There is an ongoing discussion in Sweden about child perspective and child’s perspective. The municipalities’ family law units are required to include these perspectives in their investigations. But how do they affect the outcome of custody investigations? This essay addresses that issue. I have looked at how much say children have and how much they participate in their custody investigations. I have studied fourteen children, from seven custody investigations, what their views are and how children are presented in these investigations. I use a social constructionist theory according to which the way children are viewed is constructed through interactions between people. This essay uses the terms “showing” and “telling” to see how children get their say. In a showing text it is the child who tells the story. In a telling text it is the narrator who is telling us about the child. Nine of the children give a clear opinion of which parent they want to live with and how much they want to see the other parent. Eight of the investigations use a showing text to describe the children. These children’s opinions have a greater impact on the investigation than the ones described with a telling text.

This dissertation combines psychology with peace and conflict research in a cross-disciplinary approach to reconciliation processes after intrastate armed conflict. Two overarching contributions are made to the field of reconciliation research. The first is conceptual and methodological. The vague concept of reconciliation is defined and operationalized (Paper I), and a method is proposed for how reconciliation may be studied systematically at the national level (Paper II). By discussing what reconciliation is and how we should measure it, comparative research on reconciliation is facilitated which is imperative if we wish to learn of its promises and pitfalls in post-conflict peacebuilding. The second contribution is empirical. There has been an assumption that truth telling is healing and thereby will lead to reconciliation; healing is the assumed link between truth and reconciliation. This assumption was investigated in two studies in Rwanda in 2006. A multistage, stratified cluster random survey of 1,200 adults was conducted to assess whether witnessing in the gacaca, the Rwandan village tribunals for truth and reconciliation, was beneficial for psychological health; thereby investigating the claim that truth telling is healing (Paper III). The results of the survey are disconcerting. Witnesses in the gacaca suffered from significantly higher levels of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder than non-witnesses also when controlling for important predictors for psychological ill-health such as gender or trauma exposure. To acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the experience of witnessing in the gacaca, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 women genocide survivors who had witnessed in the gacaca (Paper IV). The results of this study challenge the claim that truth telling is healing, suggesting instead that there are risks for the individuals on whom truth-telling processes depend. Traumatization, ill-health, isolation, and insecurity dominate the lives of the testifying women. Insecurity as a result of the truth-telling process emerged as one of the most crucial issues at stake. This dissertation presents a novel understanding of the complexity of reconciliation in post-conflict peacebuilding, demonstrating that truth and reconciliation processes may entail more risks than were previously known. The results of this dissertation can be used to improve the study and the design of truth and reconciliation processes after civil war and genocide.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Soares Freitas de Souza.pdf: 1665142 bytes, checksum: 305a6c3fa83ebb19631efa0d6aef9ff9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Children s capacity to attribute mental states such as desires, intentions and beliefs to themselves and to others, named Theory of mind, is essential for successful social relationships. There is evidence that children s stories contribute to the development of the theory of mind. The present intervention research, conducted in a municipal public school in Mogi das Cruzes/SP, aimed to guide elementary school teachers to use some language involving mental terms and verbs during story telling to their students, explaining the characters mental states. The participants were two teachers and 50 students, 27 boys and 23 girls, between five years old and 5 years and 11 months old. Two studies were developed (Study 1 and Study 2) by adopting the same design: a) a pre-test Wellman and Liu s (2004) scale of seven theory of mind tasks was applied to the children; b) intervention two meetings were held in order that the researcher could offer the teachers theoretical guidelines about the theory of mind, and ten practical workshops were carried out, in which the researcher worked on children s stories and taught the teachers how they should tell their students the stories by using some language involving mental terms and/or verbs; c) a post-test the seven theory of mind tasks were reapplied. All story telling developed by the teachers was transcribed and submitted to SPAD-T software. In Study 1, the teachers and their respective groups (25 students each group) were randomly chosen to be the experimental group (GE) and the control group (GC). The GE teacher received theoretical and practical instructions from the researcher in the intervention, whereas the GC teacher did not receive any instructions, she was just asked to tell the stories in her usual way. In Study 2, the teacher (control group of Study 1) received from the researcher the instructions to tell their students the stories. The results of both studies showed that after the intervention, the teachers started to adopt some language that was rich in mental terms, and such languge helped trigger the theory of mind in their students, who had a significantly better performance in the theory of mind tasks after their teachers had received the researcher s instructions. Such results support the hypothesis of a relation between the attribution of mental states and language development. The story telling activity in elementary school turned out to be a resource that favors the development of the theory of mind in children / A capacidade da criança para atribuir estados mentais como desejos, intenções e crenças a si própria e às outras pessoas, denominada teoria da mente, é fundamental para o êxito das relações sociais. Há indícios de que as histórias infantis contribuem com o desenvolvimento da teoria da mente. A presente pesquisa de intervenção, realizada em uma escola da rede pública municipal de ensino da cidade de Mogi das Cruzes/SP, teve por objetivo orientar professoras da Educação Infantil a utilizarem uma linguagem envolvendo termos e verbos mentais durante a contação de histórias para seus alunos, explicando os estados mentais dos personagens. Participaram duas professoras e 50 alunos, sendo 27 meninos e 23 meninas, com idade entre 5 anos e 5 anos e 11 meses. Foram realizados dois estudos (Estudo 1 e Estudo 2) adotando o mesmo delineamento: a) pré-teste foram aplicadas nas crianças as sete tarefas de teoria da mente da escala de Wellman e Liu (2004); b) intervenção foram realizadas 2 sessões nas quais a pesquisadora ofereceu às professoras explicações teóricas sobre a teoria da mente, e dez sessões práticas nas quais trabalhou com histórias infantis e as orientou sobre como deveriam contar histórias aos seus alunos, utilizando uma linguagem envolvendo termos e verbos mentais; c) pós-teste foram reaplicadas as sete tarefas de teoria da mente. Todas as contações de histórias feita pelas professoras foram transcritas e submetidas ao software SPAD-T. No Estudo 1, as professoras e suas respectivas turmas (cada uma com 25 alunos) foram escolhidas aleatoriamente para compor o grupo experimental (GE) e o grupo controle (GC). A professora do GE recebeu as instruções teóricas e práticas da pesquisadora na intervenção; já a professora do GC não recebeu nenhum tipo de orientação, apenas foi instruída a contar as histórias à sua maneira habitual. No Estudo 2, a professora (grupo controle do Estudo 1) passou a receber da pesquisadora as orientações para contar as histórias aos seus alunos. Os resultados dos dois estudos indicaram que após a intervenção, as professoras passaram a adotar uma linguagem enriquecida de termos mentais, e essa linguagem foi favorecedora da manifestação da teoria da mente em seus alunos, os quais tiveram um desempenho significativamente melhor nas tarefas de teoria da mente após as suas professoras terem recebido as orientações da pesquisadora. Esses resultados dão sustentação à hipótese de uma relação entre a atribuição de estados mentais e o desenvolvimento da linguagem. A atividade de contação de histórias nas classes de Educação Infantil mostrou-se como um recurso favorecedor do desenvolvimento da teoria da mente em crianças

Many factors affect resilience, such as personality traits and environmental support. A projective assessment has many advantages to understand a person as a whole. Up to present, there is no projective assessment for resilience. This dissertation was a pilot study to develop a projective method. Sixty-five college students participated in this study. Participants used words to describe their feelings after hearing an open-ended story with a traumatic event; they also completed the story. In this study, the resilience ratio, defined as the ratio of the number of positive responses divided by the number of total responses, reflected the resilience level as well as cognitive and emotional flexibility. How participants completed the story revealed participants' interactions with the adversity. The resilience ratio has a slightly less than medium correlation with the CD-RISC-10 at a .05% level with r = .08. Participants who completed the story positively demonstrated the ability to use their resilient personality traits and social resources. t Tests revealed that resilience ratios, the CD-RISC-10 scores, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scores for participants providing positive endings and for those who providing negative endings were significantly different at a .05% level with Cohen's d values of .69, .65, and .62 respectively. The effect sizes for these three t tests were medium. Both the resilience ratio and how participants completed the story can be used to understand and measure resilience. The projective method presented in this pilot study may be used to develop prevention programs and intervention strategies to help individuals to gain resilience. As individuals become resilient, psychological disorder rate and mental health cost will decrease, and positive social change will result.

近年來GPS導航軟體正蓬勃發展，但市面上的導航軟體大多只能帶領使用者到達旅遊景點，無法更進一步提供旅遊資訊與行程建議。因此，本研究結合行動裝置與「3D擴增實境」（3D Augmented Reality），試圖規劃一套新型的導覽模式。我們以淡水為例，結合當地古蹟景點與歷史典故，使導覽系統能提供豐富的數位內容。在設計的過程中，本研究建構出「新科技敘事模式」，在「故事」、「影音效果」、與「互動機制」之間取得平衡，讓使用者體驗到故事、感官刺激、和旅遊合而為一的導覽經驗。此外，在「3D擴增實境」上，本研究建構了不同精細度的3D模型，並且在行動裝置上測試其效能。結果發現，「局部精化」的新形態建模概念，能夠兼顧美觀與運算效能。最後，本研究針對行動裝置硬體效能的負荷進行了權重測試，並獲得GPU（Render）＞CPU（PR）的結論。 / In the past few years we have witnessed the rapid growth in the sales of GPS related products on the market. Nonetheless, most navigation software solely provides route planning rather than travel information or tour guidance. This research aims to combine mobile devices and 3D augmented reality (AR) to create a novel form of navigational experience. Taking the famous tourist spot Tamsui as an illustration, materials adapted local monuments and historical allusions are re-arranged creatively to provide substantial digital contents with helpful navigation information. During the design process, this research creates different modes of narration, enabling users to undergo a brand new navigation experience through the blending of various media sources, including story, video and interaction. Additionally, this research constructs 3D models of different levels of detail and examines their efficiency on mobile devices. The experimental results indicate that 3D model built with partial fineness provides a balance between artistic fidelity and computational efficiency. Also, the results from the experiment suggest that the loading of the GPU (responsible for rendering the model) is greater than that of the CPU (responsible for pattern recognition).

<p>This dissertation combines psychology with peace and conflict research in a cross-disciplinary approach to reconciliation processes after intrastate armed conflict. Two overarching contributions are made to the field of reconciliation research. The first is conceptual and methodological. The vague concept of reconciliation is defined and operationalized (Paper I), and a method is proposed for how reconciliation may be studied systematically at the national level (Paper II). By discussing what reconciliation is and how we should measure it, comparative research on reconciliation is facilitated which is imperative if we wish to learn of its promises and pitfalls in post-conflict peacebuilding. The second contribution is empirical. There has been an assumption that truth telling is healing and thereby will lead to reconciliation; healing is the assumed link between truth and reconciliation. This assumption was investigated in two studies in Rwanda in 2006. A multistage, stratified cluster random survey of 1,200 adults was conducted to assess whether witnessing in the gacaca, the Rwandan village tribunals for truth and reconciliation, was beneficial for psychological health; thereby investigating the claim that truth telling is healing (Paper III). The results of the survey are disconcerting. Witnesses in the gacaca suffered from significantly higher levels of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder than non-witnesses also when controlling for important predictors for psychological ill-health such as gender or trauma exposure. To acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the experience of witnessing in the gacaca, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 women genocide survivors who had witnessed in the gacaca (Paper IV). The results of this study challenge the claim that truth telling is healing, suggesting instead that there are risks for the individuals on whom truth-telling processes depend. Traumatization, ill-health, isolation, and insecurity dominate the lives of the testifying women. Insecurity as a result of the truth-telling process emerged as one of the most crucial issues at stake. This dissertation presents a novel understanding of the complexity of reconciliation in post-conflict peacebuilding, demonstrating that truth and reconciliation processes may entail more risks than were previously known. The results of this dissertation can be used to improve the study and the design of truth and reconciliation processes after civil war and genocide.</p>

<p>South Africa is reported to have the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS infections in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result the quality of life of families living with HIV/AIDS is negatively affected. Literature indicates that the majority of affected persons are young children and adolescents whose siblings or parents are infected with HIV/AIDS. Most affected adolescents are reported to have difficult social lives due to their parent&rsquo / s illness, difficult financial situations at home, stigma and discrimination within the society. The study attempts to explore the experiences of adolescents in households where the mother is HIV/AIDS positive. This research project is an exploratory study using a narrative approach within a qualitative methodological design. The study was conducted with 6 Xhosa-speaking adolescent boys (2) and girls (4) aged 12 to 15 years. An open-ended interview schedule was used to prompt participants to tell their stories. Data was collected by means of a voice recorder in order for adolescents to tell their stories. The responses were transcribed verbatim, translated and verified with the participants. The data were analysed by means of narrative analysis. The results indicate that most adolescent participants were coping with the mother being HIV/AIDS positive and maintained hope for their futures. Adolescents were coping due to support from friends and relatives. Some adolescents experienced rejection and discrimination. The biggest challenge in the home was due to socioeconomic status. The study is intended to benefit the community in terms of making recommendations to social workers at NGO&rsquo / s and the government sectors in terms of strengthening the existing support programmes in the community.</p>

Background: Food nourishes us, sustains us, and has the potential to both heal us and make us sick. Among many Indigenous cultures, traditional activities, ceremonies, events and practices often involve or use food, grounding Indigenous peoples within the context of their local, natural surroundings. This suggests that food is important not only for physical health, but also emotional, mental and spiritual health. The relationships that Indigenous peoples have with food can help us to understand the health of individuals, and the communities in which they live. Purpose: The following qualitative study explores how three generations of adults who live in one Labrador Inuit-Metis community experience and understand their relationships to food in a context of global change. Theoretical Orientation: The research is guided by Two-Eyed Seeing. Two-Eyed Seeing acknowledges that there are many different ways of seeing and understanding the world, some of which can be encompassed through a Western eye and some through an Indigenous eye. If we learn to see through both eyes, we can gain a perspective that looks very different than if we only view the world through a single lens. Methods: For the study, twenty-four people from the south-eastern Labrador community of St. Lewis participated in individual and joint story-telling sessions. A group story-telling session also took place where community members could share their stories with one another. During many of the story-telling sessions, participants shared photographs, which helped to illustrate their relationships to food. Findings/Discussion: Historically, the people of St. Lewis relied almost entirely upon their own wherewithal for food, with few, if any, government services available and very little assistance from the market economy. This fostered and upheld an Inuit-Metis culture that promoted sharing, reciprocity and respect for the natural world. Currently, greater access to government services and the market economy has led to the creation of certain policies and programs that undermine or ignore established social and cultural norms in the community. Conclusions: Existing Inuit-Metis knowledge should work alongside non-Indigenous approaches to policy and program development. This would serve to protect and promote the health of both individuals and communities.

Karo metais moterų rašytų dienoraščių lietuvių literatūroje nėra daug. Jau nuo seno įprasta, kad vyrų kūriniams skiriama daugiau dėmesio, tačiau moteriškoji karo patirtis atskleidžiama tokių rašytojų kaip: Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Ana Frank, Marta Hillers, Julija Maceinienė. Žanrinėmis ypatybėmis dienoraštis yra panašus į autobiografiją, tačiau jame fiksuojami praėjusios dienos įvykiai, nesiekiama gręžtis į praeitį. Dienoraštis – tai datuoti užrašai, fiksuojantys dienos, savaitės ar kitokio laikotarpio atsiminimus, atskleidžiantis pasakojančio žmogaus jausmus, emocijas, išgyvenimus. Šio darbo objektas –pasakojančios moterys Anonimės, Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės, Anos Frank ir Julijos Maceinienės karo metais rašytuose dienoraščiuose. Dienoraštį, kaip žanrą yra nagrinėję šie literatūrologai: Daujotytė, Kubilius ir Glinskis. Darbos tikslas – remiantis semantine-strukturine analize išnagrinėti moters ir adresato santykį, moterų patirtį karo metais, karo „aukų“ vaizdavimą ir santykius su jais Anos Frank, Martos Hillers, Julijos Maceinienės ir Gabrielės Petkevičaitės Bitės dienoraščiuose. Pagal Phillipe Lejeune išskirtas dienoraščio funkcijas Anos Frank, Martos Hillers, Julijos Maceinienės ir Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės dienoraščiai atlieka išsakymo, aprašymo ir atsiminimų funkcijas, kurios karo metų dienoraščiuose yra susipinusios tarpusavyje. Dienoraščiuose pasakojančios moterys taikliai ir šališkai vertina karo padarinius Svarbu, kaip jos objektyviai sugeba perteikti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Department of History and Theory of Literature. There are only few diaries in Lithuanian literature written by women during war times. From the old times it was usual that the main attention is paid to the literature written by men, though women’s experience in war was revealed by such writers as Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Ana Frank, Marta Hillers, Julija Maceinė. The features of the genre reveal that diary is very similar to the autobiography, however in the diary are fixed the events of the previous day, and the writer is not intended to look into the past. Diary is the dated sketchbook, which fixates the memories of a day, week or other period of time, and they reveal the narrator’s feelings, emotions, and experience. In the war time diaries the link of history and documentation is very important, as it is full of historical testimony, descriptions of what happened, and the secondary attention is paid to the personal experience. The object of the present research is the story-telling women such as Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Julija Maceinienė, Marta Hillers and Ana Frank in war time diaries. The scientists that discussed the diary as a genre are Daujotytė, Kubilius, Glinskis. The aim of this research is to analyze woman’s and addressee’s relation, women’s experience during war, war “victim’s” image and relation with them in Ana Frank, Marta Hiller, Julija Maceinienė and Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė diaries by using semantic-structural analysis. According to Phillipe Lejeune... [to full text]

Background: Food nourishes us, sustains us, and has the potential to both heal us and make us sick. Among many Indigenous cultures, traditional activities, ceremonies, events and practices often involve or use food, grounding Indigenous peoples within the context of their local, natural surroundings. This suggests that food is important not only for physical health, but also emotional, mental and spiritual health. The relationships that Indigenous peoples have with food can help us to understand the health of individuals, and the communities in which they live. Purpose: The following qualitative study explores how three generations of adults who live in one Labrador Inuit-Metis community experience and understand their relationships to food in a context of global change. Theoretical Orientation: The research is guided by Two-Eyed Seeing. Two-Eyed Seeing acknowledges that there are many different ways of seeing and understanding the world, some of which can be encompassed through a ‘Western eye’ and some through an ‘Indigenous eye.’ If we learn to see through both eyes, we can gain a perspective that looks very different than if we only view the world through a single lens. Methods: For the study, twenty-four people from the south-eastern Labrador community of St. Lewis participated in individual and joint story-telling sessions. A group story-telling session also took place where community members could share their stories with one another. During many of the story-telling sessions, participants shared photographs, which helped to illustrate their relationships to food. Findings/Discussion: Historically, the people of St. Lewis relied almost entirely upon their own wherewithal for food, with few, if any, government services available and very little assistance from the market economy. This fostered and upheld an Inuit-Metis culture that promoted sharing, reciprocity and respect for the natural world. Currently, greater access to government services and the market economy has led to the creation of certain policies and programs that undermine or ignore established social and cultural norms in the community. Conclusions: Existing Inuit-Metis knowledge should work alongside non-Indigenous approaches to policy and program development. This would serve to protect and promote the health of both individuals and communities.