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This dissertation examines the public construction of gay and lesbian adoption by looking at the public discourse surrounding the issue. A discourse analysis was conducted of five print news publications and twenty interviews were conducted with participants in the issue. The goals of this research project included assessing how participants in the gay and lesbian adoption issue sought to influence its public construction, what frames they employed, how they interacted publicly with other participants, and how they constructed their identities and the identities of other participants. Other goals included assessing how the print news media covered the issue and how the participants strategized to garner media attention. The results indicate that the discourse of gay and lesbian adoption includes dominant themes, including the best interests of children, the definition of family, civil rights, and social science research. Within these themes, participants sponsor opposing frames, interacting with each other through their discursive strategies. Overall, print news coverage of the issue tended to reflect the opposing discourses of proponents and opponents of gay and lesbian adoption although more recent coverage tended to favor proponents. This dissertation contributes to the research areas of British cultural studies, social constructionism, media studies, and framing. The results have implications for those who advocate for political and social change as they indicate that proponents of gay and lesbian adoption are finding success through a negotiation strategy of advocating for change while upholding existing American cultural values. / Mass Media and Communication

No / Gerard Egan's problem management and opportunity development model is currently in use training prospective counsellors, social workers, nurses, managers, etc. the skills of helping. This essay attempts, experimentally, to depict in three different ways Egan's work and its relationship to operations of power: (1) from a relatively uncritical stance, (2) from a personal experience stance, and (3) from a social constructionist perspective. The whole piece, taken together, attempts to tackle the issue of theory as practice ¿ to ground/unmask/make present the ways in which we are socialised into a profession and the problems inherent in that process. Two themes run through the work: the double bind created for a student on a counselling course which makes some claim to train around Rogers' core conditions, and which is also assessed/accredited; the connections between theory, training and practices.

In this study I assessed a causal model between caregivers’ prior relationship to care-receivers, commitment to the relationship, and depression in parental and spousal caregiving, based on social exchange and commitment theory. Data (N=695) from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) were used to test a path model examining the effects of relationship quality and commitment, as well as ace, gender, income, education, health, living arrangement, emotional support, and adult children's marital status on depression. This study began the process of combining the social psychological concept of commitment and the gerontological caregiving literature. The expected effects of commitment on depression were not statistically significant for either spousal caregiving or parental caregiving. As for spousal caregiving, caregivers’ health and relationship quality were negatively associated with caregivers’ depression. In parental caregiving, caregivers’ education and health had negative effects on caregivers' depression. The quality of the relationship with spouse or parent was notable for explaining commitment to the relationship. The predicted positive effect of relationship quality with parent on moral commitment was contradicted by a statistically significant finding of a negative effect. Spousal caregivers’ structural commitment to marital relationship was positively affected by the quality of the relationship with spouse. / Ph. D.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka och analysera hur invandrare porträtterades i tidningsartiklar publicerade i Aftonbladet och Dagens Nyheter under tidsperioden 2020–2023. Studien grundar sig i en kritisk diskursanalys, där det empiriska materialet bestod av 16 nyhetsartiklar som analyserades med hjälp av det socialkonstruktionistiska perspektivet samt begreppen stereotyper och kategorisering. Studiens resultat visade på en övervägande negativ porträttering av invandrare och tre framträdande diskurser identifierades i det analyserade materialet: ”vi” och ”de andra”, den kriminella och våldsamma invandraren samt invandrare som ekonomisk och kulturell belastning. Resultatet visade på en tydlig differentiering mellan invandrare och svenskar, där invandare porträtteras som det avvikande i förhållande mot det normativa ”svenska”. Resultatet visade också på en genomgående kategorisering av invandrare där de framställs i negativ dager och repetitivt förväntas assimileras till det svenska samhället och ta efter ”svenska” normer och värderingar. / The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze how immigrants were portrayed in newspaper articles published in Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter during the period 2020–2023. The study is grounded in a critical discourse analysis, where the empirical material consisted of 16 news articles analyzed using the social constructionist perspective along with the concepts of stereotypes and categorization. The results of the study showed a predominantly negative portrayal of immigrants, and three prominent discourses were identified in the analyzed material: "us" and "them", the criminal and violent immigrant, and immigrants as an economic and cultural burden. The results indicated a clear differentiation between immigrants and Swedes, with immigrants portrayed as deviating from the normative "Swedish" society. The results also showed a consistent categorization of immigrants in a negative light, with an expectation for them to assimilate into Swedish society and adopt "Swedish" norms and values.

This study is concerned with the nature of suffering as experienced by women struggling with problems related to the body. Since the body is viewed to be integral in the formation of a woman's identity and self-concept, any illness, ailment or deficiency associated with it may lead the woman to experience pain and suffering. To explore meanings of personal suffering related to the body three contexts have been chosen. These are familial breast cancer, eating disorders and infertility. Common themes of suffering that were co-constructed in the interviews between six women participants and myself form the basis of this study. These themes emerged through the process of social constructionism and dialogue. Through the process of language, personal realities and meanings were discussed and shared to elicit a greater understanding of the nature of suffering. A qualitative approach, using the case study method, was also adopted to provide rich descriptions of the different experiences with suffering. The case study presentations illustrate the linguistic domain between the participants and myself. It is hoped that the information presented in this study will contribute to a therapeutic understanding of personal suffering as experienced by women. / Psychology / D. Litt et Phil.

This qualitative participatory action research project examined how the spiritual dimension in pastoral therapy served as a life-giving resource to facilitate healing and growth in the lives of three Christian female university students. A postmodern epistomology, social construction theory and a contextual feminist theology informed the praxis of pastoral narrative therapy. The themes of subjectivity, meaning, religious development and religious experience were the focus of this study. Narrative practices were engaged in to utilise spiritual talk in the co-construction of an alternative relational identity with the research participants. The theory of religious development is discussed from a social constructionist perspective with an accent on a personal relationship with God as central to the developmental process. The religious experiences of the participants contributed to a spiritual awareness of being connected, in a dynamic way, to God, that transformed the clients' perceptions of problems and ways of addressing problems in their lives. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

This project forms part of a growing engagement with biology by critical psychology and, more broadly, body studies. The specific focus is on the neurological body whose dogmatic exclusion from critical endeavours is challenged by arguing that neuroscience offers a vital resource for emancipatory agendas. Rather than conversely treating biology as a site for the factual supplementation of social theory the aim is to engage (negotiate) with neuroscience more directly and critically. In this process a discursive reductionism and attempted escape from complicity associated with critical psychology are addressed. Similarly a naïve and apolitical empiricism claimed by neuroscience is disrupted. The primary objective is however to demonstrate the utility of neuroscience in developing critical theory. These objectives are pursued through the ‘method’ of deconstruction, (mis)reading several highly regarded neuroscience texts written by prominent neuroscientists, working within the convolutions of these texts so as develop openings for critical conceptualisations of (neural) corporeality. In this manner the various spectres associated with neurology, including essentialism, determinism, individualism, reductionism and dualism, are displaced. This includes, amongst others, the omnipresent mind/body and body/society binaries. The (mis)readings address a number of prominent themes associated with contemporary neuroscience: Attempts at specifying an identity for (part of) the brain are shown to rely on a necessary relationship with the excluded other (such as the body, the socio-cultural, and the environment). Similarly, attempts at articulating a centre, a point from which agency can proceed, which finds existing identity in the functions of the prefrontal cortices, are also undone by the (multiple, affective, and unconscious) other which decentres the centre by being the essential supplement for any such claims. The causal metaphysic must likewise proceed within the play of différance, a logic of difference and deferral that undermines causal routes, innate origins and autocratic centres. Finally, reductionism must advance as a necessary strategy through which to engage with complexity, its ambitions always impossible as the aneconomic is forever in excess of any economy. The emancipatory viability of such (mis)readings is discussed within a context where the open and malleable body has been co-opted by contemporary neo-liberal geoculture. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Since the end of South Africa’s Apartheid era, South Africans have become more aware of hate crimes that discriminate not on the basis of skin colour, but nationality. Among the targets of this xenophobic hate are Mozambican foreign nationals, one of the largest foreign national populations in South Africa. Structured Mozambican communities have been identified, offering support to their members in this environment. This study explores the impact of the xenophobic discourse on the Mozambican identity, particularly within the Mozambican community of Freedom Park, Soweto. Based on the social constructionist acknowledgement of multiple realities, this study used the African worldview as an epistemological framework to inform the methodology appropriate for this participant group. 12 participants, identified through convenience sampling, engaged in one group conversation that explored their understandings of their Mozambican identity and the corresponding impact of South Africa’s xenophobic discourse. Following thematic content analysis, four themes were identified. Participants showed a strong sense of national pride in their shared Mozambican heritage, linked to support from their community and their government. Secondly, participants perceived a positive Mozambican identity that emphasized work- related characteristics. Thirdly, participants showed concern over how South Africans perceive them. Finally, the Mozambican identity was de-emphasized when discussing xenophobia. Participants adopted similar ideas to Mbeki’s African Renaissance, in drawing on the broad categories of ‘blacks’ and ‘Africans’ and redefining the boundaries of belonging. In conclusion, implications for future research and government interventions are discussed / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Text in English / The inception of psychology as a practicing profession in 1938 brought with it a continuing scientific struggle geared towards cementing its place as a value-adding health service in the form of psychotherapy. Concepts such as Empirically Supported Treatments (ESTs), Evidence Based Treatments (EBTs) and Evidence Based Practice in Psychology (EBPP) arose out of research attempts to scientifically prove the efficacy of psychological treatment versus psychiatric medications or versus no treatment. This focus on evidence in psychotherapy partly stems from, but also influences public policy in the form of practice and training mandates as well as government and insurance funding policies for psychotherapy. At present ESTs, EBTs and EBPP are the source of polarisation among psychologists who argue for either sides of this controversy, raising questions on a practical/policy level as well as an epistemological level. This thesis differentiates between ESTs, EBTs and EBPP as well as the Common Factors approach and continues to critically investigate the advantages, practical/policy implications and epistemological critiques against these approaches. Some of the identified shortfalls resulting from unwarranted epistemological (empirical) assumptions are addressed by proposing a social constructionist model of therapeutic factors based on social constructionist- and eco-systemic theories. The proposed model allows therapists to employ EBT’s in conjunction with various other (excluded) approaches that are available in their arsenal of treatments. Clinical case studies are used to illustrate the model’s practical operation in therapeutic contexts. / Psychology / Ph.D. (Psychology)