One in five Australians has a mental disorder and it is estimated that one in four families have a member who has a mental disorder. Since the 1960s there has been an 80 percent decrease in Australian institution-based mental health care. The majority of people who have a mental disorder are now treated in their local community and many of them live with their families. The change in the delivery of mental health care has seen the family emerge as one of the most important supports to their ill family member. While the changes in the delivery of mental health care have been based on human rights concerns, changes in mental health legislature, and economic factors, the multi-dimensional experience of being a primary carer of a person with a mental disorder remains relatively unexplored. The need for empirical evidence on the primary carer's experience is noted in both the scientific literature and from carers themselves and the principal aim of conducting this research was to address the identified need. This qualitative study, using grounded theory methodology, presents the findings of interviews with 27 primary carers and memos documented throughout the study. In addition, existing literature of relevance to the findings of this study is presented. A substantive theory of seeking balance to overcome being consumed is presented in this thesis. Using the grounded theory method the constant comparative analysis of data revealed that the basic social psychological problem shared by all participants was the experience of "being consumed". The problem of being consumed consisted of two stages: "disruption of established lifestyle" and a "sustained threat to self-equilibrium". Six conditions were identified as influencing participants' experience of being consumed. / In order to address the problem of being consumed, participants engaged in a basic social psychological process of "seeking balance". When participants were engaged in this process they moved from a state of being consumed to one whereby they established and consolidated a balanced life perspective that incorporated their caregiving role. The process of seeking balance consisted of three phases: "utilising personal strategies to reduce the problem of being consumed', "restoring self- identity", and "reaching out to make a difference". In addition, data analysis identified the presence of a three phase sub-process entitled "trying to make sense of what was happening". Phases one of the core and sub- processes occurred primarily in the period prior to the time when a psychiatric diagnosis was made on the affected family member. Participants became engaged in the remaining two phases of the core and sub-processes when they became aware that their affected family member had a mental disorder. At the time of being interviewed for this study some participants were not yet engaged in the final phase of the process of seeking balance. Participants' experience of seeking balance was not related to the length of their caregiving experience but rather to their experience of seeking balance and the conditions influencing that process. Four conditions were identified as influencing participants' experience of seeking balance. / This thesis presents the substantive theory of seeking balance to overcome being consumed. While the findings support existing scientific literature, the substantive theory also presents a new insight on caring from the primary carer's perspective. In particular, the findings challenge health professionals to actively pursue strategies to reduce carers' experience of being consumed. The findings of this study have implications for service provision and clinical practice, policy and planning, research, education, the general population, mental health consumers, and carers.

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

This study develops and tests a theoretical model drawing on social psychological and resource-mobilization perspectives of social movement theory to explain changes in social movement participation and support for activism among Earthwatch Expedition volunteers. The social psychological perspective of social movements recognizes the role of self-efficacy and consciousness-raising for the participation in and success of social movement organizations. The resource mobilization perspective of social movements stresses rationality and the importance of funding and networks for the success of social movement organizations. Utilizing these two theoretical perspectives as my foundation, I hypothesize that participation in an Earthwatch Expedition increases volunteers' participation in social movement organizations in ways such as making monetary donations, voting with the organization's platform in mind, or attending rallies and marches. I also hypothesize that volunteers will increase their support for others who participate in these same types of activities. Earthwatch Expeditions are a form of alternative tourism in which volunteers participate in any of 126 different types of 10-14 day research-oriented expeditions that may include evaluating the health of a coral reef, studying maternal health among west African women, assessing the killer whale population off the coast of Puget Sound, or recording oral history in Dominica. I conducted pre- and post-trip surveys in June and July of 1998, resulting in 363 completed surveys. I analyzed data using multiple regression to discover relationships between pre-trip and post-trip measures of social movement participation, activism support, networks, self-efficacy, and consciousness-raising. In other words, I explored ways in which an alternative tourism experience like Earthwatch can change a person's ideas about their own social movement participation, the social movement activities of others, their perceived ability to overcome obstacles in order to implement social change, and their awareness of social issues. Results suggest that participation in an Earthwatch Expedition has a positive effect on volunteers' social movement participation, their awareness of social issues, their networks, and their ability to overcome obstacles, but little effect on activism support. / Ph. D.

The resurgence and increased use of the total defense concept in the political landscape of Sweden comes in a time of global geopolitical uncertainties and multifaceted security crises. Despite its stated importance, how the private sector should be incorporated into this structure remains somewhat unclear. As such, the aim of this thesis was to analyze the interconnection between organizational and human behavior from the perspective of public-private cooperation in today’s Swedish total defense. To achieve this aim, six interviews were conducted with representatives from government agencies and business organizations in the civil preparedness sector of food supply and drinking water. The study sought to identify key factors defining this public-private relationship, use a theoretical framework based on rationalist organizational and social-psychological perspectives, and discern what combined impact they have on contemporary inter-organizational crisis cooperation.  The analysis indicates that the preparedness sector of food supply and drinking water is inherently robust, with a great deal of trust between individual agencies and private actors. However, there is a needfor greater organizational clarity and clear expectations, while a general lack of personnel and resources means that the risk of economic loss often takes precedence over further investments in civil preparedness. Furthermore, the establishment of the preparedness sector entailed a greater capacity for coordinating inter-organizational preparedness efforts but may have created an uncertain hierarchy with informational blind spots. Also, it is argued that government agencies have clearer expectations and goals within the total defense in general due to their identity in crisis and preparedness being firmly established, something that private actors lack

The master thesis deals with the conscious influence of target groups on the personality of the social worker. The theoretic part talks about the defining the personality of the social woker, about the profession of social work and about target groups. Everything is linked with the topic of social-psychological influence about which talks research part f the thesis. The basis of the thesis is the social worker and target groups (clients) who consciously act on his personality.

Naryškin Romanas, Socialinis portretas Lietuvos fotografijoje, fotografijų ciklas „Nebūtini“: Audiovizualinio meno studijų bakalauro baigiamasis darbas / vadovas A. Uogintas; Šiaulių Universitetas, Menų fakultetas, Dailės katedra. Šiauliai, 2014 m. 43 p. Bakalauro darbe nagrinėjamas socialinis portretas fotografijoje pirmiausiai aptariant dokumentinę, tuomet – socialinę dokumentinę fotografiją, kalbama apie jos ištakas Lietuvoje remiantis Margaritos Matulytės teorine ţiūra. Kūrybiniam darbui išskiriama konkreti socialinės atskirties grupė – benamiai-elgetos, apibrėţiama benamystė kaip socialinė problema, trumpai apţvelgiama jos raida. Pirmame skyriuje apibrėţiama dokumentinė ir socialinė dokumentinė fotografija. Šių dviejų teorinių apybraiţų pagalba yra apibrėţiama socialinio portreto sąvoka, kadangi socialinis portretas iš esmės yra neatskiriama socialinės dokumentinės, o todėl ir dokumentinės fotografijos dalis. Išskiriami socialinio portreto bruoţai remiantis ankstyvaisiais socialinės dokumentinės fotografijos kūrėjų darbais. Antrame skyriuje aptariamas socialinis portretas pasirinkto socialinės dokumentinės fotografijos atstovo, Antano Sutkaus, kūryboje. Nagrinėjamas šio autoriaus portretų psichologiškumas bei braiţas, taip pat tokį braiţą įtakoję veiksniai, paminėti pirmąjame skyriuje. Trečiame skyriuje kalbama apie kūrybinį darba, fotografijų serija „Nebūtini“. Pirmiausiai aptariamos ir pagrįstai sugretinamos benamio ir elgetos sąvokos šio darbo kontekste, tuomet... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Naryškin Romanas, Social portrait in Lithuanian photography, photographic series „The Unnecessary“. Closing Bachelor„s work of multimedia art studies / lecturer A. Uogintas; Šiauliai University, Faculty of Arts, Art Department. Šiauliai 2014, 43 pages. In this Bachelor„s work the author is looking into social portrait photography by first of all discussing documentary photography, and then social-documentary photography as social portraiture is an inseparable part of these two similar genres. Further on the origins of social documentary photography is discussed based on M. Matulytė„s theoretical work on the subject. For the creative part of the work, a specific group of social isolation is chosen (homeless people) and its relevance as that of a social problem is explained with a short overview of the development of the said social problem. The first part touches the suject of both documentary and social documentary photography as a context for the theory on social portraiture, definition of which is then based on the mentioned genres. The similarities and differences between the genres are pointed out. The second part contains an overview of social-psichological portraiture in the works of Antanas Sutkus with detailed analysis of the psichological aspect of his portraits as well as general features peviously described in the social portrait definition. The third part is dedicated to the creative project of the Bachelor„s work. Choice of subject is explained through short... [to full text]

Der Einfluss des Raumcharakters auf die menschliche Tätigkeit ist einer der Grundsätze der „Umwelt-Mensch-Beziehung“ – und findet sich in allen Maßstabsebenen. Zur Beschreibung des Raumcharakters auf Siedlungsmaßstabsebene wird dieser Grundsatz beispielsweise mit den Thesen kognitive Karte (E. Tolman), visuelle Wahrnehmung (J. Gibson), Raumverständlichkeit (K. Lynch) und territoriale Ansprüche (H. Hertzberger) diskutiert. Es wird bisher dargelegt, dass sich das sozialpsychologische Verhalten gewissermaßen auf den Raumcharakter auf Siedlungsmaßstabsebene bezieht. Räume sind also mit ihrer sozialpsychologischen Raumqualität entsprechend zu charakterisieren. Jedoch ist nach heutigem Stand der Siedlungsraumcharakter hinsichtlich der sozialpsychologischen Raumqualität schwierig quantitativ zu bewerten, sodass es mithilfe der empirischen bzw. subjektiven Methode nötig ist, die oben genannten Thesen praktisch zu prüfen. Da diese Arbeit die Position des Apriorismus bzw. der Naturwissenschaft bezieht, wird mithilfe des Werkzeugs Space Syntax versucht, eine apriorische bzw. relativ objektive Methode zur Prüfung dieser Thesen zu entwickeln, um den Siedlungsraumcharakter in die sozialpsychologische Raumqualität umzuwandeln. Durch diese Methode können städtebauliche Maßnahmen zur Lösung der sozialen bzw. sozialpsychologischen Probleme in vorhandenen Siedlungen oder zur Vermeidung dieser Probleme bei Siedlungsneubau vorgeschlagen werden. In dieser Arbeit wird die Methode durch eine Grundtypenanalyse von Siedlungsmorphologien hinsichtlich der jeweiligen sozialpsychologischen Raumqualität musterhaft aufgebaut. Die Stadt Raunheim im Ballungsraum Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, als eine Siedlung in einer wachsenden Metropolregion, wird als Beobachtungsobjekt empirisch untersucht; das Migrationsverhalten dient als sozialpsychologischer Indikator zum Beweisen der Methode.

This diploma thesis aims at the influence of social support of an elderly person on his everyday activities. Thesis consists of theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part describes topics involving old age and social support of an elderly person. The practical part includes field research in form of interviews. The main goal of this thesis was to find out, what influence has the social support on everyday life of an home living elderly person.

This graduation work is concerned with newly developing media formats, focusing on the reality show format. Introduction chapters theoretically describe theses from selected philosophical works of Vilém Flusser, which are mainly thoughts included in his interpretation of technical pictures philosophy. Further chapters follow this topic and try to link it with the reality show format. This format is defined and supplemented with specific examples. The graduation work is then concluded with chapters that introduce the reality show from a social-psychological point of view. These chapters are based on examples of psychological experiments, the results of which are applicable to certain situations which could occur within a reality show. The conclusion of the graduation work comprises the overall assessment of the reality show format in connection with the philosophy of technical pictures and outcomes of psychological experiments.