Denna studie tar upp betydelsen av arbetet för individen idag i det som brukar kallas för det senmoderna samhället, hur yrkesidentiteten formas samt hur viktig denna är för vem människan är inför sig själv och andra. Det teoretiska och begreppsliga ramverket utgår ifrån ett symboliskt interaktionistiskt perspektiv och innefattar teoretiska begrepp från Erving Goffmans teori om definitionen av situation och den bakre och främre regionen samt Richard Jenkins och John P Hewitts teorier om identitetsskapandet. Även begrepp som reflexivitet och individualisering från Anthony Giddens samt Thomas Scheffs teori om emotionerna skam och skuld tas upp i studien, vilket har hjälpt till och skapat en förståelse av det aktuella ämnet. Med den hermeneutiska metodansatsen som utgångspunkt har vi sökt efter en djupare förståelse av fenomenet. Detta genom intervjuer med tio personer från yrkeslivet som sedan tolkats och till slut visar på att arbetet utgör en stor och central roll i en individs liv samt dess betydelse för identitet/erna i sin helhet. Men att denna ständigt formas och omformas genom livets olika stadier och i det sociala samspelet med andra människor runt omkring.

<p>Fitting in is something that many strive for in today’s society. In order to do this, more or less all of us use impression management. The illness Anorexia contradicts the norms of society since eating is a fundamental need, and to refrain from this is therefore a major discrepancy. It is the impression management among anorectics we have chosen to put our emphasis on in this survey in which about ten people have been interviewed with a qualitative method. Three of these are former anorectics while the rest comes in contact with anorectic people through their profession in one way or another.</p><p>We can state that anorectics prove to behave self-deceitfully. To start with, the ill person lacks insight of his/her problems and denial is not uncommon. When at last realised, the illness is often so well rooted in the identity that the ill is afraid of losing it. Due to this, he/she feels forced to hide the disease at any price. From our interviews we can see how some respondents, among other things, hid food, worked out on the sly and used laxatives.</p>

Fitting in is something that many strive for in today’s society. In order to do this, more or less all of us use impression management. The illness Anorexia contradicts the norms of society since eating is a fundamental need, and to refrain from this is therefore a major discrepancy. It is the impression management among anorectics we have chosen to put our emphasis on in this survey in which about ten people have been interviewed with a qualitative method. Three of these are former anorectics while the rest comes in contact with anorectic people through their profession in one way or another. We can state that anorectics prove to behave self-deceitfully. To start with, the ill person lacks insight of his/her problems and denial is not uncommon. When at last realised, the illness is often so well rooted in the identity that the ill is afraid of losing it. Due to this, he/she feels forced to hide the disease at any price. From our interviews we can see how some respondents, among other things, hid food, worked out on the sly and used laxatives.

Sjukhuskuratorer har samtal med patienter som lider till exempel av depression, ångest eller andra besvär orsakade av psykosociala faktorer så som stress, livskriser eller alkohol. I denna studie ställdes frågan vilka effekter det patientnära arbetet kan ha för sjukhuskuratorn. Syftet var att utifrån ett emotionsteoretiskt perspektiv undersöka hur sjukhuskuratorer upplever att de påverkas av det patientnära arbetet. I studien ställdes frågan vad sjukhuskuratorer upplever att det patientnära arbetet har för effekter för dem själva och hur sjukhuskuratorer hanterar det som uppkommer i det patientnära arbetet. Tidigare forskning har visat att andra yrkesgrupper på området, exempelvis sjuksköterskor och terapeuter i allmänhet, påverkas av att använda ett härbärgerande förhållningsätt. I denna studie intervjuades fyra sjukhuskuratorer om deras tankar och känslor kring arbetets effekter. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av Hochschilds begrepp emotionellt lönearbete och Goffmans begrepp om främre och bakre region. Resultatet visar att det patientnära arbetet hade effekter. Sjukhuskuratorerna tog med sig tankar och känslor från det patientnära arbetet i den främre till den bakre regionen. Sjukhuskuratorerna hanterade det som uppkommit i det patientnära arbetet vid samtal med kollegor och handledning och när de fick stunder för sig själva. Samtliga sjukhuskuratorer ansåg att det patientnära arbetet har gjort dem mindre sociala, samt att det skapat ett behov av ensamhet och självreflektion. / Hospital social workers have patients suffering from a range of symptoms, amongst these are depression, distress or other disorders caused by psychosocial factors, such as stress, a life crisis or alcohol. In this study the question was asked what effects the patient-care can have for the hospital social worker. The purpose of this research study was to examine from the perspective of emotion theory, how hospital social workers felt they were affected by the patient-care. Our research questions were what effects the hospital social workers see that the patient-care have for themselves, and how the hospital social workers deal with what emerges from the patient-care. Earlier research has shown that other occupational groups, such as nurses and therapists in general, are affected by harbouring what arises in the patient-care. Four interviews with hospital social workers conducted about their thoughts and feelings on the effects of the job. The result has been analyzed with Hochschild’s notion of emotional labour and Goffman’s concepts front stage and back stage. The results show that the job does affect the worker. The hospital workers harbour thoughts and feelings that emerge in the patient-care on the front stage, until they are able to deal with it in different regions on the back stage through colleges, guidance and by themselves. All of our interviewed hospital social workers deemed that they had become less social due to the nature of the patient care. In addition they also thought that it had created a need of seclusion and self-reflection.

The aim of this study has been to examine how a few members of the Finnish and non- Scandinavian Romani subgroups experience their own, and their groups, situation on the Housing- and Labour Market. We´ve studied our respondents’ experiences of discrimination, which difficulties they think there are, what strategies can be used to deal with these difficulties and also their own ideas on how to improve the situation for the Romani people in the Swedish society. This has been done by six individual structured interviews which have been analyzed with concepts from Symbolic Interactionism, including Goffman’s Dramaturgical Role Theory, definition of Stigma and Kelly’s theory of Personal Constructions. Our results show that the respondents either have been victims of discrimination themselves, or have family/friends that have, which has led to adjustments to the expectations of how an employee or a houseguest should be. Our respondents believe that difficulties getting/keeping a job/house are a result of prejudice towards the Romani people and the main strategy that can be used is hiding their ethnic identity on these arenas.  Ideas for improvement include members of the majority population and Romanies working together long term to develop knowledge about the Romani people.