Many scholars have noted the pervasiveness of individualism in American culture, particularly in the marriage culture. Unfortunately, assuming individualism in the marriage culture poses very specific threats to marriage as an institution. Some claim that these individualistic assumptions have also infiltrated the marital sciences, undermining the efforts of researchers who hope to defend marriage. This dissertation explores that claim by analyzing seven of the most popular marital outcome instruments used by marital researchers today for individualistic assumptions. Using a conceptual analysis called "contrasting relations," the meanings of both the content and the process of the instruments are laid out according to their underlying ontological assumptions. Two types of ontology guide the analysis: weak relationality, that from which individualism arises, and strong relationality. As the results demonstrate, the instruments are in fact almost entirely underlain with individualistic assumptions. It is argued that outcome instruments used by marital researchers can only measure individualistic relationships (weak relationality), and are incapable of measuring strong relationships, implying that marital researchers are ill-equipped to measure relationships. Implications and future directions are explored.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att utveckla vår kunskap om den sociala snedrekryteringen till högre studier. Vad är det som gör att studenter väljer som de gör och hur upplever de sedan, utifrån social bakgrund, det faktiska mötet med högskolan? För att få grepp om detta valde vi att genomföra sex intervjuer med studenter på en högskola som tillhandahåller elitutbildningar. Tre av dem hade föräldrar med högskoleexamen och tre av dem hade föräldrar utan högskoleexamen. Analysen baseras på Phil Hodkinson och Andrew C. Sparkes karriärteori, Careership, och Pierre Bourdieus begrepp habitus, fält och kapital. Analysen byggs till viss del även på begreppen socialisation och individualisering.Resultatet visar att studenterna från studievana hem ser högskolestudier som en självklarhet utifrån uppväxtmiljön. Utbildningsvalet grundar de på intresse men alternativen är samtidigt begränsade till ett fåtal högstatusutbildningar. Studenterna från studieovana hem ser högre studier som ett måste för att erhålla en god position på arbetsmarknaden och grundar sitt val av utbildning främst på målet att få ett bra och tillfredsställande arbete. Majoriteten studenter från både studievana och studieovana hem anser att högskolans status har utgjort en viktig faktor i valet. Flera av dem har även inspirerats av personer i sin omgivning, till exempel släktingar och chefer. Vidare visas att samtliga studenter i mötet med högskolan anpassar sig till något som liknar en idealbild bland studenterna – bland annat att vara ambitiös och välklädd. Slutligen visas att studenter engagerar sig på skilda sätt i studentlivet, vilket vi tror kan inverka på framtida karriärmöjligheter.

The aim of this study is to investigate how middle class, secondary school students in Bangalore view their future in the background context of individualist and collectivist influences, traditionally related to Western respectively Eastern culture. The objectives are as follows:How do secondary school students view their future in terms of further studies and work opportunities and what possibilities and/or limitations do they identify? What in relation to this are some of the underlying, deciding factors?What values do secondary school students take into account while considering a future career? To what extent can these values be related to the general distinctions between collectivism and individualism, traditionally related to Eastern and Western culture?Theoretical terms used in the thesis are the sociological concepts of individualism and collectivism and Krumboltz’s social learning theory, a constructivist career theory. This is a qualitative study, interviews were used to examine eight students’ views about their future as well as values related to this.The main conclusions of the study are that the students in general are very positive about their future, they believe in themselves and their abilities and rate the likeliness of reaching their goals as high. All of them want to move on to further studies, studying and working abroad is also something that is appealing to many of them. One of the possible limitations is lack of money. Deciding factors include own interests and abilities, family’s opinions, social class and external factors like labor market. Values concerning family, education and work are for the most part collectivist but some strong individualist features can also be seen, such as choosing a vocation based on your interest.

The existence of large, relatively comfortable, middle and working classes is what has set the advanced capitalist societies apart from most societies throughout history. These classes, while not quite "privileged," offer the hope of opportunity and upward social mobility for those who work hard. Yet in the last 30 years a growing class of "working poor" has emerged who invest many hours working but at wages that keep upward social mobility beyond their grasp. The existence of the working poor, it seems, dispels a key element in the ideology of individualism; they work hard yet do not "get ahead." This study addresses the contradiction presented by the working poor; specifically, do the working poor support the ideology of individualism? Prior research finds that the disadvantaged justify the system that inhibits them from having a better quality of life (Jost, et al. 2003). This study, however, suggests that the working poor are more conscious of the ideology's failure to explain their lack of mobility in a system that promises opportunity to those who work hard. Research data were generated through the use of telephone surveys in five counties in Central Florida with approximately 1571 respondents. Several measures of "working poor" were created; moreover, respondents within these categories tended to disagree with the "work hard, get ahead" ideology. Respondents who viewed their financial situation as getting worse, unable to grasp the "upward mobility" promise of the American Dream, also significantly disagreed with the ideology.

COVID-19 was a pandemic that has impacted the world in various ways and forced everyone to quarantine within the confounds of their homes. As studies investigated the effects of the pandemic, it was found that undergraduate students faced severe emotional and psychological difficulties being “at-risk” for greater psychological distress (Mayorga et al., 2021). Undergraduate students are currently made up of Generation Z individuals who are born from 1995 to 2010 (Ang et al., 2021). The present study investigates the relationship between mental health and generational cultural attitudes to explore whether there is a correlation between the stressors from COVID and generation Z’s cultural attitudes. A hypothesis is that generation z college students with more mental health issues due to COVID stressors will be more collectivist and the other is that Generation Z college students are more likely to experience more distress from COVID stressors than previous generations. Participants were given an online survey with the Individualism and Collectivism Scale (Triandis & Gelfand, 1998), Beck’s Depression Inventory-II (Beck et al., 1996), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983), and the Covid Stress Scale (Taylor et al., 2020). Data collection includes 183 undergraduate students from the University of Central Florida. Pearson correlations were conducted between depression, anxiety, and COVID stress. Also, a Pearson correlation was also made between individualism, collectivism, and COVID stress. Lastly, a paired sample t-test was conducted to compare the means between individualism and collectivism. Overall, results did not show support for the first hypothesis because although there was a significant correlation between depression, anxiety, and COVID stress, it cannot be told how much COVID stress affected mental health. Additionally, there was no significant correlation between collectivism or individualism and COVID stress, indicating that cultural attitudes did not predict the level of COVID distress. However, results did find that students were statistically more collectivistic than individualistic, which supports a part of my hypothesis. Understanding cohort and generational differences in emotional response to the COVID-19 pandemic will help in recognizing and assisting these groups. This would demonstrate a difference in emotional response to the pandemic between generations that could help in mental health resources in any future emergency situations.

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Sjukvården har genomgått omfattande marknadsstyrda reformer sedan början av 1990-talet. Dessa reformer har sina rötter i New Public Management-ideér vars syfte är att uppnå kostnadsmedvetenhet, resultatstyrning och valfrihet. I samhällsdebatten har dock andra konsekvenser av NPM framhållits, däribland den påfrestande arbetsmiljön för sjukvårdspersonal och den minskade inriktningen på patientens behov. Fokus för denna studie ligger på beroendevård specifikt, och målet har varit att undersöka arbetsmiljön på det psykosociala planet, samt att analysera möjligheterna att tillhandahålla individanpassad vård – i ljuset av de pågående strukturella förändringarna. Genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer har ämnet analyserats med stöd av Jürgen Habermas teorier om kommunikativt handlande och system och livsvärld, samt Robert Karasek och Töres Theorells krav, kontroll och stödmodell. Dessa teorier har sedan kopplats till begreppen avprofessionalisering, etisk stress och individualisering. Analysen visar systemerfarenheter som förefaller resultera i en beroendevård präglad av tungt belastad personal och där möjligheterna till individanpassad vård tycks begränsade. Detta kan kopplas till avprofessionalisering och etisk stress hos personalen, påverkande såväl deras arbetsmiljö som vårdkvaliteten. Ett starkt fokus på ekonomisk effektivitet, med påverkan på både personal och patienter, framkom utifrån studiedeltagarnas yrkeserfarenheter. Samsjuklighet förutsätter koordinerad vård mellan professioner. Detta skapar hinder i beroendevården, för såväl patienter som personal, på grund av fragmentering bland vårdaktörer, en konsekvens av NPM. Intervjupersonerna upplever att de inte ges möjlighet att utföra sina arbetsuppgifter i enlighet med deras kompetens, utbildning, erfarenhet och personliga engagemang. Slutsatsen i denna uppsats är att marknadsstyrning och slimmade organisationsmodeller inom beroendevården är  svårt att kombinera med en individanpassad vård där de aspekterna av beroendesjukdom tas i beaktning och endast kan fungera i nära samråd med professionen.