Chronic pain is a public health problem that is likely to increase as the population ages, and has few effective treatments. Although viewed by many as profoundly distressing and disabling, there are a surprising number of people (approximately 30%) who cope well with their chronic pain and do not continue to seek treatment. There is little theory to explain how and why these individuals manage their pain well. This means there is limited knowledge about the approaches used by people who cope well and whether these strategies could help those who have more difficulty. This thesis presents a substantive grounded theory of living well with chronic pain, the theory of re-occupying self. Seventeen individual interviews were recorded, with data collection, analysis and theory generation following classical grounded theory methodological approach. Constant comparison, theoretical sampling, theoretical coding, and theoretical sensitivity were used to identify the main concern of people who cope well with pain. This concern is achieving self-coherence, and is resolved by re-occupying self. Resolution involves making sense to develop an idiographic model of their pain; deciding to turn from patient to person, facilitated or hindered by interactions with clinicians and occupational drive; and flexibly persisting where occupational engaging and coping allow individuals to develop future plans. By completing this process, individuals form a coherent self-concept in which they re-occupy the important or valued aspects of themselves. This study supports using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy because of its functional contextual view of people and their actions. This study illustrates that coping strategies are used in different ways depending on the primary goal within that context. Occupations, or active; purposeful; meaningful; contextualised and human activities, are used by people to make sense of their situation, and as a key motivation for developing coping strategies. These findings lead to new research questions about values-aligned activity, coping with identity change, and acceptance.

This study examines why teachers sometimes struggle to develop caring relationships with their students, despite their intention to do so. To do this, the notion of caring relationships (Mayeroff, 1971) is explored, as well as the influence of teachers’ emotions on these dynamics. The study also examines environmental factors in schools that influence caring teacher-student relationships. In all, fourteen teachers with early, middle, and senior years experience participated in two focus-groups each, and seven of these participants were interviewed individually. Because this study adopts a grounded theory approach, the coding of data is foundational to the data analysis. More specifically, open (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser, 1978), focused (Charmaz, 2006), and selective coding (Glaser, 1978) are used to identify the emergent categories in the data, and how they interrelate with each other. Theoretical coding (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser, 1978) is used to link emergent categories to extant literature to further develop the study’s conceptualization. The findings suggest that teachers’ emotions and more specifically, fear, guilt, and shame, reflect the dissonance that they sometimes experience as they align their idealized views of themselves with their roles in their teaching (McCall & Simmons, 1978). Building on earlier work by Beijaard (1995) and Nias (1989, 1996), this study’s findings suggest that teachers rely primarily on their students to gauge their success in their role and their identities as teachers. Also, teachers’ competitive relationships with their colleagues often reflect their unintentional attempts to protect their relationships with students from the influences of other adults, so as to safeguard their students as their primary source of role support. This not only raises questions about the caring nature of teachers’ relationships with their students (Mayeroff, 1971), but it also underscores the fact that teachers’ collaboration in schools is frequently superficial in quality. This study also suggests that teachers tend to isolate themselves in their classrooms and have little awareness of how their responses to their emotions in teaching influence their caring relationships with students. Finally, the findings indicate that school administrators can act as important role support for teachers as they develop caring relationships with their students.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka, analysera och därmed bidra med kunskap om vilket meningsskapande som fritidshemsbarn anger kan ske på oredigerade platser utomhus kring fritidshem. Forskningsfrågorna som studien behandlar är hur fritidshemsbarns meningsskapande kan beskrivas och studeras på oredigerade platser utomhus samt vad fritidshemsbarn berättar att de gör på oredigerade platser utomhus som kan sättas i relation till deras meningsskapande. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter är ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och fritidshemsbarns perspektiv. En forskare som är intresserad av att försöka förstå vad som händer på ett specifikt forskningsområde kan använda metodansatsen Grounded Theory. Datamaterialet består av 17 samtalspromenader med fritidshemsbarn från fyra olika fritidshem. Fritidshemsbarnet tar två bilder på vad han/hon betraktade som en oredigerad plats. I datainsamlingen ingår också fältanteckningar från två observationer med två olika barngrupper på fritidshem. Fritidshemmen ligger i tre olika kommuner isödra delen av Sverige. Studien är ett kunskapsbidrag till den pedagogiska praktiken samt till forskningen om vad fritidshemsbarn gör på oredigeradeplatser utomhus kring fritidshem. Jag har med Grounded Theory skapat en grundad teoretisk modell över studiens resultat. Studiens resultat utifrån Grounded Theorys analys visar att fritidshemsbarns meningsskapande är både konstruktivt och utvecklande på oredigerade platser. Analysen ledde fram till kärnkategorin, Lekpräglad plats. Det innebar att oredigerade platser gav studiens fritidshemsbarn lekvärden när de utövar sina aktiviteter. Fritidshemsbarn berättar att de leker både traditionella lekar, temalekar och egna fantasifrigörande lekar. Fem underkategorier skapades som har olika egenskaper och relationer i förhållande till kärnkategorin. Underkategorierna är frigörande plats, aktiverande plats, rörelseutmanande plats, känslorik plats och plats för naturassociationer. Studiens slutsats belyser att studiens fritidshemsbarns lekvärld finns på oredigerade platser utomhus och leken kan främjas där samt att dessa platser är lek viktiga för dem. Fritidshemsbarn bör ha tillgång till oredigerade platser utomhus kring fritidshem eftersom olika platser ger olika meningserbjudanden. / <p>Masteruppsats på 15hp inom Masterprogrammet inom utbildningsvetenskapligt område med examen i Pedagogik med utomhusdidaktisk inriktning.</p>

Det övergripande syftet för denna licentiatuppsats är att utforska psykoterapeuters och patienters tankar om vad som är verksamt i individuell psykoterapi med fokus på deras egna erfarenheter av psykoterapeutiskt arbete. Som metod för datainsamling och analys valdes grounded theory i båda de ingående studierna. I studie 1 intervjuades psykoterapeuter, legitimerade för individuell psykoterapi. Sammanlagt nio informanter deltog i studien, både män och kvinnor med olika yrkesbakgrund och med olika psykoterapeutisk inriktning. Ett centralt begrepp, förnyande erfarenhet, utvecklades ur data. Förnyande erfarenhet är en process där terapeuten och patienten i samarbete och dialog försöker att skapa situationer där patienten gör erfarenheter som ifrågasätter eller utmanar tidigare erfarenheter som patienten har eller ger ett nytt perspektiv på tidigare erfarenheter som gör dem mer begripliga och hanterbara. Förnyande erfarenhet leder till att patientens upplevelsevärld och beteende förändras i riktning mot ett ökat psykiskt välbefinnande. I studie 2 intervjuades åtta personer som gått i individuell psykoterapi av olika längd och teoretisk inriktning hos legitimerad psykoterapeut. De bidrog med data om sexton psykoterapier eftersom flera av dem hade erfarenhet av mer än en psykoterapi. Det centrala begrepp som utvecklades ur data var terapeutens lyhörda acceptans. Lyhördhet innebär att terapeuten har en förmåga att visa sig känslig för patientens behov och känslomässiga tillstånd och att ge gensvar på ett adekvat och konstruktivt sätt. Acceptans representerar en stödjande och icke-dömande atmosfär och terapeutens tolerans, välvilja och förstående inställning. / The overall aim of this licentiate thesis is to explore psychotherapists’ and patients’ thoughts about what is effective in individual psychotherapy, focusing on their own experience of psychotherapeutic work. The method chosen for data collection and analysis was grounded theory in both the included studies. In Study 1 psychotherapists, licensed for individual psychotherapy were interviewed. A total of nine informants participated in the study, both men and women with different professional backgrounds and with different psychotherapeutic approaches. A core concept, Renewing experience, was developed from the data. Renewing experience is a process where the therapist and patient in cooperation and dialogue are trying to create situations where the patient makes new experiences. These experiences call into question or challenge past experiences of the patient or gives a new perspective on past experiences that make them more understandable and manageable. Renewing experience leads to changes in the patients experiential world and behaviour that increase psychological well-being. In Study 2 eight persons were interviewed who have attended individual psychotherapy of various lengths and theoretical orientation with a licensed psychotherapist. They contributed data on sixteen psychotherapies as several of them had experience of more than one psychotherapy. The core concept that evolved from the data was The therapist's responsive acceptance. Responsiveness means that the therapist has the ability to prove sensitive to patient's needs and emotional states and to provide feedback in an appropriate and constructive manner. Acceptance represents a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere and the therapist's tolerance, kindness and understanding attitude. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för licentiatseminariet var delarbete 2 ej utgivet (i manuskriptform).</p>

The Nordic countries have been assisting the Baltic countries in their public health (PH) development from early nineties. The study describes PH development in Lithuania alongside with the BRIMHEALTH PH training programme. The study aimed at a qualitative assessment of the programme’s implications in Lithuanian partner institutions. The grounded theory method was used in the analysis of the focus group interview and nine in-depth interviews. The subjective meaning attributed to the programme by its participants was summarized in the following five descriptive categories: international postgraduate students feel welcome in BRIMHEALTH (as the core category); providing assistance; building partnerships; being an experimental programme; BRIMHEALTH as a model. The core category focussed on the student, as the main actor. Each category is related to several subcategories. A constant comparative approach was applied to describe the thoughts and values of the participants. The concepts and categories were validated in the data. It was concluded that the study evaluates the impact of the BRIMHEALTH training programme, proving that PH training was connected to training abroad and international collaboration; the importance of the programme is assessed from a number of perspectives and can be helpful for further research. / <p>ISBN 978-91-85721-12-2</p>

Thesis (Ph.D. (English)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Parental involvement is considered important to a child’s education, whether it is working closely with the teacher to aid student learning or volunteering for participation in after school activities. This grounded theory study focuses on stakeholders’ perceptions of requisite parental involvement in a magnet middle school. The three tenets of grounded theory include: the emergent theory from the categories of data; the premise that participants’ behavior has an underlying pattern that will emerge; and assurance that the participants, not the researcher, are the focus of the study. Data was collected from document analysis, interviews with administrators, teachers, a staff member, a community volunteer, and parents; as well as data collected from surveys of parents and teachers from the school. The survey data is both quantitative and qualitative. The data set for this research was comprehensive: 301 pages of correspondence, 48 pages of transcribed interviews, and 18 surveys. The surveys were submitted by both parents and teachers. The 6 teacher surveys submitted represent a return rate of 33.3%; the 12 parent surveys yielded a return rate of 5%. The five concepts that emerged from the data are: Regard, Team, Volunteer Opportunities, Propinquity, and Needs. The results indicate that social and economic capital informs requisite parental involvement in a magnet middle school, and its perceived impact upon student achievement and school climate.

Thesis (Ph.D. (English)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

In this study, classic grounded theory is used to explore and explain the relationship between street-involved youth and the streets. The main concern of the youth in this study is negotiating duality, and at the heart of this negotiation process is seeking safety on the streets while struggling to emerge into mainstream society. Data was collected in a mid-sized urban Canadian city through semi-structured interviews, observation, conversations and photography with 52 current street-involved youth, 6 former street-involved youth, and 8 adults who work with this population. The study led to the development of a substantive theory of negotiating duality, the core construct which emerged as the means by which street-involved youth handle their need to both survive in the day-to-day context of the streets while simultaneously working their way off the streets and back to mainstream society. Four domains of duality emerged as significant: dual logic, dual space and place, dual identity, and dual normality. Additionally, three interrelated concepts (social processes) emerged from the data: seeking safety, struggling to emerge, and living outside normal. These processes were characterized by five bifocal strategies: escaping, provisioning, anchoring, routing, and using (in)visibility. This theory is a model of person-place interaction, explaining the dynamic relationship street-involved youth have with and between the street and mainstream society. The findings of this study enhance understanding about street-involved youth and their interaction with the streets and mainstream society and provide a framework that can be utilized to inform youth homelessness services, policy development, and future research. / Graduate

This dissertation describes a series of studies conducted to explore why people use information visualizations during their non-work time (casual InfoVis) and which factors are critical for visualization adoption and long duration use. I also model typical casual InfoVis usage patterns and provide a framework for future hypothesis testing. Each study explored a different facet of casual InfoVis research and each built on lessons from the previous studies. The first study explored the development and evaluation of a casual InfoVis system, PartyVote, and how visualizations can be used to aid informal group social interactions. Results from the evaluation indicate that the system successfully helped give people a more equal share in choosing music during social gatherings and people could strategically choose music, but social pressures did not constrain behaviors or reduce cheating as much as expected. The complexity of factors affecting PartyVote use led to a pseudo-experiment evaluating the appeal of motion based data encoding. Study results indicated that participants formed distinct opinion-based groups and motion data encoding was only considered appealing to less than half of the participants. Utility was a critical factor for half the participants, but a sizable group still preferred motion use, despite knowing that it reduced system utility. My final study examined how people encountered and used visual representations of data (artifacts) during their non-work time. The artifact study led me to develop the Promoter / Inhibitor Motivation Model (PIMM) of casual visualization interaction. PIMM subsequently helps explain results encountered during the first two studies. The model provides a framework for future casual InfoVis investigations and identifies potential shortfalls and areas of concern when conducting casual InfoVis research. PIMM should also help guide future casual InfoVis system designs. / Graduate