In this thesis, I explore 42 autistic individuals’ transitions into further and higher education (FHE) in England, drawing on personal experience as well as interview data. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome in 1998 at the age of 13. At the age of 15, my mother introduced the topic to me, and autism soon became the foundation of my socio-political identity. The discussion is divided into three themes; stigma and perception management strategies, formal and informal support networks and the interplay of autism with institutional factors. I draw upon Tringo’s (1970) work on the hierarchy of impairment and Goffman’s (1963) work on stigma. Tringo’s (1970) hierarchy of impairment led me to my intra-communal hierarchy of impairment (perpetuated by autistic individuals against autistic individuals) and Goffman’s (1963) work on stigma led me to my four degrees of openness; autistic individuals can be indiscriminately open, or indiscriminately reticent, but openness if relevant, and openness if necessary, are more common strategies. UPIAS’ (1976) work on the social model of disability laid the foundation for my socio-political identity and this thesis. I argue autism has been largely absent from the political arena. I outline how there are four ideals; the ideals of self-regulation, normalcy, ability and independence. Eager to conform to these ideals, eager to self-present as ‘independent’, ‘self-regulating’, ‘normal’ or ‘capable’, some autistic students are reluctant to request support and accommodations, complicating the transition to FHE.

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This study uses a self-presentational framework to investigate second language listening anxiety (L2 listening anxiety) among university students learning English in Japan and demonstrate that L2 listening involves social concerns that are specific to L2 settings. Successful performance in aural interaction presupposes mutual understanding, and L2 listeners have good reason to become anxious when it is doubtful whether they properly comprehend what others say. The Shortened Scale of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety, the Revised Interaction Anxiousness Scale, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire as well as a dictation test were administered to 1,177 students in 15 universities for the quantitative part of this study. Introspection verbal report data were collected from 17 students in two universities to investigate the thought processes of L2 listeners for the qualitative part. The profile analysis indicated the following: L2 listening anxiety was (a) specific to L2 situations and (b) linked to L2 proficiency because high and low L2 listening proficiency groups were different in the overall levels of L2 listening anxiety, but not different in general anxiety measures. The exploratory factor analysis and Rasch principle component analyses demonstrated that L2 listening anxiety was a broad construct composed of two related but distinct dimensions, Self-Focused Apprehension and Task-Focused Apprehension. The former is a concern over social evaluative threat, and the latter is worry over effective processing of aural input. The univariate analyses of variance confirmed that L2 listening anxiety was partly socially constructed because social anxiety was linked to both dimensions of L2 listening anxiety. The verbal data suggested that L2 listening anxiety was receiver-specific in that it involved concerns over comprehending and responding appropriately to aural messages. They also indicated that the levels of L2 listening anxiety were (a) susceptible to individual differences, and (b) influenced by different social situations. This study contributes to conceptual developments in the area of L2 learner psychology because understanding others is of profound importance in successful communication, and anxiety over non-understanding or misunderstanding can have significant personal and interpersonal consequences. / CITE/Language Arts

網路世界眾聲喧嘩，臉書(Facebook)平台以其社群形式，全面改寫了傳統大傳媒體的閱聽人的角色，並賦予其更多傳播、新聞再製、重製的權力。事實上網絡的每個節點與另一個節點之間，都透過分享、評論與按讚等行為，而呈現有機變化。 本研究以臉書社群上之使用者為研究個案，透過模擬帳號於臉書平台上複製出使用者平時會看到的內容與情境，透過受訪者對於網路即時事件的回應行為進行觀察，歸納出個文章主題之偏好程度與性別、年齡、職業別是否有差異性；而後，再透過一對一的訪談方式，以進一步理解每一位受訪者對臉書貼文之回應行為動機，以及於臉書中自我展演行為之看法。 根據本研究之發現，得出四項成果: 1. 臉書文章主題之閱讀偏好與使用者性別、年齡、職業別有關。 2. 閱聽人之自主性展演表現於「略過」行為。 3. 閱聽人之自主性展現，對於研究設計內容及其回應之關聯性，難以脈絡化。 4. 閱聽人之觀展行為，使得虛擬與實境間的界線消失。 / The Net world is full of sounds and noises. Taken its format of social networking, Facebook radically rewrites the role of spectator used to be designated by traditional mass media. Nowadays the spectator is given the power of transmitting, rewriting, and remolding any social event when surfing and browsing Facebook. As we look at each spectator as a node in the Net world, the relation between one node and many other nodes has become organic as they perform the actions of “share”, “comment”, and “like” on Facebook. This study aims to analyze how and why Facebook users react to certain articles as they browse through a specifically designed Facebook account, in which articles of various themes and topics are posted. It also tries to differentiate those Facebook users according to gender, age, and occupation, in order to understand their personal preferences toward different articles. The methodologies of this study include participation and observation, and one-on-one in-depth interview, so that motivations of each study subject’s responses to those articles can be found. The study findings are as following: 1. The preferences of certain article correspond to gender, age, and occupation of study subjects. 2. The self presentation of study subjects is reflected through the “skip” function. 3. It is difficult to contextualize the relationship between the self presentation of study subjects and those chosen articles. 4. The surfing and browsing action performed by study subjects on Facebook elimate the line between virtual world and real world.

This thesis follows the process of transformation of children's idols of film and music industry into adult artists and sex-symbols of contemporary popular culture. It especially focuses on the transformation of child character in adult representatives of pop-culture industry: development, change and building an image of an adult performer in terms of the sociology of childhood and adulthood career shift (change in the nature of work and roles, any rise or decline). The aim of this work is to find any trends in transition from children's heroes / heroines adults representative of contemporary popular culture. The premise is that children's personalities of the entertainment industry are used in the process of growing element of sexuality to reforging the stigma of "child stars". In addition to the sexual themes and monitors the aspect of gender roles and stereotypes depending on the developmental stage.

This diploma thesis seeks to describe the basic concepts of sociological approaches to identity as well as related concepts from the sociological reflections on the Internet. First, the thesis introduces the fundamental ideas of identity theories, as they were formulated by the authors of symbolic interactionism in the first half of the 20th century. Subsequently, the key sociological concepts of individual and collective identities are described in more details and in this context there is also reminded the social construction of reality theory, that provides an explanation of the connection between the individual and collective levels of analysis. Finally, this thesis discusses concepts reflecting the relationship between individual identities and communication on the Internet, especially within so-called virtual communities, and also introduces concepts, which seeks to characterize the role of Internet in the processes of collective identities formation.

Anotation: Špidlová, Z.: Clothing as a means for self-identification and self-representation and possible didactic applications of the theme in art education. [Diploma thesis] Prague, 2013 - Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education, Art education, 224 p. (Attachements: Diary and file documenting the art part of diploma thesis) This thesis examines the phenomenon of clothing, its semiotic function in the context of postmodern society and social aspects with emphasis on identification with a particular social group. The research brings knowledge about two groups, their clothing and social contexts. The groups are the costume culture of the Alto Minho in Portugal and the goth subculture. The results of the research are directly connected to the art part, the output of which is a clothing model combining elements of both of these groups. Didactic section presents findings on the diversity of interpretation of students from the seventh grade of basic school and the second year of middle school when dealing with the topic of identity and subculture applied on clothing. Key words: clothes, identity, self-presentation, self-identification, subculture, materials creation, postmodern society, art education

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Todd F. Simon / This paper explores queer self-presentation on the social network site, Facebook, emphasizing gendered functionality, gender and queer politics and presentations of gendered identities. It provides a review of early critical cyberculture studies, identity performance and queer theoretical considerations. This study is based on hermeneutic analysis of public profile information and transformative changes of Facebook users as well as in-depth interviews of two queer Facebook users. Results indicate that queer users are always-already gendered, even in the seemingly liberal environment of a social network site, but some, aware of the restrictive structures of Facebook, manipulate presentation to negotiate adequate gender performance. With specific attention to heteronormative structures, this paper challenges former claims of the potential for social progress inherent in social network sites and calls for changes within.

Titel: Konsumenters emotioner gentemot det personliga varumärket – En kvalitativ studie. Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi. Författare: Rebecca Enblom och Amanda Pettersson. Handledare: Jonas Molin och Lars-Johan Åge. Datum: 2019 – Juni. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att bidra till en djupare förståelse för hur skriftliga självpresentationer påverkar potentiella konsumenters emotioner gentemot det personliga varumärket. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med ett induktivt förhållningssätt samt hermeneutiken som forskningstradition. För att studera potentiella konsumenters emotioner gentemot det personliga varumärket har data främst samlats in via tio semistrukturerade intervjuer. Dessa har sedan analyserats genom en tematisk analys. Resultat & slutsats: Resultat från denna uppsats visar på att strukturerade samt korta men koncisa självpresentationer skapar ett gott första intryck. Dessa ska sedan byggas upp på ett sätt som skapar en nyfikenhet hos potentiella konsumenter. Det är även viktigt att via självpresentationen få fram ett engagemang samt känslan av förtroende. Examensarbetets bidrag: Denna forskning bidrar med kunskap om hur fastighetsmäklare och andra professionellt yrkesverksamma individer kan skapa ett personligt varumärke i form av en självpresentation. Detta i syfte att generera positiva emotioner hos potentiella konsumenter. I och med detta fyller studien det forskningsgap vi funnit på området gällande det personliga varumärket. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Med tanke på att en kvalitativ forskningsmetod använts blir resultatet omöjligt att generalisera. Därför efterfrågar vi en liknande  studie av kvantitativ art. Intressant vore även att djupare studera korrelationen mellan emotioner inför det personliga varumärket samt personlighetstyp. Till sist föreslår vi även vidare forskning gällande sociala mediers inverkan på konsumenters emotioner gentemot det personliga varumärket. Nyckelord: Personligt varumärke, branding, digital marknadsföring, online marknadsföring, självpresentation, emotioner. / Title: Consumers emotions towards the personal brand – A qualitative study. Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. Author: Rebecca Enblom and Amanda Pettersson. Supervisor: Jonas Molin and Lars-Johan Åge. Date: 2019 – June. Aim: The aim of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how written self-presentations affect the potential consumers’ emotions towards the personal brand. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method with an inductive approach and a hermeneutic research tradition. In order to study the potential consumers’ emotions towards the personal brand, data has mainly been collected through ten semi-structured interviews. These have later been analyzed by using a thematic analysis. Result & Conclusions: Findings from this study show that short and well-structured self-presentations create a good first impression. The self-presentations should be formed in a way that creates curiosity among potential consumers. It is also important that the presentations bring out a feeling of commitment and trust. Contribution of the thesis: This research contributes knowledge about how real estate agents and other professionals can create a personal brand in form of a self-presentation. This with the purpose to generate positive emotions among potential consumers. As a result, the study fills the research gap we found on the subject of the personal brand. Suggestions for future research: Given that a qualitative research method has been used, the result is not possible to generalize. Therefore, we are requesting a similar study with a quantitative approach. It would also be interesting to study the correlation between emotions towards the personal brand and personality features. Finally, we propose a continued research about social media’s impact on consumers’ emotions towards the personal brand.  Key words: Personal brand, branding, digital marketing, online marketing, self-presentation, emotions.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2015 / This research looks at home video footage and family photographs as part of the visual portrait of a curated record of the autobiographical self. The research includes a written thesis exploring the theoretical concerns and provides a reflexive analysis of the creative component of the PhD, which is a 60-minute documentary film. The research, both creative and written, assesses how autobiographical memory is informed and shaped by home video recordings, and how new digital formats have allowed home video to collapse the boundaries between the personal and the public. It also explores how personal narratives speak to the wider socio-political and cultural concerns of a particular time. These ‘collapses’ between boundaries provide a playful, pluralistic approach to a history of the self. The many paradigms that coexist within the work – the past and the present, time and space, previously accepted narratives and newly formed ones – do not exist as binary to each other, but rather exist in conversation with each other and serves to explore the ever elastic subject/object dichotomy. The autobiographical film is titled Fraternal, with the tagline ‘The future isn’t like it used to be’. It tells the emotional story of the relationships between myself and my twin, and our parents – the hellos and goodbyes, arrivals and departures, beginnings and endings that happen within family ties. The film is set against the backdrop of the political situation in southern Africa during the 1980s and 1990s. It is cut predominantly from personal home video footage: a mixture of Super 8mm, Hi8 and DV footage shot largely between 1984 and 1994 in Zimbabwe and South Africa