The object of this work is the concepts of mental disorders as a social constructs and the role of the mass media in the process of their construction. The main aim of the dissertation is to analyze the representations of people with mental disorders in the Lithuanian newspapers and news websites and to examine manifestations of these depictions in the public opinion. The dissertation consists of an introduction, four main parts, conclusions and the list of references. In the first part of the dissertation the theoretical methodological presumptions of P. L. Berger’s and T. Luckmann’s theory of social constructionism are presented and the phenomenon of the social construction of mental disorders is analyzed using this theoretical framework. In the second part the influence and importance of the mass media in the process of constructing representations of social phenomena, including mental disorders is presented. The methods of the empirical research are presented in the third part of the work. Analysis and interpretations of the empirical research data are presented in the fourth part of the dissertation. At the end of the work conclusions are stated. The main aim of the dissertation was reached by conducting a three staged empirical research combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research methods were: the analysis of the mass media publications using methods of Discourse analysis and Content analysis; the investigation of public opinion by... [to full text] / Disertacijoje analizuojama psichikos sutrikimų kaip socialinių konstruktų samprata ir žiniasklaidos vaidmuo tokių konstruktų kūrimo procese. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas: išanalizuoti Lietuvos dienraščių bei interneto naujienų tinklalapių konstruojamus sutrikusios psichikos asmenų vaizdinius bei šių vaizdinių atspindžius visuomenės nuomonėje. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, keturios pagrindinės dalys, darbo išvados, literatūros sąrašas ir priedai. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje pristatomos teorinės metodologinės disertacijos prielaidos: P. L. Bergerio ir T. Lukmano socialinio konstrukcionizmo teorijos pagrindinės teorinės įžvalgos ir jų taikymas analizuojant psichikos sutrikimų fenomeną. Antrojoje darbo dalyje analizuojama žiniasklaidos reikšmė ir poveikis konstruojant socialinio pasaulio fenomenų vaizdinius. Trečiojoje dalyje išsamiai pristatoma tyrimo metodika. Ketvirtojoje darbo dalyje pateikiama empirinio tyrimo duomenų analizė ir interpretacijos. Darbo pabaigoje formuluojamos darbo išvados. Siekiant pagrindinio darbo tikslo, trijų etapų empirinio tyrimo metu derinant kokybinius ir kiekybinius metodus buvo atlikta žiniasklaidos publikacijų analizė naudojant diskurso analizės ir turinio analizės metodus, anketavimo būdu atlikta reprezentatyvi visuomenės nuomonės apklausa, naudojant fokus grupės metodą atskleista sutrikusios psichikos asmenų nuomonė. Darbe konstatuojama, jog Lietuvos žiniasklaida sutrikusios psichikos asmenis vaizduoja remdamasi stereotipais, vyraujančiu medicininiu šio... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

It is suggested that the lack of progress made towards understanding and preventing, or even in many cases even alleviating, psychological suffering has been due, in large part, to the way in which such suffering is conceptualised – as ‘disorder’, ‘illness’ or ‘disease’ which is located, and is thus potentially locatable, within the individual. This conceptualisation of psychological suffering is referred to in this thesis as the ‘Dysfunctional Mind Account’ (DMA). The DMA, it is argued, underlies all accepted models/theories of psychological suffering and is the dominant way of conceptualising such suffering for both professionals and lay-people in Western cultures. It is further argued that the main reason the DMA is unable to assist in understanding and alleviating psychological suffering is because it is underpinned by assumptions about human beings and their suffering which are inherently flawed. The account presented in this thesis places at its centre an analysis of persons and their experience that attempts to overthrow these assumptions. The resulting reconceptualisation presents a view of psychological suffering as emergent from our continual personal and embodied enmeshment within our social world, rather than as arising primarily out of the various processes occurring ‘within’ us (whether that be our neurochemistry or our ‘mental mechanisms’ or an ‘interaction’ between them). It is essentially suggested that psychological suffering emerges from the same source as all other aspects of our personal being; from the constant coactions between the various aspects of our being in the world – personal, organismic and molecular – with the environment within which we are enmeshed. This means that the feelings/thoughts/behaviours conceptualised as ‘mental disorder’ are as much part of our personal being as any other aspect of us; they are not ‘other’, they are not ‘disease’, ‘illness’ or ‘dysfunction’. Such feelings/thoughts/ behaviours, it is argued, almost always, perhaps inevitably, represent a very adaptive response, at every level of our being, to environmental contingencies. Thus, when understood in its full context, the suffering conceptualised as ‘mental disorder’ can be seen as the very understandable responses of the embodied person to what is happening to them, rather than ‘un-understandable’ dysfunctions, aberrations and pathological processes of the ‘mind’ (or brain).

Women in the United Methodist Church (UMC) were officially granted full clerical rights over 50 years ago, and the church’s official stance is that women and men are to enjoy fully equal rights throughout all aspects of life and society, religious and otherwise. Despite these policies, however, women’s and men’s opportunities and experiences in professional ministry in the church remain far from equal. Women continue to be underrepresented in the leadership of the UMC, especially in more prestigious appointments and positions, and face challenges to their work, leadership, and authority throughout their ministries. In fact, national statistics from the UMC show that as of 2010, only 24.6% of the clerical leaders are women. In the Kentucky Annual Conference (KAC), the focus of the present study, women are even more sparsely represented, constituting only 13.56% of the leadership as of 2010 appointments, with few serving at larger churches and only one currently serving as a district superintendent; only four have ever served in that role in the Conference’s history. Using qualitative, semi-structured interviews, I collected data from 36 of the 118 clergy women of the 2010 Conference, including women serving in all types of positions in the Conference as well as all current and former district superintendents and many of the earliest pioneers in the KAC. The goal of this study is to understand from the perspectives of these clergy women their paths into and through ministry, the support and resistance that play such key roles in their lives and work, how their families affect and are affected by their work, and the symbols and symbolic actions that they use to claim and demonstrate the authority they have been given and to navigate some of the obstacles in their paths. In order to provide a theoretical framework for this study, I used primarily social constructionism and standpoint theory and related methods.

This investigation explores the meanings primary school teachers who apply outdoor learning and teaching methods associate withthe places that encompass their teaching practices. A symbolic interactionist framework coupled with a social constructionistorientation was employed to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation techniques. The findingsillustrated that meaning ascribed to place derived from the interactional processes between the study’s respondents and thephysical setting within which educational interventions occurred. The nature of these interactions also appeared to be highlyinfluenced by the social worlds in which informants participated and their featured social processes. The results elucidated that theattribution of meaning to learning landscapes was impacted by school administrational factors, institutionalized school practices,the respondents’ university education and the perspectives they held about outdoor teaching and learning. Findings from thisenquiry make progress towards gaining an insight into the social construction of meanings ascribed to outdoor learningenvironments. Additionally, they contribute to a theoretical discussion regarding the impact of social contexts encompassingteaching and learning interventions on the educational potential of outdoor places.

This study explores the relation between meanings attached to food and sustainable food consumption. Specifically, this study examines how personal relationships between food producers and their consumers have an influence on how those consumers experience their own food consumption. Using a phenomenological approach, a number of consumers in Uppsala with various types of relationships to the producers of the food they consume were interviewed regarding their food habits and food related activities. Two groups of consumers with different kinds of relationships were chosen, and are as described: involvement in consumer-initiated alternative food networks (Group A), and no relationship at all to the producers (Group B). The observations and answers were analysed in order to detect meaning behind the interviewees' experiences of their food consumption. The meaning detected in the research material relates to giving and receiving food as a gift, how food products are valued and trust between consumer and food producer. Respondents with a connection to the producers of their food products connected meaningfulness with food related activities and with the people behind the food production. The more meaning people find in their food, the larger the increase of the potential benefits of socialisation, preservation of food techniques and food related culture. This findings result in a strong argument for creating greater consumer engagement in food networks to increase sustainability in the food system.

The Swedish health care system does not offer care on equal terms for all its end-users. Discrimination toward patients can take the form substandard communication toward women or foreign born patients. Discrimination is also embedded in the organizational context. Health care is under pressure to increase efficiency and quality of care at the same time. There is a risk that demands for equality will be pushed aside. This thesis aims to contribute to our understanding of how discrimination is expressed in interpersonal- and organizational communication within health care, and highlight educational implications for health care practices. This thesis is comprised of three empirical studies and one conceptual study. In the first study, critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to categorize gender patterns in communication between health care workers and patients, and finds that both patients and health care workers reproduced the gender order. Open questions created a setting less prone to be limited by gender stereotypes. In the second study, CDA is used and complemented with Linell’s dialogic perspective in order to explore whether patients who were native speakers of Swedish were constructed differently than those who were not, in patient-physician consultations. Findings indicated that the non-native speakers actually were model, participative patients according to patient-centered care. Notwithstanding this they were met by argumentation, whereas the more amenable native patients were met by accommodating responses. In the third study, qualitative content analysis is used to analyze how health care workers talked about patients in their absence. The results revealed that communication about patients who were perceived as not acting according to socially accepted gender norms contained negative and disparaging statements. The final study focused on Clinical Microsystems, a New Public Management-based model for multi-professional collaboration and improvement of health care delivery. Drawing on theories of New Public Management, gender, and organizational control, this study argues that the construction of innovative and flexible health care workers risks reproducing the gender order. The thesis concludes that gender and ethnic stereotypes are reproduced in health care communication, and that an efficiency-inspired organizational and institutional discourse may be an impediment to equal care. This calls for focus on learning about communication for prospective and existing health care workers in a multicultural health care context.

The purpose of this study was to examine the discourses that can be identified in medias representation of social services. To answer the purpose we made a critical discourse analysis using Faircloughs three-dimensional model. The choice to focus our study on a local newspaper was based on earlier research that found it possible that a local paper has a greater impact on readers than a national newspaper. Readers can more easily connect with what's happening in the immediate environment than what is written nationally. We used articles published in 2013 containing “social services”. We found four discourses about collaboration, economy, criticism and work practices and procedures. We found social services mentioned in contexts involving money, resources, complaints, cooperation, collaboration, support, routines and responsibilities. The social services was briefly depicted, descriptions of their work was often omitted. The descriptions we found was often negative and contained assumptions that were not explained. / Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka vilka diskurser som kan identifieras i medias framställning av socialtjänsten. För att besvara syftet gjorde vi en kritisk diskursanalys med Faircloughs tredimensionella modell. Vi valde att fokusera vår studie på en lokaltidning då tidigare forskning funnit att det kan ses som möjligt att en lokaltidning har ett större inflytande på läsarna än en rikstäckande tidning då läsarna lättare kan knyta an till det som händer i närmiljön än det som skrivs nationellt. Vi använde oss av artiklar publicerade under 2013 och som innehöll ordet socialtjänst. Studien resulterade i fyra diskurser; samverkansdiskursen, ekonomidiskursen, kritikdiskursen och diskursen om arbetssätt och rutiner. Vi fann att socialtjänsten nämns i sammanhang som berör pengar, resurser, klagomål, samarbete, samverkan, stöd, rutiner och ansvar. Sättet socialtjänsten benämndes på var kortfattat, beskrivningar av deras arbete utelämnades ofta. De beskrivningar vi fann var ofta negativa och innehöll antaganden som inte förklarades.

The extant of available South African qualitative research which investigates issues of the post-apartheid youth appears to be diversified and increasing. A part of this corpus of research, seem to inform on post-apartheid identity formation. This current research explored the narrative forms located in the retellings of the apartheid past by 13 young black South Africans aged between 16 and 21. To this end, 68 different secondary narrative segments were obtained, by means of the analysed transcripts of in-depth interviewing, using a qualitative categorical-content framework. The data analysis yielded 12 themes, wherein the youth identified the primary narrators of the apartheid stories; contextualised settings and circumstances around narratives and explained apartheid social stratifications and treatment of black persons. They also conceptualized their understanding of apartheid laws and enforcement; explained apartheid experienced forms of loss and support; discussed apartheid education; talked about political figures and liberation; disclosed their own feelings about these stories; disclosed the impacts of stories on their own lives; considered the relevance of these narratives; stated what was learnt from it and provided a gauge of their interest in such stories. The findings suggest socially constructed second order narratives of racial hierarchies; marginalising the 'other'; vicarious experiences of affect; the incorporation of the logic of difference and a coexistence of tensions between these stories and present lifestyles. The research has located specific tones, imagery and themes within these narratives, which were duly incorporated in the metastory of this research. Recommendations were made concerning further research to be inclusive of youth from a wider racial and cultural spectrum, as well as investigation into aspects of non-interest and denialism about the apartheid past. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

This research seeks to unravel the definition of sexual addiction amongst adolescents from the perspectives of professional social workers, working with these types of issues. This has been conducted through a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with social workers in various youth clinics in Stockholm. The results gathered from the interviews are presented and then analyzed through discourse analysis using the social constructionism as our theoretical framework. The primary results gathered, conclude that sexual addiction amongst adolescents is to be defined within the personal contact between the client and the social worker in order to build an individual case discourse. The results also depicts that shame and anxiety are the driving forces for the phenomenon. Furthermore, inconsistency was discovered regarding the terminology of the phenomenon amongst the social workers. It is important to note that the adolescent years are time of rapid change and, thus, the behavior resembling sexual addiction may not be permanent. The results are then discussed and compared to previous research.

The extant of available South African qualitative research which investigates issues of the post-apartheid youth appears to be diversified and increasing. A part of this corpus of research, seem to inform on post-apartheid identity formation. This current research explored the narrative forms located in the retellings of the apartheid past by 13 young black South Africans aged between 16 and 21. To this end, 68 different secondary narrative segments were obtained, by means of the analysed transcripts of in-depth interviewing, using a qualitative categorical-content framework. The data analysis yielded 12 themes, wherein the youth identified the primary narrators of the apartheid stories; contextualised settings and circumstances around narratives and explained apartheid social stratifications and treatment of black persons. They also conceptualized their understanding of apartheid laws and enforcement; explained apartheid experienced forms of loss and support; discussed apartheid education; talked about political figures and liberation; disclosed their own feelings about these stories; disclosed the impacts of stories on their own lives; considered the relevance of these narratives; stated what was learnt from it and provided a gauge of their interest in such stories. The findings suggest socially constructed second order narratives of racial hierarchies; marginalising the 'other'; vicarious experiences of affect; the incorporation of the logic of difference and a coexistence of tensions between these stories and present lifestyles. The research has located specific tones, imagery and themes within these narratives, which were duly incorporated in the metastory of this research. Recommendations were made concerning further research to be inclusive of youth from a wider racial and cultural spectrum, as well as investigation into aspects of non-interest and denialism about the apartheid past. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.