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Grounded theory research was conducted with twenty-four male and female emergency shelter operators (alternatively known as caseworkers) from three different shelters in a large Canadian city: The Open Arms, Good Samaritan and Rescue Mission. Drawing on the experiences of those working in non-profit ‘homeless’ shelters, and based on the sociological concept of ‘dirty work,’ this study describes why caseworkers take on this kind of work, how they make sense of it, and what they themselves get out of it. This research reveals a complex picture of frontline emergency casework that others see as objectionable, dangerous and tainted is described by informants with a sense of job satisfaction, dignity, collective esteem and pride. Moreover, it illuminates the ways in which individuals and occupational groups reframe and subjectively construct meanings about what it means to be involved in ‘dirty work’ such that it is regarded positively and as ‘good work’. Because caseworkers deal in difficult emotions, they must learn to perform a balancing act between professional decorum and expressed concern. The ways that caseworkers are supposed to perceive their roles are governed by a set of unwritten norms and rules that normalize and renarrate disruptive and abnormal situations of a caseworker being humiliated, berated, verbally and physically attacked and by which they accept this as normal and therefore morally acceptable. It was typical for frontline caseworkers, working in non-profit shelters, to emphasize the relational and affectual rewards of the job as a compensation for its low pay and dirty ‘particulars,’ which meets the expectations, self-conceptions and values they hold themselves to be as caring and compassionate workers. They accomplish this by redirecting attention to the more dignifying aspects of their jobs and by identifying strongly with both their occupations and the collective identity of their occupational culture. This research further underscores both the importance of understanding the interpretive processes of meaning-making and the social construction of ‘dirt’. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Caregiving to the elderly in both the paid and unpaid spheres involves a crucial component, emotion management, that is often invisible despite its importance to the delivery of care. As well, little is known about how caregivers’ emotion management in one setting is related to its expression in another. This thesis is an exploration to gain a greater understanding of the ways in which the contexts of caregiving shape the emotion management involved, in hopes of contributing to the knowledge of an important dimension of caregiving and women’s work in the two spheres. Based on the narratives of women who work as caregivers in both the paid and unpaid spheres simultaneously, I use a socialist-feminist perspective to analyze the ideology and structure that shape contexts in which emotion management occurs in caregiving. I explore how these contexts affect the experience of emotion management, and how the contexts might impact one another and the emotion management performed in each. / Master of Science

The health of adolescent boys is complex and surprisingly little is known about how adolescent boys perceive, conceptualise and experience their health. Thus, the overall aim of this thesis was to explore adolescent boys’ perceptions and experiences of health, emotions, masculinity and subjective social status (SSS). This thesis consists of a qualitative, a quantitative and a mixed methods study. The qualitative study aimed to explore how adolescent boys understand the concept of health and what they find important for its achievement. Furthermore, the adolescent boys’ views of masculinity, emotion management and their potential effects on wellbeing were explored. For this purpose, individual interviews were conducted with 33 adolescent boys aged 16-17 years. The quantitative study aimed to investigate the associations between pride, shame and health in adolescence. Data were collected through a cross-sectional postal survey with 705 adolescents. The purpose of the mixed methods study was to investigate associations between SSS in school, socioeconomic status (SES) and self-rated health (SRH), and to explore the concept of SSS in school. Cross-sectional data were combined with interview data in which the meaning of SSS was further explored. Individual interviews with 35 adolescents aged 17-18 years were conducted. In the qualitative study, data were analysed using Grounded Theory. In the quantitative study, statistical analyses (e.g., chi-square test and uni- and multivariable logistic regression analyses) were performed. In the mixed method study, a combination of statistical analyses and thematic network analysis was applied. The results showed that there was a complexity in how the adolescent boys viewed, experienced, dealt with and valued health. On a conceptual level, they perceived health as holistic but when dealing with difficult emotions, they were prone to separate the body from the mind. Thus, the adolescent boys experienced a difference between health as a concept and health as an experience (paper I). Concerning emotional orientation in masculinity, two main categories of masculine conceptions were identified: a gender-normative masculinity and a non-gender-normative masculinity (paper II). Gender-normative masculinity comprised two seemingly opposite emotional masculinity orientations, one towards toughness and the other towards sensitivity, both of which were highly influenced by contextual and situational group norms and demands, despite that their expressions are in contrast to each other. Non-gender-normative masculinity included an orientation towards sincerity, emphasising the personal values of the boys. Emotions were expressed more independently of peer group norms. The findings suggest that different masculinities and the expression of emotions are intricately intertwined and that managing emotions is vital for wellbeing. The present findings also showed that both shame and pride were significantly associated with SRH, and furthermore, that there seems to be a protective effect of experiencing pride for health (paper III). The results also demonstrated that SSS is strongly related to SRH, and high SRH is related to high SSS, and further that the positioning was done in a gendered space (paper IV). Results from all studies suggest that the emotional and relational aspects, as well as perceived SSS, were strongly related to SRH. Positive emotions, trustful relationships and having a sense of belonging were important factors for health and pride was an important emotion protecting health. Physical health, on the other hand, had a more subordinated value, but the body was experienced as an important tool to achieve health. Even though health was mainly perceived in a holistic manner by the boys, there were boys who were prone to dichotomise the health experience into a mind-body dualism when having to deal with difficult emotions. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that young, masculine health is largely experienced through emotions and relationships between individuals and their contexts affected by gendered practices. Health is to feel and function well in mind and body and to have trusting relationships. The results support theories on health as a social construction of interconnected processes. Having confidence in self-esteem, access to trustful relationships and the courage to resist traditional masculine norms while still reinforcing and maintaining social status are all conducive to good health. Researchers as well as professionals need to consider the complexity of adolescent boys’ health in which norms, values, relationships and gender form its social determinants. Those working with young boys should encourage them to integrate physical, social and emotional aspects of health into an interconnected and holistic experience.

Past research concerning work and family has largely been from traditional, white-collar settings and has only taken into consideration the perceptions of the employees' experiences with regard to the relationship between work and family. However, there is no doubt that employees' in non-traditional settings, particularly those employed in public safety professions (i.e. police and fire) experience the relationship between work and family differently than those in white-collar settings, especially since they put their lives on the line daily for the protection and betterment of the community, society and even the world. In addition, the experiences and perceptions of work and family will undoubtedly be different for the family members (i.e. children and spouses) of those employed in such "life-threatening" professions. This study sought to understand how public safety employees, as well as their families, make sense out of the relationship between work and family by first examining what metaphors they employ to articulate the relationship between work and family. In addition, this study sought to examine if male versus female public safety employees experience the relationship between work and family in similar or different ways, as well as if police officers and fire fighters experience the relationship similarly or differently. Using qualitative methods, the findings indicate that public safety employees and their families articulate and make sense of the relationship between work and family in both similar and different ways. Contrary to previous work-family research, dominant metaphors and constructs such as balance, conflict, segmentation, etc. did not appear at all within this study. Instead, participants likened the relationship between work and family to competition, nature, organism, change, integration, opposition, ambiguity, and destruction. Public safety employees and their families also experienced and made sense of the relationship between work and family through humor, emotion management, fear and risk assessment. Findings also indicate that both male and female public safety employees internalize risk in much the same way, as well as agree that parenthood in general, is devalued in the public safety profession. With regard to differences, findings indicate that females have a harder time negotiating a healthy relationship between work and family, have their competency levels always questioned by family or co-workers, and use different language and rhetoric from males when talking about work and family. Finally, results show that police officers and fire fighters make sense of work and family in much the same way with regard to "dirty work" and communication rules but differ in terms of coping mechanisms and job satisfaction. This study suggests a number of implications for both theory and practice. The findings also point to many necessary areas of future research which could further our understanding of the relationship between work and family, not only in professions characterized by high-risk, non-standard hours and stress, but also in standard white-collar professions as well.

Syftet med studien var att bidra till en djupare förståelse för de mest centrala aspekterna av emotionshanteringen i gisslandramat och hur cheferna hanterade sina egna och andras emotioner under denna händelse. Det empiriska materialet byggde på fjorton intervjuer med chefer i olika befattningar och med skiljda organisationstillhörigheter inom olika krishanteringsorganisationer. Krishanteringsorganisationer är avsedda att hantera kriser som uppstår i samhället. Intervjuerna analyserades enligt en grundad teoriansats. Resultatet visade att när aktörer inom en krishanteringsorganisation möter en antagonistisk stressor (orsakad av människan) har två typer av emotionella normer betydelse. Dessa två normer kallades för ”emotionellt styrande system”. De är i normala fall latent inbyggda i det dagliga arbetet i verksamheterna men i denna akuta händelse kunde de observeras genom att rama in aktörernas emotionshantering. Den första normen kunde förklaras som ”fokus på uppgiften och låt inte emotioner störa”. Den andra normen sattes igång ungefär samtidigt och förklarades som ”tillhandahåll arbetsgruppen fysisk och psykisk trygghet”. Det emotionellt styrande systemet har en lång historia i organisationskulturen och förs vidare genom sociala processer. Resultatet kan antas vara kännetecknande utifrån yrkesgrupper som hanterar påfrestande arbetsuppgifter. Det skulle därför vara intressant att redovisa studien i utbildningssammanhang för de organisationer som hanterar kriser i samhället. / The purpose of this study was to contribute to a deeper understanding of the key aspects of emotion management during the hostage-taking and how managers handled their own and others' emotions through this event. The empirical data consisted of fourteen interviews with leaders in various positions and with separated organizational affiliations in various crisis management organizations. These kinds of organizations are intended to deal with crises that arise in society. The interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The results showed that when agents in a crisis management organization meet an antagonistic stressor (caused by man) two types of emotional norms are of importance. These two norms were called “emotional ruled system”. They are normally latent embedded in the everyday interactions but in acute, potentially dangerous situations they will be observed by framing the leaders' emotion handling. The first embedded norm could be explained as "focus on task and do not let emotions interfere". The second norm begins to operate simultaneously, and can be summarized as “provide the task force with maximum physical and psychological security”. The emotional ruled system has a long history in organizational culture and is passed on through social processes. The result can be assumed to be characteristic for professionals who handle demanding tasks. It would therefore be interesting to report the study in educational contexts for these professionals.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka vilken betydelse finlandssvenska kvinnors upplevda nivå av stress, självkänsla och emotion management (att kunna hantera de egna känslorna) hade för deras förmåga att anpassa sig till en ny tillvaro i Schweiz. Utöver detta syftade studien att klargöra vilka överlappningar som fanns mellan self-efficacy och dimensionerna i Black, Mendenhall och Oddou (1991) modellen över internationell anpassning. Fyra olika skalor användes för att undersöka relationen mellan anpassningsförmåga och variablerna ovan. Resultatet baserat på 35 respondenter visade att anpassningsförmåga korrelerade både med självkänsla och self-efficacy (tilltro till sin egen förmåga). Kvinnorna skattade anpassningen till livet i Schweiz som ringa krävande, hade låga stressupplevelser och en god självkänsla. Kvinnornas emotion management, var likaledes god. Resultaten bidrar till en bättre förståelse av anpassningsprocessen i ett annat land än det egna hemlandet för att underlätta omställningen.

Recent developments in emotion and EI research have introduced new ways of measuring emotional abilities, including performance based tests. The current study aimed to examine the associations of three emotional abilities, using three objective measures. The study consisted of a survey and an experiment, where 89 participants completed performance based multimodal emotion recognition and emotion understanding tests, and a conditioning task using social aversive and appetitive stimuli. The results showed that individuals who are more proficient in emotion understanding were more accurate in emotion recognition and more effective in extinguishing fear-evoking responses. In addition, individuals proficient in emotion recognition were shown to have stronger general responding during fear acquisition. Furthermore, various findings related to emotion understanding and emotion recognition modalities, including item difficulty and specific emotions. Implications of current findings support the notion of separate but related emotional abilities while also highlighting a potentially underlying mechanism or core emotional competence.