This research is concerned with the construction and expression of selfidentity in a sample of lay Christians working in a contemporary workplace. It seeks to understand how these believers construct and sustain, in and through autobiographical narrative, a faith-full self-identity at work. It is inspired by my own experience as a Christian believer in a secular workplace. The results of the study contribute to the discipline of practical theology in the specific area of understanding autobiographical construction of Christian self-identity. Although the study takes an overt Christian theological stance, it draws not only from the theory of autobiographical narrative in theology, but also from corresponding theory in philosophy, sociology and psychology. In particular the research draws on the Confessions of St. Augustine (c AD 400), using this patristic text as a benchmark expression of Christian selfidentity. Augustine’s neo-platonic thinking informs the central research question which asks whether fragmentation of self-identity is experienced by Christians in the challenging environment of the present-day workplace. Narrative is both phenomenon under study and research methodology. It is a particularly appropriate means by which to study faith identity. The concept is a fluid one and narrative inquiry is more concerned with establishing meaning and significance than facts and truth. The research resides within a constructivist paradigm and acknowledges that the findings are limited and specific. The findings suggest that fragmentation of self-identity is experienced by the research actors in work/faith tensions. However, these believers move through a process of growing self-awareness and awareness of God’s action in their lives as they construct personal work/life narratives. The research findings explore this process of self-identity construction and offer conclusions about the discovery of a sense of deep self-identity amidst the experience of fragmentation.

This study examined associations between attachment styles, relational aggression and victimization, and sexual behavior in the context of romantic relationships during emerging adulthood. The sample included 306 college students attending an urban university in the southeastern United States. Multiple regression analyses indicated that individuals with dismissive and fearful attachment reported higher levels of relational aggression, and individuals with fearful and preoccupied attachment reported higher rates of relational victimization as compared to those with secure attachment. Neither relational aggression nor relational victimization accounted for a significant portion of the variance in sexual behaviors. However, significant three-way interactions were found that indicated dismissive and secure attachment style, as compared to other attachment styles, moderated associations between relational victimization and sexual behavior and that the strength of these relations differed by gender. These findings highlight the complexity of these interrelations and have important implications for prevention and intervention efforts.

This creative thesis of poems explores the relationship between traveling literally and traveling metaphorically as the speaker grapples with the reality of her mother's Alzheimer's disease. In the process, she uncovers her own potentialities and limitations.

This thesis is designed to invite scholars, writers, and teachers of rhetoric and composition pedagogy to re-evaluate the revision process as a means of inspiring and supporting first-year writers to become acquainted with their “writer’s voice.” This study explores students’ resistance towards revision and argues that recognizing and developing revision habits will help students revise independently. Self-directed revision not only strengthens a writer’s ability to engage in the writing process more astutely, but it is also a fundamental component to the self-identification process from which the writer draws inspiration. This thesis is structured into four main sections: (1) Introduction, referring to aim and methodology; (2) Chapter 1, addressing the importance of “self-directed” revision; (3) Chapter 2, a case study presenting first-year student responses to writing and revision; (4) Conclusion, discussing the relevance of implementing a strategic and shared value approach to first-year composition revision assignments. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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This paper examines how second-generation Muslim immigrants feel that it is to live as a Muslim today in Sweden. The survey is based on six qualitative interviews in which young adults describe how they relate to their religion, religiosity and to their Muslim identity. The result showed that the interviewers felt that Muslims are often generalised as a homogeneous group in the society where their ethnicity, culture and religiosity are often mixedup with other nationalities and cultures. The young adult Muslims believe that they usually end up in a dilemma when discussion about religious affiliation emerges and that they tend to adapt their identity to the environment and to the people they are surrounded by. The study also showed that young adults seemed to consider that the Muslim traditions were more important during the early years of their childhood and that they functioned as a band between them and their parents during their upbringing. Over the years their religiosity seemed to decrease gradually and the young adults think that different factors have had an impact on the change. The interviewers believe that they, together with their parents, have had to adapt Muslim values to the society. They considered that other traditions, in particular Christian traditions, have become more important in their lives.

<p>I den här uppsatsen studeras vilken betydelse och funktion ett specifikt boendestöd har åt psykiskt funktionshindrade personer, specifikt åt personer med funktionshindret Aspergers syndrom. Uppsatsen tar också upp boendestödjarnas perspektiv på verksamheten och deras arbete. Detta gjordes för att få en breddare förståelse kring vilken betydelse den här verksamheten har.<strong> </strong>Brukare fick delta i en enkätundersökning och kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med personalen och en brukare. Genom det insamlade materialet fick jag ta del en mängd intressanta tankar och åsikter kring boendestödet, det visade sig också att diagnosen roll var en central problematik för så väl brukare som personal. Genom de valda teoretiska utgångspunkterna problematiserade och teoretiserade jag kring mitt material, där jag använde mig av empowerment som begrepp och tankemodell, Gidddens begrepp självet, tillit, ontologisk trygghet och abstrakta system, Beckers stämplingsteori samt Layders teori om de fyra sociala domänerna. Det jag kommit fram till är att boendestödet är av stor betydelse för brukare med Aspergers, då boendestödjarna kan hjälpa brukaren till att stärka dennes empowerment. Empowerment ger brukaren kraften och självförtroendet till att känna att denne själv har kontrollen över sin livssituation. Samtidigt fann jag att diagnosen motarbetar empowermentprocessen, då brukaren blir stämplad som avvikare i samhället på grund av diagnosen och blir tvungen att underordna det abstrakta systemets normer för att få rätten till stöd och hjälp.<strong></strong></p> / <p>This study sets out to explore how a living support for mentally impaired individuals functions and its contribution for these individuals. The focus of the study concentrates on individuals with the mental disability, the Aspergers syndrome. The study centers around on these individuals perspective on the living support and the personnel working at the living support. In addition, the study also examines the personnel’s perspective on their work and the living support activity. This focus was chosen in order to give a broader perspective about the living support. Users participated in a smaller survey and qualitative interviews were carried out with the personnel and one user at one living support establishment. Through the collected material the study enabled to achieve many interesting and valuable opinions about the living support. The study showed that the diagnose alone of mental disability both played a central part for both the individual and the personnel. The theoretical viewpoints that serve as starting point and model for the sociological problematisation were empowerment, Gidden’s concepts of the self-identity, trust and basic conviction and abstract systems, Howard Beckers labelling theory as well as Layder’s domain theory about the four social domains. The analysis of the study has shown that the living support has a great contribution for users with Asbergers syndrome, since the personnel can strengthen the individuals’ empowerment.  The empowerment process gives the users power and self confidence to take control over his/her’s situation in life. Another finding from the study shows that the individuals diagnose oppose the empowerment process, when the individual is being labelling into a deviant, thus also force into submissive norms of an abstract society in order to receive the right of support and aid.</p>

I den här uppsatsen studeras vilken betydelse och funktion ett specifikt boendestöd har åt psykiskt funktionshindrade personer, specifikt åt personer med funktionshindret Aspergers syndrom. Uppsatsen tar också upp boendestödjarnas perspektiv på verksamheten och deras arbete. Detta gjordes för att få en breddare förståelse kring vilken betydelse den här verksamheten har. Brukare fick delta i en enkätundersökning och kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med personalen och en brukare. Genom det insamlade materialet fick jag ta del en mängd intressanta tankar och åsikter kring boendestödet, det visade sig också att diagnosen roll var en central problematik för så väl brukare som personal. Genom de valda teoretiska utgångspunkterna problematiserade och teoretiserade jag kring mitt material, där jag använde mig av empowerment som begrepp och tankemodell, Gidddens begrepp självet, tillit, ontologisk trygghet och abstrakta system, Beckers stämplingsteori samt Layders teori om de fyra sociala domänerna. Det jag kommit fram till är att boendestödet är av stor betydelse för brukare med Aspergers, då boendestödjarna kan hjälpa brukaren till att stärka dennes empowerment. Empowerment ger brukaren kraften och självförtroendet till att känna att denne själv har kontrollen över sin livssituation. Samtidigt fann jag att diagnosen motarbetar empowermentprocessen, då brukaren blir stämplad som avvikare i samhället på grund av diagnosen och blir tvungen att underordna det abstrakta systemets normer för att få rätten till stöd och hjälp. / This study sets out to explore how a living support for mentally impaired individuals functions and its contribution for these individuals. The focus of the study concentrates on individuals with the mental disability, the Aspergers syndrome. The study centers around on these individuals perspective on the living support and the personnel working at the living support. In addition, the study also examines the personnel’s perspective on their work and the living support activity. This focus was chosen in order to give a broader perspective about the living support. Users participated in a smaller survey and qualitative interviews were carried out with the personnel and one user at one living support establishment. Through the collected material the study enabled to achieve many interesting and valuable opinions about the living support. The study showed that the diagnose alone of mental disability both played a central part for both the individual and the personnel. The theoretical viewpoints that serve as starting point and model for the sociological problematisation were empowerment, Gidden’s concepts of the self-identity, trust and basic conviction and abstract systems, Howard Beckers labelling theory as well as Layder’s domain theory about the four social domains. The analysis of the study has shown that the living support has a great contribution for users with Asbergers syndrome, since the personnel can strengthen the individuals’ empowerment.  The empowerment process gives the users power and self confidence to take control over his/her’s situation in life. Another finding from the study shows that the individuals diagnose oppose the empowerment process, when the individual is being labelling into a deviant, thus also force into submissive norms of an abstract society in order to receive the right of support and aid.

Today's young people increasingly tend to sit at home and relax, instead of being out and meet friends. This is based on my observations from my experience as a teacher. They are more and more in front of their computers and living their lives through their various Internet sites. There I was, stuck on how they behave in their environment, both private and public but also to their friends and their families versus their "internetlife". Young people are more and more at home and even the daily discussion are now placed on the internet instead of face to face communications or on the phone. This essay deals with the subjects selfrepresentation and self-identity that Erving Goffman handled in his book The self in everyday life respectively Anthony Giddens in Modernity and Sef-Identity. I chose to use Facebook. This to myself in my subconscious was assumed that all were somehow linked too. The internet has become such a big part of people's lives and in particular young people. I have taken two high-school classes and compared them to how they behave in reality and through their Facebook profiles. A media class and a social studies class were compared and back to back interviews, ten interviews with five people from each class. The study shows that students are fooling themselves and that they want to be perceived in a certain way by their environment, but this image does not always correspond with the image they provide on their Facebook profile. Later on their future reflections, but the potential consequences are postponed. / Dagens ungdomar tenderar allt mer att sitta hemma och slappa, istället för att vara ute och träffa kompisar. Detta baserar jag på iakttagelser från min praktik som pedagog. De sitter mer och mer framför sina datorer och lever sina liv genom sina olika internetsajter. Det jag fastnade för var hur de beter sig i sin omgivning, både privat och offentligt men också mot sina vänner och sina familjer kontra sitt ”internetliv”. Ungdomar är mer och mer hemma och till och med diskussioner förs nu via MSN istället för öga mot öga eller telefonen. Uppsatsen behandlar begreppen självrepresentation och självidentitet som Erving Goffman behandlar i sin bok Jaget &amp; Maskerna respektive Anthony Giddens i sin Modernitet och självidentitet. Jag valde att använda mig av Facebook. Detta för att jag själv i mitt undermedvetna antog att alla vi människor på något sätt är knutna till webbplatsen. Internet har blivit en del av människors liv och i synnerhet ungdomars. Jag har tagit två gymnasieklasser och jämfört dessa om hur de beter sig i sin verklighet och genom sin profil på Facebook. En medieklass samt en samhällsklass blev jämförda och ställda mot väggen i tio intervjuer med fem personer från varje klass. Studien visar att eleverna lurar sig själva och att de gärna vill uppfattas på ett visst sätt av sin omgivning, men denna bild överensstämmer inte alltid med bilden de ger på sin Facebookprofil. Sedermera finns framtidsreflektioner, men eventuella konsekvenser skjuts på framtiden.

Adolescents feel confusion all the time on the way to become mature adults. In ancient time, children were guided to go through adulthood ceremony to ease safely the unsettled and risky mind at the adolescent stage. It is a pity that Internet Caf&#x00E9; and on-line games nowadays becomes a battlefield for young people to fight with their confusion and conflicts in mind hoping for gaining inside happiness and calm. However, on-line games are not products designed to help adolescent inner growth but commercials, which aim to profit. Internet Caf&#x00E9;, though, is not an ideal place to develop one¡¦s identity, offers a possibility of exciting exploring journey. Nevertheless, in a cement jungle, limited space drives children to go into a virtual fascinating playground to discover ¡§Who am I?¡¨ Campbell stated the theme of ancient myth to present contemporary phenomenon. The myth claims that children are born to be heroes. Heroes search for inner growth, self-identity and conquer challenges in fate of their own. No one can escape from the risky life journey (transformation from adolescent to adult), even though we do not expect it, it comes to us eventually. It is an innate thirst to success in perilous life voyage. This research adapted qualitative in-depth interviews with forty-four young people in eleven Internet Caf&#x00E9;s in Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County, exploring twelve individual cases in profound reflection of their lives, which the whole observation and interviews have been lasted eight months long (September, 2005-April, 2006) and still, some of them kept intensive contact with me. Most heroes in the cases stepped into Dark Forest-Internet Caf&#x00E9;s since grade 3 or 4 and had undergone 4 to 5-year attempt and gradual transformation in mind in addition to the helping hand from Goddess of Happiness (significant others), heroes will come back to real world along with the grace (self-awareness) of the trial in Dark Forest. They will live freely and happily and become masters of two worlds, the Forest and outside world. Heroes who do not break through the spell of Dark Forest would still wait for the guidance of Goddess of Happiness or worse, they would be trapped in jails and dangers and lost contacts with outside world. The research discovers that the main cause of attaching to on-line games comes from school; the secondary cause comes from family. On one hand, the harvest of young people in on-line games contains positive compensation on missing adulthood ceremony passing smoothly rebellious and confusing stage of life journey. On the other hand, the negative influence would be suffering from bad health attributing to staying up all night; bad school performance, unsatisfactory interaction with teachers and parents and much more, some of the young people can not even finish junior high schooling.