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The researchers in this project studied the prevalence and impact of burnout among first responders, after which they produced CRISP (Creative Resilience Initiatives for Service Providers), a groundbreaking art therapy-based program published in an electronic book format aimed at addressing burnout and fostering resilience among first responders. Our program aims to foster resilience by integrating art therapy's Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) model with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and anti-racism strategies. The ETC model aligns with inclusive and diverse practices as it emphasizes a system-focused approach in using creativity, self-reflection, and cultivation of effective body-mind empathy. The CRISP eBook features 18 arts-based activities, each accompanied by relevant psychoeducation and self-reflective questions. These activities engage first responders in kinesthetic, sensorial, perceptual, affective, cognitive, and symbolic components of information processing in the ETC, utilizing multifaceted creativity as a powerful tool for building resilience and countering burnout signs that can lead to depersonalized and biased practices in their work. Future studies are warranted to assess the efficacy of art interventions, such as those explored in the CRISP eBook, in addressing the unique stressors faced by first responders.

The following essay was written in Stockholm, Sweden in the autumn of 2015 at Stockholm University. The purpose of this study is to explore the forms of multimodal communication that are used in the classroom as meaning making prompts. The study is from a multimodal and design theoretical perspective and uses the model Learning Design Sequence as a framework for collecting and analysing data. A qualitative method is being used for collecting data from video observation, from two eighth grade History classes. Video Observation and multimodal transcription produce rich data from a multimodal perspective, for seeing what modes of communication are being used. However, to observe what modes of communication functioned as meaning making prompts, other methods could be employed. The results show that speech, gesture and tone of voice are used in the foreground as modes of communication. Gaze, image, text, posture and movement can fluctuate between the background and foreground depending on their use. Social practices such as turning the lights off, or turning the overhead projector on can function as meaning making prompts, as can hand gestures such as pointing, clapping and enacting. Speech, gesture, tone of voice, movement, image and sound can all work as a meaning making prompts individually or combined together. / VAL projekt

The thesis contributes to the research field of education, or more specific to the field of religious education. The aim of the thesis is to interpret how young adults of today describe and understand their lives, with a specific focus on existential themes, and furthermore, to develop useful concepts that can help us understand individual meaning-making in a social and cultural context. The meaning-making of young people and how they explore and develop their understanding is, in the thesis, seen both as an individual process and at the same time something socially shared. The theoretical understanding of the social context takes its point of departure in Berger and Luckmann’s theory about the social construction of reality. The methodological approach is empirical and the study is based on 21 deep-interviews with men and women between 19-29 years old. Their statements are analyzed using a hermeneutic - interpretive method. The thesis gives a picture of the young adults’ understanding of death and the meaning of life. But the study also addresses vital existential themes for the young adults around the questions: who am I, what do I want to choose and where am I heading. Still another important theme is insecurity. One important contribution of the thesis is the development of new concepts that describe the young adults’ understanding of their lives, in terms of personal and shared configurations. In the material I have seen three different kinds of shared configurations and I speak of those in terms of: life-views, taken for granted perspectives and institutions. The dynamics that the personal configurations give examples of can be understood both in light of the shared configurations but also in light of the personal agency that the young adults show signs of.

This empirical study explores if, and how, religion and spirituality are relevant subjects for those experiencing mental distress in Northern Ireland (NI) and how, if at all, the subject is engaged with in mental health social work practice. Although there is some controversy in United Kingdom based research regarding the apparent benefit of religion and spirituality within mental health, service user research and literature suggests its importance within recovery. Literature on religion, spirituality and social work practice suggests the need to examine the social and political processes which persist around this subject in social work practice (Henery, 2003; Wong and Vinsky, 2009). This examination is appropriate given the role of religion within the political conflict in NI, the impact of the conflict upon social work practice (Campbell et al, 2013), the high incidence of mental ill health in NI and the apparent role of religion and spirituality within mental distress. This study considers how mental health social workers may engage with this subject within their practice not only as an aspect of service users’ identity but also within post conflict Northern Ireland. The study methodology and design drew upon narrative theory and grounded theory. I interviewed twelve mental health service users and twelve mental health social workers, and half of the participants from each group also took part in a follow-up telephone interview. All of the participants were invited to bring an object which expressed what religion and spirituality meant to them. Analysis explored the views and experiences of mental health service users and social workers about religion and spirituality, within specific aspects of the wider social field. Service user and social worker participants’ accounts suggested that whilst the role of religion and spirituality within mental distress was recognised, its inclusion in mental health social work practice was marked with questions of legitimacy. Some of these questions were explicitly framed within the conflict, whilst others were less so. The study found that although religion was associated with politics, sectarianism and violence, its role, and that of spirituality, as an aspect of identity and meaning-making, appeared to be underdeveloped. Two key findings are of particular note. 10 Firstly that service user participants had their own ‘hierarchy’ of religious and spiritual expression, which on occasion appeared to result in their being critical of other service users’ expressions. Secondly, some service users preferred to keep their spirituality to themselves as a strategy of empowerment. In addition the study also found that service users viewed the mental health professional relationship as focusing upon medical aspects of their care, for example physical health and medication management, with no scope to explore religion, spirituality and mental distress. Thus questions of legitimacy focused around the notion of privacy and whether talking about religion and spirituality within the mental health service user and social worker relationship was too sensitive, given its association with sectarianism. Furthermore, mental health service users were concerned about how a disclosure of religion and / or spirituality within mental distress would be viewed by the mental health professional: would it be viewed as indicative of deteriorating mental health? Overall the study identified a significant gap between how service users draw upon spirituality and / or religion within mental distress, and the space given to this within mental health social work practice. This gap is due to a myriad of factors ranging from the social worker’s biography, to wider issues around how religion and spirituality are conceptualised in contemporary society. This study also highlights the continuing impact of the Northern Ireland conflict on frontline social work provision. There is a need for policymaking to acknowledge the ambivalence that exists around spirituality and religion in mental health social work practice due to the conflict and other relevant factors. Finally, support is needed for practitioners and service users to acknowledge this aspect of mental well-being in a manner that gives service users choice about its inclusion in their mental health care.

This research report focuses on the issues for participation in public memory projects, in the light of counter-monument critiques of audiences being ‘rendered passive’. Interviews with people who went on the 2005 March of the Living tour to Holocaust sites in Poland and then to Israel have been analysed in terms of themes and processes of meaningmaking. The written text of some of the material provided to them is also analysed. Meanings in the interviews notably occupied two discursive spaces that seem at odds with each other. The first was the discourse around what is a good way to memorialise – particularly when the memory is one of such enormity as the Holocaust. The second is the discourse around tolerance education – how do we ‘learn lessons’ from the Holocaust? The issues for heritage interpretation and tolerance education are explored.

The purpose of this study is to examine how television series can function as a resource for existential reflection in peoples’ lives and thus, be a tool in the creation of a personal view on life. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate how television series can answer existential matters such as life, death, conflicts and finding peace.   The study was based on a survey which was answered by 82 informants and contained 42 questions in which 38 out of these concerned television series explicitly. 25 questions were closed multiple choice questions and 13 were open ended qualitative questions in which the informants were given the opportunity to give examples of different television series and reflect on these. Furthermore, the analysis was based on the reception theory which states that we as viewers are not apathetic to what we see, but reflect on it, both consciously and subconsciously. The results were analyzed from a theoretical framework which categorized the answers into seven different ways a viewer can relate to television series. The dimensions were the following: the contemplative dimension, the problem-solving dimension, the utopian dimension, the senso-motoric dimension, the ethical dimension, the philosophical-existential dimension and the self-reflexive dimension.   The results show that television series do function as a resource for existential reflection in the informants’ lives and can also be a resource for the construction of the informants’ personal view on life. Additionally, the results show that television series, although not always as explicitly, illustrate and provide answers for existential matters.

Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att se över vilka typer av semiotiska resurser som används i den fria leken i förskolor. Vi har valt att lägga vårt fokus på barn mellan 1–3 år då vårt intresse var att se hur barnen kommunicerar och skapar mening med varandra i den fria leken. Studien har byggts upp genom att vi har observerat barn på olika förskolor under den fria leken och fört fältanteckningar som vi sedan har analyserat. Resultaten som vi kom fram till i vår analys var att barn kommunicerar på många olika sätt. Många barn i ålder 1–3 år har ännu inte utvecklat den verbala kommunikationen och väljer att använda sig av den icke-verbala kommunikationen såsom semiotiska resurser. Barn använder sig av många olika typer av teckensystem under den fria leken både mellan barn-barn och barn-pedagog. Barnen kunde bli multimodala och de använde sig av liknande tecken som ljud, gester och ögonkontakt. Med hjälp av dessa tecken så skapade barnen även ett meningsskapande. Slutligen kom vi fram till att barn kan både medvetet och omedvetet kommunicerar med hjälp av olika semiotiska resurser i den fria leken och att använda sig av semiotiska resurser är något som sker vardagligen.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:40:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciana Mazorra.pdf: 1879271 bytes, checksum: 381d0bb7b790bc51c25a44d746392b6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-05-15 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The present qualitative study aimed at to investigate the meaning-making of the grief process in adulthood, based on the Dual Process Model and Attachment Theory. Three case studies were carried out with women, between the ages of twenty five to fifty one years old, bereaved due to the death of loved ones in a period of time ranging from eleven months to one year and ten months before their participation in this research. The research data also includes the materials generated by semidirected interviews, the Original Romance Test (RO) and History of my Loss Test (HP). The central meanings found here were: I don t understand what happened; I´m responsible for the death; Someone is responsible for the death; The deceased is responsible for the death; I m not responsible for the death; God was responsible for the death; The death was God s punishment; I took the deceased place; The deceased deceived me and left me; I don t have emotional resources to survive to the loss; I must not feel anger; I grew up with the loss; I m strong; I don t know who I am; I want to live; I want to die; I was born after the loss; Having loved the deceased is comforting; The world is caring and trustworthy; The world is not caring and trustworthy; Death was humiliating; God forgave me. Related to these meanings were sense-making of the loss, identity change, transformation concerning the relationship with the deceased and the world and benefit finding, related to feelings, wishes and psychic mechanisms. The meaning construction was related to some factors: family dynamics; personality and attachment style; circumstances of death; kind of relationship with the deceased and social support. Among these factors, those that facilitate or jeopardize the meaning-making process were identified. The meanings reflect the grief process and being aware of them leads to the understanding of grief manifestations (feelings, behaviors, symptoms) and coping, and are related to elaboration processes or grief complication / O presente estudo qualitativo teve como objetivo investigar a construção de significado no processo de luto na idade adulta, à luz do Modelo Dual do Luto e da Teoria do Apego. Foram realizados três estudos de caso com mulheres, de vinte e cinco a cinquenta e um anos, enlutadas pela morte de um ou mais entes queridos, ocorrida entre onze meses até um ano e dez meses antes de sua participação na pesquisa. Como instrumento de investigação, utilizamos entrevistas semidirigidas, o Romance Original (RO) e História de Minha Perda (HP). Os significados centrais encontrados foram: Não entendo o que aconteceu; Sou responsável pela morte; Outra pessoa é responsável pela morte; O falecido é responsável por sua morte; Não sou responsável pela morte; Deus é responsável pela morte; A morte foi um castigo de Deus; Ocupo o lugar do falecido; O falecido me enganou e abandonou; Não tenho recursos emocionais para sobreviver à perda; Não posso sentir raiva; Cresci com a perda; Sou forte; Não sei quem sou; Quero viver; Quero morrer; Nasci após a perda; Ter demonstrado o amor ao falecido é confortador; O mundo é cuidador e confiável; O mundo não é cuidador e confiável; A morte foi humilhante; Deus me perdoou. Estavam relacionados à busca de sentido para a perda, transformação da identidade e da relação com o falecido e com o mundo, e encontro de benefícios e associados a sentimentos, desejos e mecanismos psíquicos. A construção dos significados estava relacionada a determinados fatores: dinâmica familiar, personalidade e estilo de apego, circunstâncias da morte, relação com o falecido e rede de suporte. Entre esses fatores, apontaram-se os facilitadores e dificultadores da construção de significado. Os significados refletem o processo do luto e seu conhecimento possibilita a compreensão das manifestações (sentimentos, comportamentos e sintomas) e modo de enfrentamento do luto, e estão associados a processos elaborativos ou à complicação do luto

Wilderness Experience Programs (WEPs) take youth into wilderness settings in order to teach wilderness travel and leadership, expand personal capacity, and equip youth with coping skills in order to manage life’s difficulties. Though considerable research has been conducted on WEPs, no one has sought to understand the student experience these programs provide through a constructive-developmental lens (Kegan, 1982, 1994). The purpose of this case study was to explore, describe, assess, and understand–using the framework of Robert Kegan’s (1982, 1994) constructive-developmental theory–the impact a 21-day wilderness backpacking experience had on five participating youth. The researcher believed that understanding how participants in a wilderness backpacking course make sense of their experience through the lens of their constructive-developmental perspective might help inform the theories of change that underpin WEPs, the means by which desired change is facilitated, and the reasons why some youth thrive and others struggle. This exploratory study utilized a case study approach. The researcher embedded as a participant-observer for the duration on a 21-day backpacking course with Outward Bound Canada in the Ghost River Wilderness, Alberta, Canada. Nine youth participated in the expedition, with five male students volunteering as research participants. Pre-trip and post-trip administrations of the Subject-Object Interview and post-expedition semi-structured interviews were conducted with each research participant. Additionally, the researcher made field observations and wrote field notes. The subsequent analysis produced in-depth profiles of each research participant’s experience of the course, pre and post expedition scores from the Subject-Object Interviews, and a description of how each research participant’s experience might be understood through the lens of their constructive-developmental perspective. Although no significant changes to constructive-developmental perspective were realized, implications of these analyses were discussed, conclusions were drawn, and recommendations were made. / Graduate