This study builds on a small but growing body of research concerning socio-economic, cultural, political, and personal challenges influencing Saudi women’s professional development. Although Saudi women have more advantages and opportunities in 2020 compared to previous historical periods, women still face challenges related to employment and professional status. This research provides an in-depth analysis of the insider experience connected to challenges Saudi women face in work and life that hinder their professional development. Specifically, this research explored the role of social media in providing new opportunities to help Saudi women overcome challenges they face in work and life. Guided by a qualitative approach, this interpretive study is conducted through interviews, supporting documents analysis, and personal experiences. This study draws on Technofeminism, Intersectional Feminism, and Social Role Theory in order to provide a broad theoretical lens to help interpret findings. Using thematic analysis, six main themes were uncovered: (1) socio-cultural challenges, (2) personal challenges, (3) ethical challenges, (4) institutional challenges, (5) civic and professional engagement, and (6) socialization and privacy issues. General findings indicated that despite efforts from the Saudi Arabian government to enhance women’s rights in society, women continue to face socio-cultural, personal, and ethical challenges in work and life. The advanced analysis revealed that social media does have a positive role in providing Saudi women with new opportunities to overcome challenges they face but that cultural norms and traditional practices continue to create challenges that hinder Saudi women’s professional development.

The aim of my diploma thesis is to give an insight into the social reality of lightly tattooed people as well as those, who are just considering tattoo. Of people, for whom is tattoo neither a lifestyle nor only the fashion trend that recently penetrating into the mainstream culture. Presenting attitudes and opinions of these tattooed and potentially tattooed people the thesis tries to elucidate, what does it mean for them to be tattooed, if there are any concrete values and meanings connected with tattoo, how tattooed understand and reflect a possibility of conflict with the social norms and if the risk of this conflict somehow influences the decision of getting a tattoo. Main current approaches to the phenomenon of tattoo, historical development and changes of its situation in western culture are introduced in the theoretical part. The empirical part then draws on data acquired from semi-structured interviews with tattooed and potentially tattooed living in Czech Republic.

Job centers aid businesses seeking qualified employees and assist job seekers to select and contact employment and training services. Job seekers are also offered the opportunity to assess their skills, abilities, qualifications, and readiness. Furthermore, job centers ensure that job seekers are complying with requirements that they must meet to benefit from job assistance programs such as unemployment insurance. Yet, claimants often procrastinate and/or suspend their job search efforts even though such actions can make them lose their free time and entitlements, and more importantly they may lose the opportunity to take advantage of free information, services, training, and financial assistance for getting a job to which they have already made a claim. The current work looks to Chatman's "small worlds" work, Johnson's comprehensive model of information seeking, and Wilson's "costly ignorance" construct for contributions to understanding such behavior. Identification of a particular trait or set of traits of job seekers during periods of unemployment will inform a new Job Seeking Activities Model (JSAM). This study purposely examines job seeker information behavior and the factors which influence job seekers' behavior, in particular, family tangible support as a social norm effect. A mixed method, using questionnaires for job hunting completers and non-completers and interviews for experts, was employed for data collection. Quantitative data analysis was conducted to provide the Cronbach α coefficient, Pearson's product moment correlation, an independent-sample t-test, effect size, and binary Logit regression. The qualitative data generated from the interview transcript for each section of the themes and subthemes were color coded. Finally, simultaneous triangulation was carried out to confirm or contradict the results from each method. The findings show that social norms, particularly uncontrolled social support provided by their families, are more likely to make job seekers ignore the relevant information about jobs available to them in favor of doing other things. Finally, this research presents a form of data and the development of a workable model that are useful in more clearly and better defining the complex world of job seekers.

An exploration of the idea that tangible change could be made in the world when norms are unsettled rather than reinforced or left untouched. Bloom focuses on creating a space for the individual to re-define the outdated, toxic norms surrounding masculinity to explore ‘what men can be’. This is tied into questioning ‘what food can be’ — now and in the future — in relation to the norm of consuming animal food products in western societies. In collaboration with people who have actively reduced their meat consumption or identify as plant based or vegan, I have aspired to use my practice as a visual communicator to illustrate connections and reveal hidden narratives of these individuals who are already challenging these norms as change agents within society. The outcome is the Bloom Box — an interactive box containing their stories visualised with ‘out of the norm’ plant foods.

Flertalet företag och organisationer har börjat inse de fördelar som erhålls genom att engagera sig i hållbar utveckling och sträva mot en miljövänlig arbetsplats. Att få människor engagerade i miljöfrågor på olika sätt har överlag visat sig vara effektivt när det kommer till att påverka attityder och uppmuntra till miljövänligt beteende, likaså har sociala normer visat sig vara betydande när det kommer till att skapa miljöengagemang på arbetsplatser. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur engagemang och nya normer kan skapas för miljövänliga handlingar på arbetsplatser. Studien avgränsas till Casino Cosmopol i Malmö, där en öppen enkätundersökning har genomförts. Företaget har under en tid arbetat med hållbarhetsfrågor men upplevde att de behövde stöttning och råd när det kom till att skapa miljöengagemang bland medarbetarna och därmed också driva deras miljöarbete framåt. Undersökningen vände sig till samtliga medarbetare inom företaget. Resultatet från enkätundersökningen visar att medarbetare anser att verksamheter och företag har ett stort ansvar när det kommer till miljöfrågor. Undersökningen visade också att kommunikationen inte alltid är tillräcklig mellan arbetsgivare och medarbetare för att miljövänligt beteende ska genomsyra hela verksamheten och för att miljöengagemang ska skapas. Medarbetarna efterfrågar tydlighet, mer kunskap om miljö och klimatfrågor. Resultatet visar också att medarbetarna efterlyser redovisning av de åtgärder som införts, arbetsgivare som är lojala och visar ett genuint engagemang. / Most companies and organisations have realized the benefits of engaging in sustainable development and striving for an environmentally friendly workplace. Getting people involved in environmental issues in different ways has generally proven to be effective when it comes to influencing attitudes and encouraging environmentally friendly behaviour, and social standards have also been found to be important when it comes to creating environmental engagement in workplaces. The purpose of the study is to investigate how commitment and new values can be created for environmentally friendly actions in workplaces. The study is limited to Casino Cosmopol in Malmö, where an open survey has been conducted. The company had for some time worked on sustainability issues but felt that they needed support and advice when it came to create environmental commitment among the employees and taking their environmental actions to the next level. The survey was addressed to all employees within the company. The results of the survey show that employees believe that businesses and companies have a great responsibility when it comes to environmental issues, but that communication between employer and employees is not always sufficient to ensure that environmentally friendly behaviour permeates the entire business and that environmental commitment is created. The employees demand clarity, more knowledge about the environment and climate issues. The result also shows that employees are demanding the effects of the measures that have been establish, employers who are loyal and show genuine commitment.

The purpose of the current study was to systematically evaluate the effect of individualized, normative feedback on college students' self-reported alcohol consumption and estimated peers' consumption using an ABC multiple baseline across participants design. Due to significant attrition, only four college students completed the study. These students self-reported their alcohol consumption and their peers' estimated alcohol consumption twice per week for an average of 14 weeks using Google Form ® . Participants were sent two feedback emails throughout the study: a control statement praising them for their efforts in the study, and an intervention statement containing normative, albeit arbitrary, feedback. Two participants lowered their estimates of peers' consumption, and to a lesser extent their own consumption, after receiving the control statement, suggesting that any type of feedback, regardless of content, has the potential to influence self-report. However, these conclusions are limited by a small sample size and the lack of control participants.

Makt är ofta negativt associerat och förknippat med någonting auktoritärt. Speciellt tydligt blir detta i en skandinavisk kultur där det finns ett vardagligt tal kring “jantelagen” som förkastar när man skryter om sina egna framgångar. Således kan en ledande position i en organisation bli utmanande eftersom positionen kan uppfattas som framträdande och iögonfallande. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att få en djupare förståelse för butikschefer inom livsmedelshandelns subjektiva upplevelser av att påverkas av sociala maktrelationer i en svensk arbetslivskontext. Med utgångspunkt i ett socialpsykologiskt synsätt så studeras detta teoretiskt genom De fem maktformerna, Kulturdimensionsteorin, Approach Inhibition Theory of Power och Normativ makt. Tio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med butikschefer. Slutsatserna visade på en mångfacetterad syn på makt där makt både kunde skildras som något ouppskattat såväl som en källa som bidrar till motivation och samhörighet. Därmed främjades ett relationsorienterat chefskap och butiksmedarbetarnas egenmakt. Att anpassa sitt beteende efter förväntningar var en viktig del i hur chefer använde makt i positiv bemärkelse. Det kunde uttryckas i att anpassa både sin kommunikation och sina chefsegenskaper. / Power is often negatively associated with and addressed as something authoritarian. This becomes apparent in a Scandinavian culture where there is a colloquial term called "janteloven" that disapproves of bragging regarding one's success. Therefore, having a leading position in an organization may be challenging since the position may be regarded as prominent and conspicuous. The purpose of this qualitative study is to achieve a deeper understanding of grocery managers' subjective experiences of being influenced by social power relationships in the Swedish employment context. Based on a social psychological approach, this is theoretically studied with The Five Bases of Power, Cultural Dimensions Theory, Approach Inhibition Theory of Power, and the Normative Theory of Power. Ten semi-structured interviews with grocery managers were conducted. The findings emphasized a multifaceted approach to power, which could be depicted as undesirable or seen as a source of encouragement and unity. Thus, relationship-oriented leadership and empowering grocery personnel were promoted. Adapting one's behavior according to presumptions was a compelling aspect of how managers' used their power in a positive light. This has been depicted in their adaptation of communication and their traits as managers.

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The enduring question of why apparently ordinary individuals participate in the systemic perpetration of mass violence hallmarks genocide studies, and it arose yet again when the multifarious atrocities faced by civilians in the Yugoslav Wars of 1991–1995 were apparent. With explanations resting on notions of “ancient hatreds” having been denounced in favour of ones that emphasise the role of emotions like fear and resentment, ethnic myths and symbols, and competition on group and individual levels of society, there remains some issues with these approaches; they cannot account for what motivates variations in behaviour by on-the-ground perpetrators nor can they describe the process by which violence develops in tandem on micro- and meso-levels, while still accommodating macro-level causes for conflict. In this thesis, symbolic interactionist and social constructivist theories of social roles and social norms are applied in the search for finding the motives for violent behaviour by perpetrators in the Yugoslav Wars of 1991–1995 to establish a more complete understanding the dynamics of individual decision-making and collective action in the context of violence. A directed qualitative content analysis is conducted of testimony provided by twenty-nine on-the-ground perpetrators and by select witnesses. This testimony was collected from the Hugo Valentin Centre’s database of court transcripts from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The research revealed that the (dis-)organisation of the perpetrating groups’ social structures, as well as the presence, or lack thereof, of both role strain and role conflict were deciding factors in motivating violent behaviour.

個人防災の充実は、近年の重要な社会的な課題である。本研究は、社会規範のうち、記述的規範が防災行動に及ぼす影響を検討した。多数の他者が実際にある行動をとっているという情報にもとづく記述的規範は、たしかに防災行動を促進させられることが示された。しかし記述的規範は、一定数の少数の他者が防災行動をとっていないという副次的な情報も伝達してしまう。そのため、受け手の態度によっては、記述的規範が望ましい行動を抑制してしまう危険性があることも示された。 / Promoting personal disaster preparation is an important social issue in recent years. This study examined the effect of descriptive norms on disaster prevention behavior. Descriptive norms based on information about the actual behavior of a large number of others can indeed promote disaster-prevention behavior. However, the descriptive norms also convey secondary information that a certain small number of others are not taking the designated actions. Therefore, depending on the attitudes of the receivers, descriptive norms backfire on the desirable behavior. / 博士(心理学) / Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University