The central purpose of this work is to present an inter-disciplinary conception of faith development that honours the strengths introduced by James Fowler's Faith Development Theory, while simultaneously suggesting both paradigm and process correctives that seek to update it. To that end, the following chapters present two main arguments: 1. Fowler's Faith Development Theory (FDT) is in need of revision. Although the three founding principles on which FDT is based (those of the importance of experience, the centrality of symbolic representation, and the grounding concept of knowing/construal) are considered cogent, they do not find sufficient operational expression within the exposition of faith stages. The elucidation of a depth model of faith development that corrects this gap in FDT is required, in order to provide the field of pastoral care a more coherent framework through which to pursue the growth of faith with their careseekers. It is for this reason that we state that FDT is in need of revision. 2. The required correctives to FDT are addressed and constructively resolved in the concept of Faith Constitutive Pastoral Care (FCPC) -a depth model of faith development that is focused on questing and soul care while remaining integrous to current inter-disciplinary thought in ministry, ego psychology, and epistemology. Faith Constitutive Pastoral Care (FCPC) presents a construct of relational, intersubjective balance that, while holding to the same three founding categories of concern as FDT, retains the strengths of Fowler's larger original intention while correcting the deficiencies inherent in FDT's formulation. Spiritual leaders can use Faith Constitutive Pastoral Care as a practical guide m shepherding careseekers towards faithful maturity and growth. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A obra de Adam Smith é expressão de uma nova concepção de progresso elaborada principalmente durante a segunda metade do século XVIII. O desenvolvimento da sociedade passa a ser compreendido enquanto resultado da interação entre os indivíduos e expressão das faculdades e disposições humanas. Examinamos como essa nova perspectiva aparece nos estudos de Smith sobre as mais diversas áreas, como produção de riquezas, linguagem e ciência, mostrando como a relação entre essas esferas da sociedade é de interdependência dentro de um sistema. Ao analisar como Smith aborda diferentes temas, destacamos um aspecto comum importante entre os diferentes textos do autor: a noção de ordem. A procura desta aparece enquanto estímulo para as transformações da sociedade. Ela também conforma o método de investigação utilizado por Smith: a criação de sistemas explicativos com base nas regularidades entre as mais diferentes sociedades. Esse modelo possibilita, por exemplo, a formulação da teoria de desenvolvimento baseada em quatro estágios. Também acaba por conformar uma nova forma de se produzir história: em vez de narrar os acontecimentos de certos grupos particulares, procuram-se as regularidades entre estes para construir a história da espécie. Em suma, esta dissertação interpreta como as ideias de progresso e ordem na obra de Adam Smith estão fortemente interconectadas. / The work of Adam Smith is an expression of a new conception of progress elaborated mainly during the second half of the eighteenth century. Society\'s development comes to be understood as an effect of the interaction between individuals and of the expression of human faculties and dispositions. We examine how this new perspective appears in Smith\'s studies on different topics, such as the production of wealth, language and science, showing how the relationship between those spheres of society is characterized by an interdependence within a system. In analyzing how Smith addresses distinctive themes, we highlight an important common aspect among the author\'s different texts: the notion of order. The demand for it appears as a stimulus for the transformations of society. It also corresponds to the method of investigation used by Smith: the creation of explanatory systems based on the regularities among the most different societies. This model enables, for example, the formulation of the four-stage theory of development. It also ends up in a new way of producing history: instead of narrating the events of particular groups, one searches for the regularities between them to construct the history of the species. In short, this dissertation interprets how the ideas of progress and order in Adam Smith\'s work are strongly interconnected.

Internationalisering har länge ansetts vara positivt och bra för företags ekonomiska tillväxt och globala konkurrenskraft. Det finns dock både fördelar och nackdelar, vilka varierar beroende på företagets internationaliseringsprocess, det vill säga på vilket sätt och till vilken grad företaget internationaliseras. En mängd forskare inom internationell affärsverksamhet har tidigare studerat sambandet mellan internationaliseringsgrad och finansiell prestation. Resultaten har dock varit varierande, men många av de senare forskningsresultaten tyder på att ett icke-linjärt samband existerar. Inga likande studier har gjorts på svenska företag vilket denna studie ämnar göra. Vi har tillämpat en poolad tvärsnittsanalys för att utreda om skillnader i internationaliseringsgrader har olika effekt på företagens finansiella prestation. Vidare har vi i linje med tidigare studier testat för om ett icke-linjärt samband även finns hos svenska företag. Resultatet från våra statistiska analyser kunde inte bevisa att ett icke-linjärt samband mellan internationaliseringsgrad och finansiell prestation existerar.  Dock visar resultatet att internationalisering skapar värde i svenska företag men att det inte har någon effekt på lönsamheten.

In my thesis, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is examined using French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's mirror stage theory. In the novel, humans have built androids that are almost indistinguishable from humans except that they lack a sense of empathy, or so the humans believe. The Voigt-Kampff Machine is a polygraph-like device used to determine if a subject shows signs of empathy in order to confirm if one is an android or a human. Yet, should empathy be the defining quality of determining humanity? In his article "The mirror stage as formative of the function of the ‘I’ as revealed in psychoanalytic experience," Lacan refers to a particular critical milestone in an infant's psychological development. When the baby looks in a mirror, they come to the realization that the image they are seeing is not just any ordinary image; it is actually themselves in the mirror. This "a-ha" moment of self-realization is what Lacan's Mirror Stage Theory is based on. According to Lacan's theory, the image that the child sees in a mirror becomes an "Other" through which they will always scrutinize and pass judgment on, for it is not how they have pictured themselves to be in their mind’s eye. I hypothesize that the androids are humans' artificial and technological Other. It is my thought that Dick uses the conflict of determining the biological from the artificial, the effort to differentiate humans from androids and biological animals from artificial ones, to illustrate Lacan's psychoanalysis of the mirror stage and its importance in our continual search for determining what humanity is and who we really are.

Abstract The aim of the essay is to investigate how two teachers in grades 4–6 work with reading comprehension in their teaching in order to enable the pupils’ reading development. The methods used in the study are questionnaires and observations which were then subjected to qualitative analysis. The result shows that both teachers use various strategies to facilitate the pupils’ development in reading comprehension. The empirical data revealed the teachers’ opinion that reading comprehension is about moving freely between different reading comprehension strategies so that the pupils can own their own learning. Judging by the observations, the classroom climate and the teacher’s competence are of great importance for the pupils’ learning.

This thesis evaluates tragic characters from three representative tragedies, Macbeth, Antigone, and Death of a Salesman, in terms of Lawrence Kohlberg's six stage theory of moral development. A tragic character's moral judgment is described as being founded on universal values and principles which determine stage placement. The tragic situation is precipitated by conflict experienced by a character between his present stage form of evaluation and the more preferred, differentiated and integrated form of the next higher stage. Since Kohlberg's theory is cognitive-developmental with the moral principle of justice emerging autonomously at the stage six level, its application aids in supporting a view of tragedy based on a moral order having justice as its highest principle and on a continuity independent of historical and cultural influence.

Text in German / This study analyses, mainly within the scope of the stage theories of Fritz Oser/Paul Gmünder and James W. Fowler, the development of religiosity during adolescence. After an introduction into the social and scientific significance of religiosity, the developmental and functional theories of religiosity are explored. The study then shows, by examining multiple perspectives on the scientific controversy, to what extent the stage theories of Oser/Gmünder and Fowler effectively open up the field of religious development for pastoral and religious educational practice. This clarification of the stages of religious development has many consequences for pastoral care and religious education. Some of the proposed applications either complement or modify significantly the stage theories of Oser/Gmünder and Fowler. Altogether the study provides a critical view of the cognitive-structural theory itself, its empirical reliability and range of applicability, as well as its theological suitability. / Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

Text in German / This study analyses, mainly within the scope of the stage theories of Fritz Oser/Paul Gmünder and James W. Fowler, the development of religiosity during adolescence. After an introduction into the social and scientific significance of religiosity, the developmental and functional theories of religiosity are explored. The study then shows, by examining multiple perspectives on the scientific controversy, to what extent the stage theories of Oser/Gmünder and Fowler effectively open up the field of religious development for pastoral and religious educational practice. This clarification of the stages of religious development has many consequences for pastoral care and religious education. Some of the proposed applications either complement or modify significantly the stage theories of Oser/Gmünder and Fowler. Altogether the study provides a critical view of the cognitive-structural theory itself, its empirical reliability and range of applicability, as well as its theological suitability. / Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The collection of pages spread before you now, this story-thesis, is a collection of stories about my journey from cult member to the place in life I am now, stories about those stories, and stories about the people who lived or read them, talked about them, and were changed by the tellings. Most importantly, the goal of this story-thesis is to illustrate how the process of story-making and -telling changes how we interpret our identities and our lifeworlds. I argue that the stories that we share change our identities, and I also argue that how we perceive our identity and the identities of others affects the stories that we share.