Background: Guidelines for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder recommend 8-12 session of trauma-focused CBT or EMDR, however there is an extensive body of literature criticising the PTSD paradigm and usefulness of recommended therapies in treating PTSD in the 'real world', particularly with the complex presentations of refugees . Alternative models for 'complex' PTSD have been proposed, as have transtheoretical phased stages for treatment. To date there has been no research into refugees' experience of trauma-therapy. Leaving a significant gap in understanding of how trauma therapy works. Aims: With this gap in the research in mind, and in line with the current focus on service user involvement in research, this study aims to investigate refugees' experiences of trauma-therapy. Methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six refugees who were coming towards the end of trauma-therapy with a specialist trauma service. The transcripts of the interviews were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: Six master themes emerged from analysis: 'Therapy as a light in a dark place', 'Rebuilding a shattered sense of self', 'A changing relationship with the world and others', 'Escaping the past to pursue a future', 'A journey from sceptic to convert' and 'From an unknown mystery to a known mystery'. These master themes along with the subordinate themes are expanded into a narrative account of participants' experiences. Implications & Conclusion: Amongst numerous implications for clinical practice the need for support to engage in therapy, thorough explanation of therapy and pre-empting of possible conflicts and difficulties arising were identified. Allowing time to build a therapeutic relationship, the usefulness of the PTSD construct for individuals and the importance of the 'non-specific' factors of therapy in addition to the teaching of techniques to manage symptoms were also found to be of importance. This study has made an important contribution to knowledge about refugees' experiences of therapy for trauma.

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate experiences, perceptions and experiences of "a school for all" in one municipality by means of a case study. The municipality is medium-sized and, for many years, has had a clearly expressed intention of providing "a school for all". This means that all pupils are included in regular comprehensive school classes, where no separate schools or groups are available for pupils with intellectual disabilities. The empirical material consists of three studies. The pilot study is a licentiate thesis published in 2007, with a societal bias and is based on web-based documentation and interviews with politicians and civil servants (n=5). This study describes regional administrators’ initiatives to promote the implementation of ”a school for all” within the entire municipality. A major finding was the importance of committed and engaged leadership.  Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) model for ecological systems constitutes the theoretical starting point. The respondents in sub-studies I and II, which are the focus in this section of the thesis, are parents (n=14) and teachers (n=8). The common denominator is children/pupils who have an intellectual disability, and study according to the curriculum for special schooling but are taught in regular comprehensive school classes. Previous research into inclusion and national policy documents are of central concern to this thesis. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is employed as an interpretative tool for the interviews. Parents discuss the benefits of "a school for all"; good role models, social relationships and opportunities for the child to develop both socially and intellectually. They also describe how they must always be prepared to fight for their child, "keeping a watchful eye" on the school, and they imply that it is never possible to "become complacent". Teachers' attitudes and knowledge are described as crucial. A few parents wanted to have the opportunity to choose a special school for children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Their arguments are presented. In the teacher interviews, a conviction emerges about the importance of "a school for all" for the pupils' self-image, social and academic development. Organizational support, in-service training and skills’ development are seen as the prerequisites for successful inclusion, as well as educational strategies such as family groups and model learning. Respondents indicate that inclusion works most satisfactorily between years 1 and 6 in the comprehensive school and is viewed more detrimentally between years 7 and 9, in order to be better viewed again in the upper secondary school (senior high school) and the reasons for this are discussed. The case study contributes to a broader understanding of  the processes of implementation and change regarding inclusion of pupils with special school status and the importance of understanding the connections and relationships between the levels within Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory which directly or indirectly affect the child’s/pupil’s development and well-being.

Homelessness and rough sleeping has dramatically increased in the UK over the past six years. Links between welfare changes, inequality and social exclusion are pronounced. This study looked into the experiences of a particular group of people experiencing homelessness; those with complex needs who had had multiple moves round homeless projects. Qualitative research of the lived experiences of those experiencing homelessness is limited, particularly for this group of individuals in the UK. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was applied to interviews undertaken with six men with these experiences. The four main themes from this analysis were Moving forward vs no way forward, Being here has really helped but it's only temporary, Being treated as different and Desperately longing for yet deeply fearing relationships. These themes were supported with extensive participant quotes and were contextualised in the current literature. The themes reflect and demonstrate: Challenges with hope and future plans and the role of substance use; Relationships to help in the context of conditionality and the temporary nature of projects; Issues regarding coherent identity development and stigmatisation; and Complexity around forming relationships. These findings develop our understanding of this population and support improvements in practice. A clear role for Clinical Psychologists in this area was identified and recommendations across domains of individual, service level and community practice were presented.

This study was concerned with exploring the meaning birth relatives gave their experiences of counselling following the removal of their children from their care. An exploratory research question was formulated and addressed using a qualitative approach. The involvement of a service user as expert supervisor added an important element and certain validity to the design, analysis and findings. Interviews took place with five birth mothers who had received counselling from one birth relatives counselling service. Three master themes were constructed from the data: From feeling alone, judged and let down to feeling part of a special relationship; "The healing process"; and "My children are my world".

This research provides in depth analysis of how qualified and experienced doctoral therapists and graduates of the professional doctorate counselling programmes, understood and made sense of their experiences in working at a depth of engagement in therapy. A qualitative approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis is the methodology used. This provides rich, detailed analysis of individuals' accounts where idiographic focus and participants' lived experiences remain central. Six Doctoral counselling therapists were individually interviewed via a semi-structured interview schedule. Participants' counselling orientations varied, with most describing themselves as integrative practitioners. Six accounts were examined separately and then analysed. Clusters and themes developed. Themes were also analysed to ascertain convergence and divergence in participants' accounts. Implications are discussed with data rooted in verbatim extracts and embedded within relevant literature. The study presents super-ordinate themes of, 'the indefinable', 'spiritual in nature', 'levels of encounter', 'dissolution of boundaries', 'personally challenging', 'nourishing of the self' and 'professional questioning'. Findings show how participants called upon phenomenological perspectives, epistemological lenses, spiritual and neurobiological discourses and counselling theory, used interchangeably, to try and understand their experiences. The study also points to practitioners crossing interpersonal boundaries, their fear of being judged by the counselling community and their reluctance to take certain aspects of the phenomenon to supervision. The implications of the research highlight whole areas of experiencing that are not being supervised and show challenges on many levels for the counselling community. Such an IPA study also highlights divisions and commonalities in how participants make sense of the phenomenon and a contribution is offered indicating where further research would be helpful. Overall this research study invites a greater awareness and greater openness to understand the ripples and challenges practitioners face from working at a depth of engagement.

As project management (PM) and information technology (IT) evolved over the last decades, an increasing number of project management software products have emerged. Project managers in IT consulting can improve the success of projects through the utilization of such software. However, the diversity of software available cannot sensibly be grasped by a single individual. Based on this context, the study aims to examine the key considerations in the selectionof project management software in IT consulting from the project managers' perspective. A literature review identifies key aspects of IT consulting projects that may be relevant to the software selection. No evidence was found that provided a view on the process of the selection of PM software in IT consulting itself. The review also unveils the lack of common terminology in regard to PM software. The study addresses these gaps by utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand the experiences made by project managers. To gather data, 17 semistructured interviews were conducted with experienced project managers. Thematic analysis was used to develop an understanding of the process employed by project managers in the software selection and the considerations they make along the way. The findings were synthesized to create a process guide, supported by a checklist and the working definition of key terminology. This study adds a broader perspective to the field of PM software through the application of qualitative methodology in an otherwise quantitatively dominated field of research. It addresses the lack of existing knowledge on the perspective of the project manager in the selection process through the generation of a 6-staged process guide. The detailed considerations of project managers were compiled into a checklist of selection criteria. These two also contribute to practice by providing a structured approach to PM selection for practitioners. The third output is a working definition of project management software as used in practice, which simplifies an exchange of knowledge between theory and practice.

Researchers have stressed the importance of addressing the social/emotional needs of early childhood (EC) children, including the development of resilience; however, some U.S. school personnel focus more on academics than on these needs. When young children possess these skills, they can handle social/emotional challenges later in life. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore school social workers' (SWs) perspectives about resilience in EC settings. Research questions focused on knowledge of existing programs, participants' perceptions of the successes and challenges of working with EC students, and their recommendations to improve EC students' education. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and O'Neill's and Gopnik's work on needs of young children informed this study. Five elementary school SWs with at least 6 years' experience from 5 districts in the U.S. Midwest participated in 2 semistructured individual interviews. Interpretive phenomenological analysis, involving first-cycle, transition, and second cycle coding, was used to identify themes. SWs' experiences indicated a need for a clear definition of resilience, and needs of young children, including EC programs that develop psychological resilience of children's thoughts and an increase in adults to promote resilience. Additional research may expand and enhance educators' and families' understanding of resilience and help develop research-based preventive programs and strategies to foster psychological resilience in young children. These endeavors may enhance positive social change by adding components of psychological resilience to EC programs for school personnel and students and in parent/family workshops, which may result in sound mental health practices that enable them to become productive members of society.

Drug abuse as well as risky sexual behaviours has been identified, globally as well as in South Africa, as social problems with dire consequences. Research suggests that crystal methamphetamine use leads to risky sexual behaviours such having unprotected sex, which can lead to unplanned pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections (STI's) including HIV infection. Adolescents as well as females have been identified as risk populations for both sexual risk behaviours and drug abuse. Furthermore, the Western Cape showed high rates of crystal methamphetamine addiction, especially in the under 20 age category, and the highest increase in the incidence of HIV infections in South Africa. This may be indicative of the magnitude of the problem of risky sexual behaviours in the context of crystal methamphetamine use in the Western Cape.

Incentive for this research stems from the fact that Business-to-Consumer electronic commerce sector is going to oligopoly and the new actors have relatively less chance to accomplish in the current market if they follow the same ways that the old companies have already paved. Considering this challenge, the aim is to understand the adoption process of customers by analyzing the contemporary perceptions of individuals against e-shopping. Initially, business-to-consumer electronic commerce adoption model is developed. Proposed model and hypotheses are tested with Partial Least Squares as a Structural Equation Modeling technique using data collected from 1115 respondents via an online survey. Then, semi-structured open-ended interviews are conducted in order to grasp the perceptions of customers. The results are interpreted following a systematic mixed methodology involving Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to elucidate the antecedents and causal relations of constructs in an inductive and exploratory way to illuminate a socio-technical phenomenon as complementary to deductive and confirmatory quantitative perspective. Findings and implications are asserted to be utilized as a roadmap especially for start-up companies that challenge to survive and succeed in current market conditions. Trust is found to be the predominant factor in e-shopping adoption. It is proved that, after almost two decades shopping via Internet had been invented, contemporarily, definitions for the dimensions of Enjoyment, Perceived Usefulness, Store Familiarity, Perceived Ease of Use and Subjective Norm have evolved into new semantics and customers perceive each factor according to their actual cognition contexts.

This thesis investigated the relationship between subjective uncertainty, threat, and psychological and behavioural acculturation from the perspective of well-educated Canadian women who emigrated from Asia. In the first study, 153 women completed a questionnaire. These women lived in Canada for an average of 17 years, and were proficient in English. In the second study, in-depth qualitative interviews with three women who scored high and three women who scored low on the cultural uncertainty scale in the first study illustrated how women describe uncertainty in their lives. Subjective uncertainty reduction theory (SURT) posits that higher uncertainty leads to stronger group identification. However, Study 1 and Study 2 contradicted SURT, in that higher certainty was related to stronger cultural and Canadian identities. Women in this research identified strongly with their cultural group and as Canadians, they reported low levels of uncertainty, and they did not feel very threatened. Womens stories from Study 2 illustrate these findings. Moreover, threat and uncertainty were not related, suggesting that they are two conceptually different constructs. In Study 1, uncertainty and threat significantly contributed to the prediction of womens strength of social identifications after controlling for background variables, providing support for social identity theory. As well, Study 1 and Study 2 found support for the bidimensional approach to acculturation, remooring of cultural identity, and the compatibility of womens cultural and Canadian identities. These findings are consistent with past research, and suggest that women had very secure cultural and Canadian identities. The six interviews demonstrated the breadth and idiosyncratic nature of womens experiences. However, several themes revealed that social identifications served three functions for women: enhanced self-esteem, ingroup cooperation and cohesion, and social interactions. Whether these motives are derivatives of subjective uncertainty needs further investigation. Taken together, these results suggest that SURT may be more applicable as a theory of adaptation, in that the initial adjustment period may induce high uncertainty and insecure social identifications. More broadly, the findings suggest continued application of theory to real-life settings is critical to the investigation of the motivational dynamics of identity choice and maintenance.