All people experience stress in their environments. The specific causes of stress vary from person to person as does one's ability to cope with each stressor. This thesis introduces the concept of Empathetic Design, a design strategy possible only when empathy for the inhabitant is achieved by the designer. An Empathetic Designer is able to identify environmental stressors and can employ appropriate design strategies that reduce stress. Though this strategy is meant to be applicable for all people in all environments, the scope of this thesis focuses on the design of elementary school environments. Specifically, the scope is limited to how Empathetic Design can reduce stress and foster the inclusion of high functioning autistic children in a mainstream educational environment. This thesis combines current learning theory and autism research with a visual exploration of building types from six periods of American school design. The hope is to create Empathetic Designers who will inform design of future elementary school facilities. / Master of Architecture

This essay argues that while the main character in The Outsiders challenges the norms of toxic masculinity on a surface level, his decision to continue fighting for his gang, the greasers, actually reinforces the stereotypical view that violence is connected to masculinity. Furthermore, it is argued that studying The Outsiders in a Swedish EFL classroom can promote critical thinking and knowledge of issues connected to gender through using empathetic reading.  Empathetic reading is a way to read carefully to gain new perspectives in order to discuss and criticize the text. Even though the term toxic masculinity assumes a healthy/harmful binary, it is needed since the power dynamics that sustain gender inequality remain. Recent events in the Western world, such as the #Metoo movement and Trumpism, are just a couple of examples of how power dynamics are showing through gender discrimination and sexual harassment. However, gender can be a sensitive subject in lower secondary EFL classrooms, and by focusing on being empathetic towards how others express gender may lessen the pressure of speaking about gender subjectively.

The lack of employee commitment costs retail organizations billions of dollars annually in the form of decreased effectiveness, profits, and retention rates. The purpose of this case study was to identify effective strategies used by retail store managers that lead to employee commitment to increase business performance. The study population was 8,230 retail store managers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The conceptual framework for this study was the Meyer and Allen 3-component model of commitment. Participants were purposefully selected for their knowledge, experience and success in implementing effective retention strategies. Data were collected via face-to-face semistructured interviews, indirect participant observations, and archival document reviews with 5 retail store managers. The data analysis process involved organizing the interviews, color coding themes, and using NVivo software to interpret the data. Three themes emerged: Employee engagement increased employee commitment to the organization, managers decreased employee turnover by taking a personal interest in employees, and employee empowerment increased organizational commitment. Increasing employee commitment contributes to social change by providing organizational managers and leaders with important insights. Enhancing employee commitment contributes to society through increased organizational profitability resulting from improved retention strategies.

LGBTQ+-youth under the age of 18 is a vulnerable group with few accessible meeting-places. We wanted to examine the library’s role in facilitating a meeting-place for this group, through qualitative interviews with various library personnel. The in-terviews were analyzed using Braun & Clarkes (2006) process for thematic analysis. Audunson’s definition of the library as a low-intensity meeting place was used as basis for our understanding of the function of the public library. The result indicated that the library personnel focused more on creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, rather than a meeting place specifically. We identified four themes used to create these spaces: knowledge about the group and their needs, activities aimed at the group, an ability to establish social connections with the individual people and a clearly visible position in favor of LGBTQ+-rights.

Le comportement empathique d’autrui peut avoir un effet positif sur le ressenti douloureux. Dans le milieu médical, cette stratégie est encouragée par les soignants pour interagir et soutenir les patients. A l’inverse, la non-empathie c’est-à-dire une attitude négative envers la personne qui souffre est proscrite par crainte d’effets délétères. Comment l’empathie et la non-empathie d’autrui influencent-elles la perception douloureuse ? Investiguer cette problématique est l’objectif de ce travail de thèse. Dans la première partie de ce travail, nous avons construit et validé une manipulation expérimentale nous permettant de délivrer des feedbacks empathiques à des sujets recevant des stimulations nociceptives. Les commentaires empathiques ont réduit significativement l’intensité douloureuse des sujets (-12%). En revanche, les commentaires non-empathiques n’ont pas changé la cotation douloureuse, comparativement à une situation neutre. Ils sont néanmoins suffisants pour influencer la réponse autonomique à la douleur. Les analyses d’imagerie cérébrale (IRMf) ont montré que la modulation de l’intensité douloureuse par l’empathie passerait par des interactions entre les structures du réseau par défaut (vmPFC et CCP/Prec), le DLPFC et l’insula postérieure. Seule l’activité du CCP/Prec est capable d’intégrer le contenu des feedbacks empathiques. Cette structure en changeant sa connectivité fonctionnelle engagerait des mécanismes de contrôle (vmPFC) capables d’interagir avec l’insula postérieure et antérieure pour réduire la perception douloureuse. L’étude d’un tel système de modulation à l’échelle du réseau fonctionnel de la douleur a apporté des résultats concordants. / Other’s empathetic behavior can have a positive effect on pain perception. In medical setting it is a known strategy from caregivers to support and interact with their patients. Conversely, unempathy, having a negative attitude towards the suffering person is outlawed out of fear of induce deleterious effects. How do empathy and unempathy from others influence pain perception? Investigating this issue is the aim of this thesis. First, we built and approved an experiment delivering different types of empathetic feedbacks to subjects who received nociceptive stimulations. The empathetic comments significantly alleviated subjects’ pain ratings (-12 %). The unempathetic comments did not influence the subjects’ pain ratings in comparison with neutral situation. However, they influenced autonomic response related to pain. Neuro-imaging studies shown that the pain intensity modulation related to empathetic feedbacks involved interactions between the core structures of the default network (vmPFC and PCC/Prec), the DLPFC and the posterior insula. Functional activations revealed that only the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus activity was able to integrate the empathetic feedbacks’ content. Changing its functional connectivity, this structure would engage control mechanisms (vmPFC) able to interact with the posterior and anterior insula to reduce pain perception. The study of such modulation system at the level of the pain functional network provided consistent results.

La présente étude se donne pour but d’analyser l’écriture moderne – palimpseste et hybride – de Marguerite Duras et ses modifications qualitatives dans les traductions slovaques. Le titre de la thèse rend compte des deux lignes de notre réflexion : interprétative (interrogative) de l’original et critique (évaluative) de la traduction. La première partie propose une ouverture théorique à la réflexion sur la traduction littéraire en confrontant les écoles slovaque et française. Nous esquissons les problèmes généraux de l’art de la traduction ainsi que de la réception des textes littéraires. Dans la deuxième partie, nous proposons une lecture interprétative de l’œuvre de Duras. Nous réfléchissons sur le processus de la réception de l’œuvre dans la complexité de ses rapports à des textes antécédents de Duras. Notre lecture est centrée sur les particularités littéraires – stylistiques, esthétiques et narratologiques – qui risquent de se perdre dans la traduction. Dès le premier roman, l’imaginaire de Duras engendre des thèmes, des motifs et des modes d’écriture privilégiés dont le traducteur, dans la perspective d’une lecture empathique, est invité à saisir les constantes et les métamorphoses. De plus, le lecteur-traducteur devrait pénétrer avec Duras dans les sensations de ses narrateurs et de ses personnages. Dans la troisième partie, nous étudions des divergences concrètes entre les traductions slovaques et le texte de départ. Les failles des traductions slovaques tiennent essentiellement à leur négligence des figures de manque. Nous concluons que dans la réécriture slovaque, l’oralité programmée par Duras s’efface : l’émotion palpable dans l’original se dissout dans la cohérence retrouvée du discours. La traduction slovaque restitue l’écriture fragmentaire, mais ne laisse plus sentir l’origine des silences propres à l’écrivaine : l’impuissance à dire ou, au contraire, l’urgence de dire. / The present study aims to analyse Marguerite Duras’s writing and its qualitative modifications in slovak translations. This modern (palimpsest and hybrid) writing offers itself to the translator a strategy for the conceptual preparing before writing of the translation. Methodically, we proceed following all the steps in the translator’s work before final writing of his translation. The title of the dissertation anticipates two main exploring perspectives on Duras’s writing : interpretative analysis (investigation) of the original and critical (evaluative) reading of the translation. We focus on the reading process of the work in its complex relationship to earlier Duras’s texts. The first part offers a theoretical opening reflection on translation of literary works as well as the comparing of the Slovak and French schools. We analyse the general problems of the art of translation and reading of literary texts. The second part questions the stylistic, aesthetic and narratological aspects of Duras’s writing which may be lost in the translation. The imagination of the author creates topics, motifs and preferred writing strategies which the translator, in the perspective of an empathic reading, is supposed to capture in all their variations. In the reading process, the translator as a reader is invited to enter with Duras into the sensations of her narrators and characters. In the third part, we study the actual differences between slovak translations and the original text. At the end of our study, we found out that in the Slovak rewriting, the oral style fades seriously: the emotion which is palpable in the original dissolves in the established coherence of discourse. Slovak translations restore the fragmentary writing, but they don’t allow to feel and understand the reasons of writer’s silence and empty spaces: her powerlessness to say or, on the contrary, her urgent need to say.

This study investigated the psychological approach and the classroom methodology needed by an educator to teach street children effectively in a special school created for them. Street children with their psychological trauma, their independent, self-sufficient outlook and educational deprivation make their adaption to the methods and educational environment of mainstream schooling difficult. To meet the special educational, psychological and emotional needs of street children, Masupatsela School was started. The study was carried out in this school. The qualitative research methodology used an action research design which consisted of a reconnaissance phase and three cycles. Each cycle made use of a planning, implementation and evaluation phase. A general plan was formulated after the reconnaissance phase and revised after each cycle. The teaching was done by the researcher using four grades of street children ranging form grade 7 to grade 10. Because of their specific psychological makeup, street children, who have lacked close, comforting and trusting relationships and role models, require a classroom environment, atmosphere and a relationship with the educator which is supportive, caring, warm and firm. To achieve this a client centred approach was used based predominantly on the therapeutic principles of congruence, empathetic understanding and unconditional positive regard. The interaction with the children was based on openness, tolerance, the affirmation of others and honest firmness. The teaching methodology was an eclectic one which made use primarily of a cognitive teaching style which was introduced incrementally over the three cycles. The main components of this style consisted of cognitive questioning, cooperative learning and strategic reading for information. The results of the study showed that both the psychological and educational approach in the classroom to be very appropriate and successful. However the wider negative contextual influences such as the school organization, staffing and curriculum made the classroom strategies difficult to sustain. It is recommended that a programme using these educational and psychological approaches and incorporating functional literacy and numeracy, vocational skills, recreation and a therapeutic programme be incorporated when designing a programme for street children in a formal setting. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This study investigated the psychological approach and the classroom methodology needed by an educator to teach street children effectively in a special school created for them. Street children with their psychological trauma, their independent, self-sufficient outlook and educational deprivation make their adaption to the methods and educational environment of mainstream schooling difficult. To meet the special educational, psychological and emotional needs of street children, Masupatsela School was started. The study was carried out in this school. The qualitative research methodology used an action research design which consisted of a reconnaissance phase and three cycles. Each cycle made use of a planning, implementation and evaluation phase. A general plan was formulated after the reconnaissance phase and revised after each cycle. The teaching was done by the researcher using four grades of street children ranging form grade 7 to grade 10. Because of their specific psychological makeup, street children, who have lacked close, comforting and trusting relationships and role models, require a classroom environment, atmosphere and a relationship with the educator which is supportive, caring, warm and firm. To achieve this a client centred approach was used based predominantly on the therapeutic principles of congruence, empathetic understanding and unconditional positive regard. The interaction with the children was based on openness, tolerance, the affirmation of others and honest firmness. The teaching methodology was an eclectic one which made use primarily of a cognitive teaching style which was introduced incrementally over the three cycles. The main components of this style consisted of cognitive questioning, cooperative learning and strategic reading for information. The results of the study showed that both the psychological and educational approach in the classroom to be very appropriate and successful. However the wider negative contextual influences such as the school organization, staffing and curriculum made the classroom strategies difficult to sustain. It is recommended that a programme using these educational and psychological approaches and incorporating functional literacy and numeracy, vocational skills, recreation and a therapeutic programme be incorporated when designing a programme for street children in a formal setting. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

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Syftet med denna magisteruppsats har varit att utforska hur Covid-19 pandemin har påverkat ledarskapet och organisationens riktning.    Covid-19 pandemin har påverkar olika delar av ledarskapet. Resultaten visar tydligt att chefer känner sig överbelastade eftersom de måste hantera många administrativa uppgifter och alternerande möten. På grund av brist på tid och balans mellan arbete och privatliv har förmågan att ha en helhetssyn, tolka och ta in perspektiv utifrån och in och inifrån och ut varit en utmaning för ledarna. Resultatet indikerar även på behovet av tydliga kommunikationskanaler mellan ledarna, de anställda och deras kunder om vilka åtgärder som krävs för att anpassa sig till den nya situationen som pandemin har medfört.   Under pandemin har organisationerna tvingats att vidta snabba åtgärder baserat på föreskrifterna och begränsningarna från Folkhälsomyndigheten och regeringen. Etablerade digitala kanaler har använts men nya digitala kanaler har behövts identifieras för att skapa interaktion och relationer inom organisationen samt med kunderna.   Den snabba omvandlingen till den digitala världen har påverkat organisationens riktning att tänka annorlunda, vara mer flexibel och anpassningsbar till nya oväntade förändringar, såsom pandemin. Organisationerna har använt nyckelindikatorer för att identifiera och få en tydlig bild av hur pandemin har påverkat organisationens riktning internt och externt gentemot sina kunder. Denna nya digitala omvandling har också tvingat kunderna att gå in på nya digitala plattformar och interagera online med organisationerna. Den nya digitala medvetenheten från kunderna har framkallat nya digitala krav och tjänster som i sin tur har resulterat i behov av nya digitala självservice tjänster och en högre och starkare digital kompetens från organisationens kundtjänst.   En bidragande diskussion till organisationerna och samhället är att hänvisa till begreppet lönsamhet som en värdeskapande effekt som är hållbar över tid, kopplad till tre element: ledarskap, organisationens riktning och kundbehov. / The purpose of this thesis has been to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the leadership and the direction of the organization.   The Covid-19 pandemic has affected various parts of the leadership. The results clearly indicate that managers feel overloaded since they have to handle a lot of administrative tasks and alternating meetings. Due to lack of time and balance between work and private life, the ability to have a holistic view, interpret and take in perspectives from outside-in and inside-out has been a challenge for the leaders. The results also indicated the need for clear communication between the leaders and the employees and their customers about what actions are required in order to adapt to the new situation that the pandemic has imposed.   During the pandemic the organizations were forced to take fast action based on the regulations and restrictions from the Public Health Agency and the government. Established digital channels were used but new digital channels had to be identified to create interaction and relations within the organization and with the customers.  The fast transformation to the digital world has affected the direction of the organization to think differently and be more flexible and adaptable to new unexpected changes, such as the pandemic. The organizations have used key indicators to identify and get a clear picture of how the pandemic has affected the direction of the organization internally and externally towards its customers. This new digital transformational shift has also forced the customers to enter new digital platforms and interact online with the organizations. The new digital awareness from the customers has induced new digital requirements and services which in turn have resulted in the need for new digital self-services and a higher and stronger digital competence from the organizations customer service.   A contributing discussion to the organizations and to the society is to refer to the concept of profitability as a value-creating effect sustainable over time, connected by three elements: leadership, direction of the organization and customer need. / <p>2021-06-06</p>