibility as a unified model of human functioning, is presumed to be useful in future research in regard to parents having children with chronic conditions, as well as to parents of children without chronic conditions and parents who has lower level of psychological flexibility. There is a need for further research regarding psychological flexibility related processes and future studies that include background information of parents such as gender and age.

[pt] Esta dissertação propõe algoritmos para codificações de voz a taxas médias em torno de 1,2 Kb/s. Um esquema de quantização vetorial preditiva chaveada com desempenho superior aos esquemas previamente descritos na literatura é proposto e avaliado em canal com ou sem ruído. Detectores eficientes de período fundamental e de sons oclusivos e fricativos são examinados e adaptados ao codificador proposto. Técnicas de exitação a baixas taxas de bits são investigadas a fim de reproduzir uma boa qualidade de voz decodificada. O modelo de exitação mista em multi-bandas com três sub-bandas é adotado para codificar os quadros sonoros. Para os quadros surdos são empregadas técnicas de modelagem e síntese de sinais fricativos e oclusivos, capazes de oferecer qualidade de voz satisfatória, reduzindo a taxa de bits destes quadros para apenas 0,4 Kb/s. Técnicas de pós-filtragem para reduzir o ruído de codificação e melhorar a qualidade de voz reconstruída são também examinadas e comparadas em uma mesma plataforma. Para reduzir o nível de ruído ambiente são ainda analisados métodos de supressão de ruído. Finalmente, o codificador proposto é comparado ao padrão norte-americano Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction (MELP), por meios de teste de comparação do tipo A/B. Os testes realizados indicam que o sistema proposto, operando a 1,2 Kb/s, apresenta qualidade de voz ligeiramente superior ao MELP, operando a 2,4 Kb/s. Para situações de transcodificação, o codificador proposto também apresenta desempenho superior ao MELP. / [en] This dissertation presents algorithms to encode at an avarage bit rate of 1.2 Kb/s. A novel switched-predictive vector quantiser technique that outperforms previously reported schemes is proposed and assessed under noise-free and noisy channels. Efficient detectors for the pitch period and fricative and stop sounds are examined and adapted to the proposed coder. Low bit rate excitation methods are investigated in order to reproduce rather high quality speech. A mixed multiband excitation approach with three sub-bands is employed to encode voiced frames. For unvoiced frames, fricatives and stops modelling and synthesis techniques are used. This approach has shown to provide high quality synthesised speech, whilts it reduces the bit rate to only 0.4 Kb/s for unvoiced frames. To reduce coding noise and improve decoded speech, post- filtering techniques are analysed and compared on the same plataform. To reduce background noise, noise suppression methods are also examined. Finally, the propose coder is evaluated against the North American Mixed Prediction (MELP) coder, through A/B comparison tests. Assessment results have shown that the proposed system, operating at 1.2 Kb/s, slightly outperformed the MELP coder, operating at 2.4 Kb/s. For tandem connection situations, the proposed algorithm has presented a superior performance than the MELP coder. / [es] Esta disertación propone algoritmos para codificaciones de voz a tasas medias en torno de 1,2 Kb/s. Se propone un esquema de cuantización vectorial predictiva, con desempeño superior a los esquemas previamente descritos en la literatura. Este esquema se evalúa en canal con o sin ruido. Se examinan detectores eficientes de período fundamental y de sueños oclusivos y fricativos se adaptan al codificador propuesto. Técnicas de exitación a bajas tasas de bits son investigadas a fin de reproducir una boa calidad de voz decodificada. Se adopta el modelo de exitación mixta en multi-bandas con tres sub-bandas para codificar los cuadros sonoros. Para los cuadros surdos se emplean técnicas de modelación y síntesis de señales fricativos y oclusivos, capaces de ofrecer calidad de voz satisfactoria, reduciendo la tasa de bits de estos cuadros para apenas 0,4 Kb/s. También se examinan y se comparan las técnicas de pós-filtragen para reducir el ruido de codificación y mejorar la calidad de voz reconstruída. Para reducir el nível de ruído ambiente se analizan métodos de supresión de ruido. Finalmente, el codificador propuesto se compara al padrón norteamericano Mixed Excitation Lineal Prediction (MELP), por medio de pruebas de comparación del tipo LA/B. Las pruebas realizadas indican que el sistema propuesto, operando a 1,2 Kb/s, presenta calidad de voz ligeramente superior al MELP, operando a 2,4 Kb/s. Para situaciones de transcodificación, el codificador propuesto también presenta desempeño superior al MELP.