According to research applying a social constructionist perspective, the sense of self is not lost in people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is, however, greatly influenced by the symptoms and by how they are treated by other people. Without support, it is difficult to preserve a positive sense of self, when living with progressing cognitive impairments. The stigma associated with cognitive impairment also threatens their sense of self. Harré’s social constructionist theories of self and positioning have been used to study how people with AD express their sense of self. As there is a need to expand the previous research by involving additional participants and research contexts, the aim of the present thesis was to describe, in accordance with Harré’s theories of self and positioning, how people with AD expressed their sense of self in personal interviews and in support groups with other people with AD. The research consists of four substudies (I–IV), and has a qualitative, descriptive, and theory-testing approach. Thirteen people with mild and moderate AD were included, 11 of whom had the early onset form of the disease. Two support groups were formed, led by facilitators who supported the communication and the participants’ expressions of self. Each group met 10 times during an eight-month period. Topics were not predetermined, and introduced by both facilitators and participants. Semistructured interviews were conducted before the groups started and after they ended. The interviews and support group conversations were audio-recoded and analysed with qualitative content analysis, guided by Harré’s theories. In substudy I, the initial interviews were deductively analysed. The findings showed that Self 1 (the sense of being a singular, embodied person) was expressed by the participants without difficulties. Self 2 (the perception of one’s personal attributes and life history) was expressed as feeling mainly the same person. While some abilities had been lost, other had been developed. Self 3 (the socially constructed self) was described as mostly supported, but sometimes threatened in interactions with other people (I). In substudy II, support group conversations were analysed abductively with respect to expressions of Self 2. It was found that participants expressed Self 2 in terms of agency and communion, and a lack of agency and communion (II).In substudy III, a secondary analysis of the data from substudy II was performed inductively with the aim of describing how Self 3 was constructed in the interaction of the support group. Five first-order positions, generating lively interaction, were described: the project manager, the storyteller, the moral agent, the person burdened with AD, and the coping person (III). In substudy IV, all the collected data were reanalysed inductively, focusing on how participants expressed the experience of being research participants. Three themes were constructed: contributing to an important cause, gaining from participating, and experiencing risks and drawbacks (IV). In conclusion, it was found that participants constructed positive social selves through the support from each other, the facilitator, and researchers in the support group (III), and as research participants (IV). Agency and communion were central to Self 2, and decreased with the progression of AD (II). In spite of change, participants perceived themselves as basically the same people, with a potential to learn and develop as persons (I).

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Heavy alcohol drinking is a serious health concern in many African countries such as Namibia and South Africa. The heavy use of alcohol is mainly due to avoid coping with the realities of life. There is however, a paucity of research on heavy alcohol use amongst women, particularly in Oshana region of Namibia, where problem drinking is threatening the well-being of women and society. This study explored the psycho-social determinants of women who are heavy alcohol users in the Oshana region. The study design was explorative and descriptive within a qualitative approach. The social constructionist theory underpinned this study. Four participants were randomly selected from the Developmental Social Services caseload which led the researcher to snowball the other four participants for a total of eight participants in the study. Data was collected by means of semi-structured face-to-face interview with the aid of an interview guide. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and field notes were taken. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret the data. The participants identified with coping with realities among women heavy drinking. They reported psychological and social factors affected the well- being of women drinking. These factors included poverty, unemployment, family pressure or influence, availability and accessibility of alcohol, expression, stress, low self-esteem, fear of loneliness and many others. Based on these results, some of the suggestions put forward by all the participants and the researcher concluded the study with a recommendation that an awareness can be created by service providers such as social workers working with women who are heavy drinkers to establish and improve alcohol programmes in Oshana Region and Namibia as a whole.

On January 1, 2007, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources in the Department of Marine Resources of the Bahamas promulgated significant revisions to their sports-fishing regulations. While the new laws were designed to benefit the Bahamian fisheries, they caused a vociferous uproar among non-resident anglers who frequent the islands of the Bahamas to sports-fish. Of particular concern are the new regulations that limit the maximum weight and number of fish which non-resident anglers may keep on their boat. My research examines the claims-making activities made by American anglers on four different sports-fishermen/cruising forums. The analysis focuses on the motifs, rhetorical idioms, counterrhetorical strategies, and styles among sports-fishermen who fish the Bahamas.

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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Have South African women's lives become happier since the transition to democracy? If they are, could this be linked to gender equality? This is the central question of this study. This study explored a group of women’s subjective experiences of gender equality, by which I mean equality on the basis of gender; and happiness, which refers to women’s life satisfaction and their affective state. It further explores whether gender equality and happiness are linked. The study assumed that everything being equal, endeavours to liberate women from patriarchy and towards gender equality enhance women’s happiness. 1994 ushered in a democratic South Africa and numerous legislative and policy changes were introduced that affect women. Considerable gains have been made at the constitutional and political levels for women’s equality and gender justice. This is reflected in the rankings of South Africa on many different indices. Yet, we see numerous challenges facing women including poverty and gender-based violence. This study examined whether the presence of a range of policies as well as affirmative and protective measures for women have impacted on how they experience their lives. In particular, do they feel that they are happy and do they see happiness as linked to gender equality efforts? Given the research question, this study was grounded within a feminist framework. A mixed methods approach utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods was employed.

The diploma thesis "Media terrorism via bacteria E.coli" puts the so-called cucumber affair from Summer 2011 into wider context and aims to discover the main attributes of contemporary risks and define the way they are presented in the media. Misguiding media releases and the inability to identify the source of the bloody diarrhea outbreak in Germany caused by E.coli bacteria have collectively had a significant impact on consumer behavior and economic stability on a global level. Most people are dependent on government and expert authorities due to the fact that they cannot recognize what represents a realistic threat and what serves as a basis for media sensation. This is why this thesis studies the social constructionist theory, basic media routines and practices as well as theoretical concepts that support the production of pseudo-events. A content analysis of selected Czech dailies and weeklies was executed in order to enable a comparison of the language that has been common for all "pandemics" in the 21st century.