<p>Here is presented the result and discussion of a survey concerning the psychosocial environment in a school in the vicinity of Stockholm. The theoretical background of this study was the model of demand-control by Theorell, and various aspects of stress by Frankenhauser and Ödman. The survey was constituted of an inquiry form which was handed out to six different classes at the school. A total of 86 students filled in the form, and their answers were treated with standard statistical procedures to reveal the results. The inquiry form was made up by five parts; one that concerned the background of the respondent, one that reflected the psychosocial health and stress level and three parts that concerned discrimination, victimization and school democracy. Among the results was that female students was highly affected by stress related psychosocial disorder, and that they probably in some sense were able to cope with it because of good relations to friends. Another result of the study was that students with different cultural backgrounds had the same psychosocial health conditions as those with Swedish cultural background, and they were not seemingly affected by discrimination. These results, as well as the others in this study, are of course part of a very complex context and no certain conclusions can be drawn.</p>

Friends benefit both our psychological and our emotional well-being by increasing overall happiness, life satisfaction, and a positive sense of self among women. Often, however, friendships decrease in the later years. The purpose of this study is to learn more about divorced or widowed, retired women and their friendships, specifically, whether friendships changed from work to retirement. Friendships have been clearly identified by women as a significant component of retirement life. The importance of friendship increases with age, and friends have been found to buffer single women in particular from becoming isolated in retirement. The sample recruited for this study consisted of 20 single, career women who had been retired between five and ten years and who were not coresiding with another person. This study utilized in-depth, qualitative interviewing to enable participants to define themselves and their experiences. Overall, it appeared as though these women were very satisfied with retirement and considered it to be a positive experience. Even though workplace friendships had gradually been lost since retirement, this loss was considered normal and former coworkers were considered to be on different paths from the retirees. Workplace friends were often not whom the women felt closest to or socialized with preretirement; consequently this gradual drifting and loss of workplace friendships was not considered problematic. The women overall were making new friends. Various types of discord among friends were also reported. Discord had negative affects but did not necessarily cause dissolution of the friendship. Betrayal was often an incentive to immediately end a friendship; however, betrayal was uncommon. Friends played a major role in these women's lives. The emotional aspects of the women's friendships were reported to be most important. Friends helped these women feel valued and provided a substantial amount of support to one another. The findings of this study should assure those divorced or widowed women who may be nearing retirement that the adjustment to retirement need not be difficult, especially if one has supportive friends. / Graduation date: 2003

The purpose of this study was to analyze the change in gay/lesbian friendships after the disclosure of their sexual identity. Six specific areas were examined: (1) what are the circumstances under which persons find out their close friends are gay/lesbian (hereafter referred to as the event), (2) do relationships change when close friends find out about the participants' sexual identity, (3) if the relationship changes, how does it change (hereafter referred to as the relational outcome), (4) which events are associated with which relational outcomes, (5) how satisfied are the gays/lesbians with their relational outcomes, and (6) what are the gays'/lesbians' perceived causes of the relational outcomes. The results of this study indicated that the majority of the participants disclosed their sexual identity to their close friends. And they did so in an attempt to be honest, to avoid hiding who they are, and to be able to talk about their sexual identity freely. Most of the participants reported being quite satisfied with the relationships which became more close or stayed the same. Most of the participants reported being somewhat unsatisfied with the relationships which became more distant or terminated. The way in which the friends found out about the participants' sexual identity was not related to whether or not the relationship became more close or more distant. The participants believed their relationships became more close because they were honest. However, the participants believed their relationships became more distant because their friends were homophobic. This research is significant because it may help counselors, therapists, and practitioners coach gay men and lesbians when their relationships deteriorate or are strained. This research may also enable gay men and lesbians to be aware of potential factors which might affect their relationships with their friends after disclosure occurs. In addition, this research may equip gay men and lesbians with information to enable them to make educated decisions on discussing their sexual identity with their friends. Furthermore, the results from this research might provide suggestions to individuals who have gay friends to help them make the coming-out process easier for their gay friends. / Graduation date: 1998

During adolescence, peer relationships become increasingly important in various aspects of development, such as self-esteem and emotional adjustment. Unfortunately, a number of adolescents experience peer victimization, placing them at increased risk of emotional and behavioral problems. Research has consistently demonstrated the link between peer victimization and poor outcomes. However, exploration of the mechanisms underlying this link, including potential buffers of negative outcomes, is needed. The current study examined social support as a moderator of the relationship between peer victimization and maladjustment in order to assess whether social support from adults and peers protects adolescents from developing emotional and/or behavioral problems. The current study also examined disclosure of victimization to explore the role of a specific type of enacted social support in the link between peer victimization and poor outcomes. Adolescents (N = 633) in grades 10 through 12 completed a background questionnaire, the Revised Peer Experiences Questionnaire, the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale, the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, and the Youth Self-Report. Regression analyses were used to evaluate social support as a moderator of the relationship between peer victimization and internalizing and externalizing behaviors and to explore the role of disclosure. Overall, peer victimization predicted higher levels of social anxiety, anxiety/depression, and aggressive and delinquent behaviors. Strength and direction of moderation effects varied according to the type of peer victimization and source of social support and type of disclosure. The results of this study further our understanding of mechanisms underlying the link between peer victimization and maladjustment and can be used to inform prevention and intervention efforts.

Here is presented the result and discussion of a survey concerning the psychosocial environment in a school in the vicinity of Stockholm. The theoretical background of this study was the model of demand-control by Theorell, and various aspects of stress by Frankenhauser and Ödman. The survey was constituted of an inquiry form which was handed out to six different classes at the school. A total of 86 students filled in the form, and their answers were treated with standard statistical procedures to reveal the results. The inquiry form was made up by five parts; one that concerned the background of the respondent, one that reflected the psychosocial health and stress level and three parts that concerned discrimination, victimization and school democracy. Among the results was that female students was highly affected by stress related psychosocial disorder, and that they probably in some sense were able to cope with it because of good relations to friends. Another result of the study was that students with different cultural backgrounds had the same psychosocial health conditions as those with Swedish cultural background, and they were not seemingly affected by discrimination. These results, as well as the others in this study, are of course part of a very complex context and no certain conclusions can be drawn.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka om ansiktsattraktivitet hänger samman med kvalitet i vänskapsrelationer. Hypotesen utgick ifrån att likhet i ansiktsattraktivitet påverkar valet av viktigaste vän samt att en låg skillnad i ansiktsattraktivitet mellan personerna gynnar relationskvaliteten. Tidigare forskning har antingen undersökt attraktivitet eller vänskapsrelationer. Vår uppsats knyter samman dessa två faktorer. 150 tonårspojkars ansiktsattraktivitet bedömdes med hjälp av ett eget utformat instrument. Data på pojkarnas vänskapsrelationer från en longitudinell studie användes för jämförelser. Högt skattad ansiktsattraktivitet visade i vår studie ha ett samband med konflikter i vänskapsrelationen. Attraktiviteten visade sig inte spela någon roll i valet av viktigaste vän. Däremot har attraktiviteten en betydelse för vänskapskvaliteten, då hög ansiktsattraktivitet påverkar vänskapskvaliteten negativt. / The purpose of this thesis was to investigate if facial attractiveness and quality in relationships are connected. The hypothesis was that equality in facial attractiveness matters in people’s choices of important friends and that low difference in facial attractiveness between the people profits quality in their friendship. Earlier research has either been focusing on attractiveness or quality in friendships. This thesis links these two factors together. The facial attractiveness of 150 teenage boys was judged with an instrument made by us. Data, with information about the boys’ relationships, from a longitudinal study were used for comparisons. We found that high facial attractiveness is related to conflicts in friendships, but that attractiveness does not matter in the choice of important friends. However, attractiveness does matter in friendship quality, since high attractiveness affects the quality in a negative way.

Each day we are being swamped with commercial messages from companies, this makes us select which messages we take in. We can screen off marketing from companies, but how do we react when friends are trying to sell us products? The purpose of this study is to examine, if and if so, friendship relations and business activities influence each other within a network marketing company and also to illuminate these effects. The study shows that network companies do not only offer economic opportunities and consumption of products, but also social fellowship. / Att vi människor överöses av kommersiella budskap från företag innebär att vi tvingas selektera vilka budskap vi uppfattar. Företags marknadsföring kan vi avskärma oss ifrån, men hur reagerar vi då vänner vill sälja produkter till oss? Syftet med studien är att undersöka om och i sådana fall hur vänskapsrelationer och affärsverksamheter påverkar varandra inom ett nätverksföretag, samt belysa dessa effekter. För att besvara syftet har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med återförsäljare inom ett av de största nätverksföretagen i Sverige. Studien visar att när återförsäljare integrerar vänskap och affärsverksamhet uppnås både positiva och negativa effekter. Avslutningsvis presenteras att nätverksföretagande inte endast erbjuder ekonomiska möjligheter och konsumtion av produkter utan även social gemenskap.

In September of year 2006, a young boy was brutally killed by a girl, age sixteen, in Örebro, Sweden. Girlgangs became a frequent subject in media. Professionals’ working with adolescents claims that girlgangs notis an existing phenomena in Sweden as it is in for example in the United States. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if teenage girls in Sweden have a tendency to join gangs as they do in the United States. This was qualitative study with four focus groups with teenage girls in three different areas in Stockholm. Areas with different social economic standards were chosen for the study to compare the girls’ answers. The result was analysed by a social psychological perspective and theoretic background. The result of this study showed that the group is important to the girls in their socialisation process and in order to create identity. There were similarities between the answers between the result of this study and research in The United States considering the girls choosing friends as they look for similarities between each other and the need of having fun. A tendency in the girls’ answers could not be seen in the matter of creating girlgangs as they do in the United States.

In this thesis I compare Pierre Leroux, a French utopian socialist (1797 – 1871), with Feodor Dostoevsky, the well-known Orthodox Russian novelist (1821 – 1881). I argue that both authors reacted against what they considered to be the dissolution of the social order, brought about by the increasing nineteenth-century bourgeois individualism. On the other hand, they reacted as well against the opposite phenomenon, the idea of a universal socialist state, which was, in fact, according to them, the outcome of bourgeois individualism. My purpose is to bring close and to compare Leroux’s republican socialism with Dostoevsky’s Christian socialism, and to explore to what extent the two authors give similar answers to a common problem. In order to better explain their thought, I divide my thesis into three chapters. The first analyzes and compares Leroux’s and Dostoevsky’s critiques of individualism. If Leroux reaches the conclusion that the ultimate expression of individualism is Malthusianism, Dostoevsky argues that individualism ends in nihilism. The second chapter analyzes the type of socialism against which Leroux and Dostoevsky reacted, as well as the critiques of the two authors. I argue here that Saint-Simonian socialism – the main object of Leroux’s critique – and the socialism of the Grand Inquisitor – a Dostoevskyan character – are the expression of a certain utopian thought which considers the requirement for freedom incompatible with the requirement for unity. In the last chapter, I analyze the ideas of community of Leroux and of Dostoevsky, which are centered on philia, in the case of the former, and on agape, in the case of the latter. Philia and respectively agape are the expression of organic social relations, through which the two requirements, of freedom and unity, are made compatible, and which create unity in multiplicity. Their ideas of community appear as active utopias, grounded on the life of relation in a spontaneous, organic community.

The seventeenth-century Neapolitan painter and satirist Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), long regarded as a harbinger of the ideals of professional independence that characterize the artists of the Romantic era, is here returned to the social circumstances of his own time. This dissertation argues that Rosa’s personal and professional identity of autonomy and his pursuit of an original, distinctive persona were facilitated by male friendship. A key component of the philosophical ideal to which Rosa and his friends subscribed, friendship is defined by a standard of egalitarianism that permits its practitioners to be at once dependent and independent. In his adoption and cultivation of the rituals and discourses of friendship – especially academic friendship – Rosa found a strategy for navigating the obligatorily socially-delineated parameters of self-fashioning in seicento Florence and Rome. Friendship permeated the most vital elements of Rosa’s career: his early theatrical practice in Rome, his private academy in Florence, and his business tactics as a painter and printmaker in Rome. This dissertation aims to open up an area of insight into Rosa as both unique among and representative of his contemporaries, and to expand upon the existing scholarly knowledge of an artist on the cusp of an important development in the history of the visual artist’s identity.